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The AOI Holiday Files! - Part 1 - Christmas Traditions from our Listeners Episode 33
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HO HO HO! Happy December! We have a whole month of fun episodes for you, starting off with today's episode where we chat about our favorite childhood Christmas traditions, some of our listeners' favorite traditions, and we ALSO share the results from last week's Instagram poll! If you want to keep following along and join in the fun, be sure to visit our instagram and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts!
(Don't forget to see our latest post on Instagram, and scroll to the last image to see a fun little something you can use all month long!)
Let's get festive!
Your hosts,
Beth and Ayla
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Transcript
Introduction to the Holiday Series
00:00:00
Speaker
Welcome to the Art of Intention Holiday Series. This December, we'll be sharing all things Christmas as we prioritize taking the holiday season to rejuvenate and spend time with loved ones. We hope you do the same. Happy December, everyone!
Favorite Childhood Traditions
00:00:23
Speaker
In honor of it officially being the Christmas season, this whole month we're going to be doing fun holiday episodes. Starting with this week, we're sharing our favorite childhood Christmas traditions and reading some of yours as well that you submitted on our Instagram. Yeah, we're so excited for this one. If you don't know, Beth and I are big Christmas buffs. Like I think a lot of other holidays throughout the year, I can kind of like push to the side, but I love
00:00:48
Speaker
christmas time and so it's just been so fun to sit down reminisce about the traditions that we used to have growing up anything that we do now so yeah i'm excited to get into it absolutely so we've heard time and time again from you guys that you absolutely love our chitchat episodes
00:01:05
Speaker
where it feels like we're all just hanging out as friends. So that is 100% what we are doing today.
Creating a Holiday Atmosphere
00:01:10
Speaker
And as you can probably already hear, Ayla and I are just hanging out. We're very chill, hanging out in our cozy homes and ready to just reminisce on good times and get excited about what's to come this month.
00:01:21
Speaker
Yeah, no, I definitely told Beth as we were getting ready to record. I was like, I'm definitely making a holiday themed beverage and you should probably do the same. So I've got those to the side and we're ready to go. The vibes are up. Like I said, I love Christmas. I love the cheesy movies, presents, a tree, the whole nine yards.
00:01:40
Speaker
And today's actually amazing. I was telling Beth earlier about just some of the weather we've been having in Canada lately. Usually it's full on into winter, super cold temperatures, snow, dark, the whole everything. And while the days are definitely shorter, it's actually an unseasonably nice beginning December right now. So it's definitely on the cooler side. I would classify it as a cool fall day. Beth would probably kill me for saying that, but it's only been like,
00:02:08
Speaker
just slightly freezing in below temperatures it's been like it'll drop to maybe minus 10 to 13 degrees celsius overnight which is i don't know in like the 20-somethings-ish for Fahrenheit
00:02:25
Speaker
Uh, but normally, normally by this time we'd be experiencing like minus 20, minus 30 ish. And that hasn't happened yet. So I am taking the only slightly cold weather as long as it wants to be here. And it's been like super frosty in the mornings, but then like gone by the mid day, like the weather's just been super nice. So I'm like, I'm just feeling it. I'm feeling, feeling the spirit. So like we said, today's all about Christmas traditions. So we're each going to be sharing our top most nostalgic Christmas traditions from each of our own families.
00:02:55
Speaker
what we each kind of do now as adults, things like that. And then we are going to move on to sharing some of your favorite Christmas childhood traditions. We reached out on our Instagram and asked you guys what some of your traditions were and we're here to share those now. And maybe by the end of this, who knows, we all might have some new traditions that we adopt for the year.
00:03:13
Speaker
Yeah, and honestly, that's why I love talking with friends and people around the holidays, hearing their stories. I feel like I always get good ideas for something new to try that year or for new traditions.
Nostalgic Christmas Memories
00:03:24
Speaker
Definitely. So I guess I'll start. I really just have one or two main nostalgic Christmas traditions that remain really heavy on my mind from childhood. The first one, and I know Ayla, you actually used to do this too.
00:03:39
Speaker
growing up. It was very similar for you as well. But this was like waking up super early in the morning as kids. So I have three siblings, so there's four of us total. And our parents had a rule that we weren't allowed to come outside of our bedrooms until 6am to open stockings Christmas morning, which poor parents, just because they had children who woke up so early on Christmas day, we would wake up sometimes even like 4.30 in the morning and we had to like wait until 6am to come out of our rooms.
00:04:04
Speaker
As we got a little bit older, us siblings kind of started to realize, wait a second, we could go into each other's rooms and hang out. So we're not super bored for like an hour or two. Oh, yeah. So we just would end up going to whoever's room was like most decorated for Christmas as we got older, like maybe around like nine or I was nine or 10, my older sister.
00:04:24
Speaker
started to like decorate her room really good for Christmas or like help us decorate ours so we would like sneak into each other's rooms and we'd only have like the Christmas lights on in the rooms and then we would like play card games for like an hour and it was just like I love that yeah it's literally the best feeling ever thinking back on it I like remember the exact feeling and it is one of my favorite memories of all time not just Christmas but yeah right so that's our main one yeah well there's something about like
00:04:50
Speaker
that anticipation as a child like I feel like it's been in kind of a sad way but like it's been so long since you've had that sense like you wake up so early and you're just like I just want the day to start like you're just so like I get a tiny bit of that every Christmas morning because it is still like Christmas and um
00:05:08
Speaker
I'm always still really excited for Christmas morning but that like it's so early it's so dark outside like never any other time of the year do you wake up that early and be happy about it yeah yeah and you're just like oh and you just can't wait to see like what's downstairs I love that and yeah no my siblings and I did something similar but actually I didn't realize that when you said that that it was like you couldn't even get stockings like there was nothing to open so you just like yeah
00:05:31
Speaker
stories, played cards, because what we got to do was we got to open our stockings while my parents were asleep, but that's all we could do.
00:05:40
Speaker
and it was the same similar deal with like whose room we decided to do it in. We always like we always did my older sister's room. I don't know why but like when she and I shared a room it was always on her bed or in her room so whoever woke up first had to go like get everybody else and usually it was my brother who was awake first he'd come get me and then we'd go get my sister and she was older than us so she usually maybe wanted to sleep a bit more
00:06:02
Speaker
but we would go and grab just our stockings and it's like kind of hard to explain but our stockings hung in our like the staircase and the staircase was closed on both sides until like halfway down the stairs it opened up into the so you could see like the living room and that's where our stockings hung but we we were we had to like do our best to not peek down at what the presents were
00:06:25
Speaker
and see like the shapes of any boxes or like some years there was a bike down there for somebody. So we like, we were supposed to just like grab the stockings and go and like not peek down there as much as we could. And we held to that. Like we, we didn't look, we just grabbed our stockings. And then like we'd run back to my sister's room, wake her up and then open those. And then pretty much once those were open, we would just go get my parents and then it started. So some years it was super early. I think there was one year we were up so early and my sister was like, we can't go get them yet.
00:06:54
Speaker
like it's so early but but yeah so then when we were done with stockings we went and got them and then yeah like Christmas could start but yeah I always loved that too and it's so funny because like and Beth you probably get this but like the rest of the year like we were siblings like we weren't super
00:07:11
Speaker
We weren't the kind of like best friend, we never fight siblings. We were siblings, but for some reason on this morning, we all hang out in the room for like an hour and just like we got along and like we all like banded together on this one day of the year. Exactly. Oh my gosh. So true. Yeah. We fought all the time as siblings and this was like the only thing where it was guaranteed. We were never fighting. I mean, maybe once or twice over the years we'd fight about like the card game we were playing or something. Right.
00:07:38
Speaker
but in general yeah that's probably one of the reasons I love the feeling of it so much when I think back on it because we all got along and we were all just together like one little team so yeah I feel like there was one year it might have been one of the years we were up super earlier maybe it was Christmas Eve I don't remember but we we did like ghost stories for a couple years too we'd sit on my sister's bed and like do the classic like have just a flashlight and like
00:08:00
Speaker
I can't remember. That one was less consistent, but there was definitely a couple years where we tried to tell spooky stories, either Christmas Eve or early in the morning. But yeah, that was something else we'd do. But when are siblings ever going to sit in a room for an hour and just talk? Only Christmas morning? And go long. And go long. I think it's a big one.
00:08:17
Speaker
Yeah. Oh my gosh. That's so fun. Well, I love all that. So fun to reminisce. I'm already having such a good time. Um, okay. Let's see. Like I said, that was like my main one a couple more. I mean, every couple of years or every other year we would do big family reunion, which I loved that on my mom's side of the family in Reno, Nevada.
00:08:35
Speaker
That was always great. I love looking back on those so it was fun. We had our Christmases over there and then another one that Was really fun as we got older my like I said a minute ago my older sister Sarah She got super into decorating and she was so good at it and what she would do is she decorate her own room for Christmas and then she'd come into mine because I had a buy own a bunch of Christmas decorations as a child and
00:09:00
Speaker
Don't ask me how, I have no idea, but I have like a couple boxes of Christmas decorations as like a 10 year old. And she would come into my room and literally help me decorate the entire room so well. And I don't even know how she did such a good job, but she would even do like, she would take some of my shelves and like make an entire little like Christmas village and take fake snow and like put it on there. Like she, it was magical. So those years we would gather in my room for Christmas morning with the lights on, you know, stuff like that.
00:09:28
Speaker
But anyway, so that's pretty much it. Those are all the things I can think of for like childhood Christmas traditions that I really loved that we did consistently. I think my mom would do Advent calendars for us every year. Loved those. Oh, yeah. Yeah. But the one last thing I can think of is, did you ever read the book, Ayla, when you were little or have someone tell you about it? I don't remember what it's called, but it's like a Christmas tree book, childhood book, like a little cartoon. And it's about the Christmas tree that was sad because he was never picked for Christmas.
00:09:57
Speaker
It's like all the other trees. Yeah, it's so sad. So all the other trees were chosen and he was not, and he was like super sad. And then it ended up wrapping up to be like this good thing. Wow. That sounds sad. Honestly, okay. But you know what's actually really cute? I think it ended with it being chopped down and the wood was used as Jesus's manger or something. Either way.
00:10:17
Speaker
That's so sweet. I know. I love it. And so it ended up being so good, but it made me so sad as a kid. So I would go out as a little kid and like find the tree that looked the most sad and lonely and I would decorate it for Christmas. Luckily though, luckily I was smart enough. I wasn't like littering and bringing out decorations, but I was taking things like from nature, like, you know, we've talked about this before. I would take like the little red berries that like we have around our town.
00:10:41
Speaker
or stuff like that, you know, just colorful leaves and decorate it with stuff. Try to do something with nature. But anyways, um, yeah, so those are our childhood ones that we always did that I love.
Christmas Eve and Morning Traditions
00:10:52
Speaker
And then as an adult disclaimer, Chad and I actually don't have any solid Christmas traditions we do every year. I just like doing new things too often. So we don't really have any traditions. Um, for a few years we would like sneak a real tree into my dorm room. And that was like, cause that was so illegal. You could not do that.
00:11:09
Speaker
Maybe it should not be admitting that, but you're not supposed to have real trees in dorm rooms, which didn't make any sense to me. I guess it was because it was a fire hazard, but it didn't make a lot of sense. So we would sneak in a real one by three years in a row. I love that. I think you should say that proudly. I love that. Fine. We did it. But then, other than that, as an adult, I've got really into every year doing Christmas movie lists that I send to anybody who asks for them. So any family members or friends who want my Christmas movie list, they get an updated version every year.
00:11:35
Speaker
And it just has my favorite movies and my absolute favorite TV shows like that have Christmas episodes. So I list just those specific Christmas episodes. Oh, I love the Christmas episode. Yes. That's what I'm saying. So there's some psych ones on there. So I have to sell it. Okay. But anyways, yeah, so that's it. So Ayla, if you want to share yours,
00:11:54
Speaker
Yeah, so my family, we just went ham for all of the holidays, actually. We had an attic full of seasonal decorations. We had Halloween, we had Thanksgiving, Easter, but we definitely had the most Christmas. I think we had at least six or seven tubs of Christmas stuff. And when I was younger, as much as possible was going up. Like over the years as I got older, we kind of did less and less, kept it a little more minimal. But as a kid, I was like every single decoration that can go up is going up. So like when I think of Christmas,
00:12:23
Speaker
growing up I think of decorating our house.
00:12:26
Speaker
and the tree and stuff. And just like every surface we had, like the mantle had like a porcelain Santa and his reindeer with like a little Christmas village with lights and fake snow. The top of our piano was like a nativity scene also with fake snow and just like, we had a few different nativity scenes. So there was one that like a giant one that went on the piano and then like a little one that went in front of the TV and like just where we could fit stuff. We used to have a pet bird and we would try to like,
00:12:54
Speaker
wrap something around his cage that was like safe for him to be around we put garland around like our clock like up and down oh our stairs like i was saying we had those stairs and the edge of the stairs had like little shelves on them so a little decoration went on each of the stairs like a little tree or a little snow globe or something like just like ham and i
00:13:16
Speaker
Like, I would get on my mom about it. I feel like that was a big, like, my mom and I thing to do. Like, the whole family did, but I feel like I was the most, like, into it out of everybody.
00:13:26
Speaker
So like once the number hit, if a few days were going by, I was like, mom, like it's time. We gotta, cause it was a whole thing getting all of that out of the attic and like getting it all put up, but like we made it happen. As I got older, there were some years where that was a little crazier. Like I definitely decorated for Christmas to the whole nine, like a couple of days before Christmas once. Oh my gosh. I think she and I got a tree like on Christmas Eve once, like sometimes it was crazy, but it was always so much fun.
00:13:53
Speaker
So that was my favorite. And then same with the tree too. I feel like she and I, I'm trying to remember. I know my siblings helped us do the tree, but a lot of my memories I think are later after my siblings had moved out and it would have just been my mom and I. But yeah, usually a Christmas movie or music, putting up the tree, all of those things.
00:14:13
Speaker
And then another one that I'm pretty sure, yeah, this one happened every year, I'm pretty sure. And Beth, I don't know if your family did the same, but it was a huge deal and it was going to the mall for Christmas shopping.
00:14:25
Speaker
We never did that. Just so you know, we never did that. Fun fact, my family never went to the mall as a family once in my entire life. Oh my gosh. You were actually the first person to ever take me to a mall. Your family. Really? Yeah. The one that I think you're going to talk about. I imagine. Yeah. Oh, definitely. Well, yeah. So for Beth and I's town, it was super small. Obviously didn't have a mall and the nearest mall I think was like two hours away. So it was a big deal if you got to go. Like that was a very common thing for other friends I had, like later when I went to public school, usually for
00:14:55
Speaker
a girl's like birthday, she wanted to take all her friends to the mall, something like that. And then my family, we always went at least twice a year, like once usually for Christmas shopping, and then the other time was in the summer sometime, I think. So we would go and, oh Beth, we probably, yeah, we probably brought you to the mall for Christmas time. I think you did, I think at least once. I don't think it was often, but I think one year. I think, remember, I think that was the year that Cheyenne was driving and it was really funny.
00:15:24
Speaker
I remember, cause we went a couple of times, but I remember one of the first times was like, oh yeah, we're going to go, we're going to go like out to the mall. And you were like, okay. Oh, and we were, we were like kind of new friends at the time. Like we had hung out plenty, but you really hadn't hung out with my family that much. And it was my mom and sister driving us and you were like, great, a two hour car ride.
00:15:45
Speaker
with people i don't know but it ended up being so much fun because my family's so like just goofy yeah my mom and sister and i started talking to each other in like a british accent for no reason and you were like all right but then i joined my day when i was like okay
00:16:02
Speaker
And then I think you want me to come and like, Oh, you fit right in. Welcome to the family. And then these mall trips too, are obviously so fun because the mall is all decorated. Like they have huge decorations in there and usually like a Santa's workshop that you can go see. And then.
00:16:18
Speaker
I loved mall Christmas shopping because we did like majority of our Christmas shopping there and then we'd fill in the gaps or hand make stuff up otherwise and like I still kind of shop like this to this day but my mom and I like
00:16:34
Speaker
What we would do, it's not like we would just go and pick something. We go into a store and be like, oh, here's a sweater for dad. Okay, we keep this as like an option, but we still haven't seen the whole mall. This is like store number two. We still don't know what's out there. So we'd put it aside as an option. We'd like hide it in the store somewhere so nobody else could take it and then go check everything else out. And then if we still liked that option, we'd swing by like at the end to go get it. So sometimes we found something better and sometimes we had to like backtrack.
00:17:03
Speaker
all the way back to where we had gotten and like hit up all these other stores and go find the thing again and it was it was a whole day ordeal like we we leave early because it was like a two-hour drive and then it was a whole day going like each and every single store
00:17:19
Speaker
picking what we wanted and then there was usually a restaurant we'd go to at the end like go get some dinner and then you know I'd crash out on the way home but yeah okay that is so funny and just the picture of you guys hiding things that you want to circle back to but also like imagining there were some times where you never came back for it and so that thing was just hidden in the
00:17:38
Speaker
It was never purchased by anybody. Someone probably needed it later and was like, dang, they have no more sweaters. But it was in the toy section. Yeah, it was something. We wouldn't hide it that bad. But like, say you're in like forever 21. Yeah. We would take it from the floor it was on. Because that store was like three stories in that mall. So we would take it from the floor it was on and like go put it on a different floor. So that is intense. I thought you were going to say, I just put it behind other ones on the same rack. No, you were climbing levels to hide this.
00:18:09
Speaker
I should shop one time. One time I picked out something for sister and then I forgot where I had hidden it by the time we went around back. I can't remember if we found it or not or if we had to just find it online later but I forgot. That's so funny. That's so that's perfect that I needed to hear that. I'm sorry.
00:18:27
Speaker
there were flaws in the system and then like I guess if I ever got gift cards those stores then we'd get to go look back to the mall and maybe like use them and I feel like you and I probably did that too yes we did at some point but I yeah so that was that was a good one and then just a couple quick ones to finish it off my family so the way we did gifts was like we'd all shop for each other so on Christmas Eve we would open the gifts that were like to each other so I'd give
00:18:52
Speaker
My parents, my siblings, and then Christmas morning was the gifts from Santa. And to this day, I don't know how my family pulled it off, cuz we weren't rich by any means. We weren't super poor, but we weren't rolling in the dough either. But my parents always pulled it together somehow for gifts. That was a huge thing. And there was one year, once I got a little older and understood money a bit, there was one year my parents just went ham. We- Dude, same. I feel like things had been tight that year for some reason.
00:19:21
Speaker
And we were, and we all like, I think we kind of talked as siblings and we were like, Hey, like, let's not put a lot of pressure on them. And that year was like the craziest year. Like, I think I got a bike or something that year and my brother and I were like, how did they, what did they do? Like, I don't know. Maybe they saved extra because as you say that I had a year, maybe two.
00:19:39
Speaker
that felt like that as well where we're just like oh like not expecting much because we're like our parents are I know having like you know they're being more tight with money this year but then like it was insane like the gifts we got were like tons or huge I wonder if they were just saving extra those years like if they were intentionally thinking ahead to Christmas and wanted to like be putting money away every month
00:19:58
Speaker
Well for a couple years there what my dad would do, he's an electrician and he would save all of his copper wire scraps because there's lots of it. I worked with him for a couple years. There's opportunity to save so many scraps so he would save all of them and then my parents would go turn them in for money and that was their like Christmas shopping money in like the very early years when we were all younger and like they were newly married and just didn't have tons of money. So I don't know how like when's the last year they did that but I know when we were younger that was like something they did together.
00:20:28
Speaker
so yeah yeah and I don't know how much money you get from that but yeah my dad saved it like all year to be able to to do that so and I'd love to like again like so much of that for the day Chris and I have a family it's like not like we have that exact scenario but I love the idea like
00:20:45
Speaker
something that gets you like doing your recycling like saving up all your recycling and then doing it to christmas shop something like that i i think is really sweet yeah but anyway so that was like our gifts like gifts to each other on christmas eve and then from santa christmas morning and gift opening yeah it like took forever because you're just like enjoying everything and then we would do a big like christmas breakfast after that if we didn't have to go to church so sunday we had to go to church but uh if it was any other day we could do like christmas breakfast and it was like
00:21:15
Speaker
waffles, bacon, you know maple syrup, potatoes, like a huge like all the good Christmas foods and I am a huge believer in just having big Christmas morning brunch and then not doing like a fancy Christmas dinner where you have to dress up and extra cook like stay in your comfy clothes, do some breakfast and then everyone just kind of like naps or like reads their new books, plays with their new toys, whatever that was like
00:21:39
Speaker
That's great. That's one of my favorites for sure. And then the last one I have that I definitely want to carry into the future is I know this didn't happen every year. My mom wanted it to happen every year. It was probably only a couple of years it happened, but she would read the story of Jesus's birth out of the Bible before we opened presents like on Christmas Eve. She wanted us to remember like why we were all there, why we were celebrating this. So she'd read, it's just a couple chapters in Luke about his birth.
00:22:07
Speaker
And I think as a kid, I was like, hurry up. I just didn't care. I was like, we read this last year. Did we not? Like I get it, but I really love that. I think it's sweet. So, oh yeah. I want to do, I want to do something like that down, down the road. But yeah, so those are like,
00:22:26
Speaker
Those are like most of the childhood ones. There's probably more, but those are the ones like when I think of Christmas. That's what I think of. And then Chris and I, we're still kind of figuring out if we're going to have traditions, what our traditions are going to be. But it's kind of like you, Beth. There's kind of different things that have naturally happened every year. And I'm like, oh, I kind of like that. I kind of like that.
00:22:48
Speaker
we haven't always had a tree sometimes I replace our tree with something else because that's just apartment living and the
New and Innovative Traditions
00:22:55
Speaker
craziness of life but actually our very first Christmas together we didn't get to physically be together for it because we we got married in November and then because of circumstances and events Chris got like booted from the States and he had to leave December 1st so I think I flew up to go see him like December 27th or something a little bit after Christmas
00:23:15
Speaker
But our first year actually together, so our second Christmas, we were in California and that was our first like Christmas tree that we got together. Like a real tree, we went to a tree farm and we go to decorate it. And I'm like, hey, like, you know, we got to put on some Christmas music or do a movie or something. And Chris pulls out his phone and he puts on this album by the band Twisted Sister. It's like an 80s metal hairband. Okay. And they have a Christmas album. They have a few, but they have one that's like peak.
00:23:45
Speaker
And it just was cracking me up because it's like 80s hairband and they're singing like, oh, kahab, oh, yay, faithful. And it like cracked me up so much. So we have this little, the whole album while we're like putting up this stream. This makes so much sense. I can totally picture Kristina. I can totally picture him being like, fine, I'll put on holiday music. Totally. And just pulls that out of his pocket.
00:24:07
Speaker
Oh totally he's not nearly as Christmasy as I am but like pulled that one up and he's like I'll listen to Christmas music if it's this and I was like deal and so we're decorating this tree and at this time I've got about like four or five Christmas ornaments to my name because like I just had whatever my parents gave me as a kid like they used to gift us ornaments so I had like a couple of those and just some lights so that was really all I had so we put my very like few ornaments up
00:24:33
Speaker
And oh, I should mention we were drinking a case of PBR at the time too, like perhaps we ribbon the beer. And we're like sipping on it and I'm like, here we go. And Chris is like, wow, it's like, Beth, no, Beth, no. He's like, look at, looking a little sparse right now. I was like, yeah, what are we gonna do? And so Chris rinses out a couple of the cans and he gets some ribbon that we had.
00:25:00
Speaker
and he just starts tying the cans like on to some of the branches and I was like are we doing this and I think I went to have a wifely moment of like no we're not doing this and like we're not doing this and then I sat back and I was like listen I can't pretend like this isn't a great idea so oh my gosh
00:25:18
Speaker
So we just like and they actually like shimmered among the lights quite beautifully, but yes So we they were like lovely and like if somebody doesn't know PBR It's like it's just like the cheapest cheapest beer like it's so it's oh, it's not nice Oh, no, it's not a nice beer by any means My mom down I'm like, do you want to come see our tree and she's like wow, it's super white trash, but okay
00:25:45
Speaker
She didn't say it like that, but she probably kind of did, you know? So I actually saved one of those cans that I still have in my Christmas decorations just from the original time. But any other time we've had a tree since then, I make sure we have some of those beers around and we do throw like some of those cans on there still. So that's the one that's kind of like happened more than once. And then the only, don't skip past that. No, no. We like decorate our shoes to beer cans.
00:26:15
Speaker
That is the most newlywed Christmas re-decoration story I've ever heard in my life. True. We didn't have anything. I wanted to take a moment to say that story cracks me up. I adore that. I literally cannot, like my cheeks literally hurt from laughing. I'm trying so hard. I was trying so hard to laugh super hard.
00:26:36
Speaker
It just yeah, it just feels so us too. It's just so like in the moment We're like, this is what we have like they just picture you all like a couple beers then just be like what about this? Yeah, wait a minute. Yeah Listening to 80s metal hairband Christmas. Yeah. Yeah. Oh my gosh. This is crazy. I just need a moment for that. That's perfect. Thank you. I appreciate
00:27:00
Speaker
And then the only other thing I could think of that's consistent is we're we both we're both like artists so we both like to draw and paint so Usually a few people in the family will be getting something like painted or drawn
00:27:14
Speaker
So that's always super nice. I don't do like the same things every year. I try to like switch up who gets a painting or whatever. We actually did that yesterday. So usually there's a couple of days where we like spread some drop sheets around our living room, just so we can get all of our supplies out. And then we'll usually, it's not always Christmasy. Like sometimes we'll just watch normal TV, but usually there's, so yeah, some kind of Christmas movie or Christmas, I like Christmas podcasts. Maybe we can like, this can be a resource at some point too, but there's a few like,
00:27:43
Speaker
not the whole podcast is Christian, but a few episodes that talk about like the history of Christmas and like Christmas around the world. So something to listen to. And then yeah, we usually have something fun to like sip on when we're doing that, like our Christmas painting and wrapping. Like usually we'll try to have like a Canadian whiskey around or we'll do a little gin and tonics or just something that we actually have to make that we wouldn't have the rest of the year. That's been fun. So no, we actually just did that last night, started some of our little Christmas gift painting stuff.
00:28:12
Speaker
And then no, that's pretty much the stuff we've got going on now. I guess the only other thing I'd say is as far as decorations, like I said, we don't have much. So I love decorating with lights. I'll usually put lights in the living room and stuff. And then I like stuff that can be thrown away because I don't like having a lot of stuff. So right now we just have one box of Christmas decorations and then anything else I try to do is like orange.
00:28:36
Speaker
Barland or you can you can get pine branches from a grocery store or something like that like I think what I want to do this year as far as a tree because we don't have one is just like source some branches and like fake berries and stuff and make like a little Arrangement like in a vase and then I bought some I've got some like teeny tiny lights to throw in there So anyway, yeah, just a little something different like that every year. But yeah, yeah
00:28:59
Speaker
Yeah, so that's childhood and kind of present day Christmas stuff. Like I said, the vibes are already high. I'm loving every minute of this.
Listener-Submitted Traditions
00:29:08
Speaker
We're gonna go into the traditions that our listeners submitted to us on Instagram. So we've got a few Instagram ones. We chatted with like a couple people we know.
00:29:17
Speaker
IRL 2 for a couple of those but we wanted to hear about your traditions. So I'll go ahead and kick off the first one. I really liked this one a lot. I thought this was super sweet and it actually reminded me that this was something my family did too but it was Operation Christmas Child or the Christmas Shoe Boxes. Yeah and I was like oh right that is such a good one. So for those who don't know, Operation Christmas Child was this organization that basically
00:29:45
Speaker
rallied people up to take a shoebox and you would fit it with whatever little knickknacks and toys and things you could because those were eventually getting shipped off to children in underdeveloped countries and so you it usually went through your church but I think like other families could do it as well and then you could pick
00:30:08
Speaker
you usually could pick if you wanted to send your box like a boy or a girl so you kind of knew what things to put in there and you could pick general age range too so yeah like I would usually pick you know like a young girl so then I would find like little bracelets little like pens and paper uh little things like that you could do a toothbrush toothpaste things that they might actually need and then you just wrapped it up and you dropped it off at your church and then that got sent to like a
00:30:34
Speaker
processing warehouse where people just checked that you weren't putting anything like there were certain stuff that couldn't be in there because it had to fly so they were just checking that they were all good and then yeah they got sent and usually it came like usually there were promo videos to go along with it of kids actually receiving boxes in the past and it was just like it was so good like just that joy that you wouldn't expect from people in in hard situations you'd think it would be hard to have a Christmas but like you see these little kids opening up
00:31:01
Speaker
This thing with toys and they're just like it made a huge impact So I really liked doing that and I loved that we got a submission for that because I kind of forgot about it until I read that So Oh same it wasn't until you were talking about that. I forgot that is totally something we used to do as kids too. It was through our church I think other like you said I think you can just do it yourself too and like submit it to the organization But our church would always have the Christmas
00:31:23
Speaker
child drop. And so by the end of the time, there was like a mountain of boxes that would get shipped off because some families would do multiple. It was so cool. Yeah. So we would do, my mom would always take us to go and shop for our child because each of us kids would choose the age range and gender of us. So like I would always choose a girl who was around my age. So I would just like it stores. And so we, yeah, that was when we used to do, and we should honestly probably start doing that again. Both of us should probably start doing that again. Yeah.
00:31:50
Speaker
Yeah, because it's actually so easy to do. And a lot of times, if you don't have a shoebox lying around, which let's be honest, most of us probably do, but if you didn't, the church would have extras or it wouldn't be hard to go find one somewhere. But that one was so good. And I think it was just so powerful. Some kids, I think, said they'd never gotten a present before. Yeah, exactly. Not even just Christmas, but their birthdays or anything like that. They had never unwrapped a present like that. And I was like, oh my gosh.
00:32:21
Speaker
It gives you some perspective. I think a lot of those kids ended up having stories where they either found Jesus through the boxes or things got a lot better for them. I love this submission.
00:32:37
Speaker
And then Beth, you want to do another one? Oh yeah, of course. Um, yes. So the next one we got, um, from you guys was someone saying that they do one Christmasy thing every single day up until Christmas, whether it's like shopping, decorating, baking. And I love that. That is so cool. And I think a lot of times I get into the habit of like kind of cramming it all into like a certain day. So like I do all my shopping on one day.
00:33:01
Speaker
or I bake and decorate on the same day. And it's like, I love the way they said it. Cause it's kind of like a human advent calendar, you know? Like they're just doing. Yeah. Totally. That was cool.
00:33:12
Speaker
No, I love that, because that's what I thought too. I was like, oh, this is like an advent calendar, but it's stuff you're doing. And I was like, see, when I first read that submission, I was like, see, I like the idea of this, but would that be hard? Like I don't always have a lot of time, like end of the year for businesses for me is busy. But I was like, you know, it doesn't always have to be a big thing. Like some of it will naturally happen. Like you get your tree and then maybe you decorate it the next day. Like there's, there's two days, but it could be as simple as like, oh, a little like holiday drink, like,
00:33:40
Speaker
Yeah, little that or yeah, bake yourself something even if it's like cookies that are already ready to go, you know, just like, whatever that looks like. I like the idea of just one little Christmasy thing. I also love because it's free. I love driving around our city and finding the neighborhoods that go ham with like their lights and stuff like something like that doesn't take a lot of time, but you still get to see it. Like, yeah, no, I love that one.
00:34:05
Speaker
This one I loved. A fellow Canadian submitted this one, so I loved it. But her family said they had Christmas on January 1st so that they could take advantage of Boxing Day sales. Because Boxing Day appears the day after Christmas, which is like a little twisted that they do a big sale day the day after Christmas. But yeah, it's just another it's kind of like Black Friday, like just another day of deals and stuff like that. I've never really partaken partook.
00:34:34
Speaker
I've no partook in in it. Oh, I know it's not that Because same with Black Friday like I never really bothered doing any of those shops anyway So I don't like I haven't actually participated but I loved that like your family literally had Christmas a week later to be able to take advantage of the sales and I was like that's kind of fun like I think I've thought about doing that before like I
00:34:56
Speaker
having major holidays with my family at different times so that everything's cheaper like have Halloween a little bit after because there's a bunch of cheap candy and like I've definitely done that with relationships before like buying Valentine's candy a few days after because it's all discounted so that one resonates.
00:35:14
Speaker
All right. And then let's see.
Christmas Movies and Thanksgiving Activities
00:35:16
Speaker
I think the last one we got on our Instagrams maybe was this one and it was watching the polar express movie every Christmas day or eve. And I love that. I love that they save the same movie every day for like Christmas because I was saying the specific day for that. Yeah, exactly. Because I was like, I was saying I watch Christmas movies throughout the month and like I have my whole list and everything.
00:35:39
Speaker
But um and I do save my favorite Christmas movie or I have like two favorites um for like the day before Christmas or like that week and it's like really close to Christmas but yeah I love that it's like no Christmas day or Christmas eve they're watching this one and that's awesome. Yeah no because I'm the same way like I have some I'll watch throughout and then the more important ones are like the week leading up to it but yeah totally random quick question what is your favorite what are your two favorite Christmas movies?
00:36:06
Speaker
oh okay yes i love a christmas story with um yeah that's the one where the guy gets the the bb gun and it's like the don't shoot your eye out and wow i'm explaining this like i've never seen it before i watch that one every year
00:36:23
Speaker
It's kind of my favorite. I'm just spacing on the name of the gun. The Red Rider BB gun. Okay. That's one of my favorites. It's like kind of weird as an adult. Like he has his like weird imagination and like things that he sees, but I really like that one. And then I also really love the original Claymation, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. Oh, that's so sweet. That's one of my favorites. Like
00:36:47
Speaker
that like probably the work that went into those, cause it was original stop motion. That's like my favorite for an animated. And then this Beth, you might not expect this of me, but my other favorite that my mom has, and I can't find anywhere up here. Cause it's one of the more niche, like Hallmark ones.
00:37:05
Speaker
But it's one of the super cheesy, super romantic, like Hallmark Christmas movies. Like the classic, like a random stud shows up to like show this single woman. I'm so surprised. The true meaning of Christmas. No. Because I'm not a big chick flick washer, like in life. But yeah, like favorite Christmas movies are the funny ones. Like A Christmas Story. There's Rudolph. I like the original Home Alone. Like that's usually that was good. But then this one, it's just called
00:37:30
Speaker
It's the most wonderful time of the year. It has the fawns in it randomly He's like somebody's uncle and then I know nobody else in that movie like there's no other big names And I don't know my family had it and it just like got me the plots not unique whatsoever It's like this mom who's got a son and she's dating some boring business executive whatever and
00:37:54
Speaker
she doesn't like Christmas very much because it distracts her from like the important things in the day and then yeah like some traveling handsome guy shows up and randomly needs to sleep on her couch and he shows her the true meaning of Christmas and like they fall in love whatever it's like so Hallmark cheesy and that's my other favorite and I've liked
00:38:13
Speaker
I know my parents have it, but I've never seen it on like streaming or anywhere to buy a peer. So if anyone wants to mail me a Christmas present, I want that. I know. Sounds like that needs to happen. What the heck? Geez, I've never heard of that one. I'll have to watch it because I do like that kind of way. Chick-Flicks are like 10 out of 10. I love them.
00:38:32
Speaker
What's your birthday Christmas Eve or Christmas week of? So mine has always been white Christmas the one with Bing Crosby in it and that like that classic black and white like that is like the Christmas movie I know a lot of people like like it's a wonderful life or something like that if they like older movies but I actually fun fact I hate that movie it's a wonderful life.
00:38:51
Speaker
It's you do it's way too long. It's long and like it's boring, but it's also like depressing I know yeah ends well technically, but the whole movies depressing other than that and I'm like, I just can't do it No same through that one. I don't like it didn't like when I was a kid So my black and white Christmas movie is white Christmas. And if you have you ever seen that a love by the way? Yeah Oh, yeah, okay good. Um, so it's gonna make you watch it. Okay the other one I don't want to give away too many that I love because well I
00:39:19
Speaker
Nevermind. If you're listening, you'll find out why. You'll find out. You'll find out. We have things brewing, but yes, we did. But my other absolute favorite Christmas movie, it's totally different than White Christmas. It's a cartoon. It's called Klaus, K-L-A-U-S. Oh, okay. Yeah. I don't know if you've ever seen that. If you haven't, you, I think, would actually enjoy it, at least for a one-time watch. But I love it so much. I was randomly trying to find Christmas movies. Never seen it. Didn't like the look of it very much. Threw it on. I was like, whatever.
00:39:47
Speaker
I was in tears by the end of it. I literally loved it. I don't think I took my eyes off the screen for one second when I was watching it. I got hooked. And so now I watch it every year. So I kind of save it for when it gets closer to Christmas. Cause I love it so much and I have to like keep myself from watching it during the year. Cause I love it so much anyways. So those are my two favorites.
00:40:08
Speaker
Oh my gosh, I love it. I love Christmas movies. And I forgot to mention with this one, I also love the Polar Express. That's my mom's favorite Christmas movie. Yeah, that's my mom's favorite. And I love it. And actually, this is kind of random, but let's throw back to Thanksgiving a little bit. My mom and I have a tradition for Thanksgiving, actually. It was similar to you, Beth. We had a big family Christmas, like extended family, the cousins, all of that.
00:40:33
Speaker
And my family always did the pies. That was what we always brought. And we're feeding quite a few people. So it was a bunch of pies that we made. So it was usually a day, if not two, of just pie making. And my mom and I would watch the Polar Express for that one. That was our one early Christmas thing that we would do around Thanksgiving. And that might be a hot take because that's kind of a controversial Christmas movie. I think a lot of people don't like it because of the animation.
00:41:01
Speaker
like trying to get that realistic CGI human faith kind of new. It's a little bit funky. Like they're a little unsettling when I look back but like that's what people say is like their faces are unsettling but I'm like I it's still my favorite Christmas movie like don't care don't knock the polar express well it has it has a good message.
00:41:23
Speaker
No, it does. And to be completely honest, like it's just one of those things where some people will really care about animation and it'll bother them. They can't get over it. And some people just won't care and they can look past it. It's kind of like Klaus. If you've never seen that the animation is a little funky. It's a new movie, but it's kind of funky. So you just got to get past it. Just decide that it doesn't matter to you. So on that same note, by the way, too, you mentioned Home Alone earlier, I will say Home Alone one I'd never seen till I was in college.
00:41:47
Speaker
and I watched it for the first time. You did too? Yeah, I've seen no one's clean it for some reason. Yeah, I love it. It's so good. I can't believe I didn't see that as a kid. And by the way, if you've never seen Home Alone 2, I thought it was going to be so dumb. Just watched it a few days ago. It actually is bomb. It's so good. That's lost in New York, isn't it? Yes. And if you've never seen it, it's not. It's good. You should watch it. That one's still acceptable. I think there's a third. And after that, we can be done. But the warning too.
Gift Opening Rituals and Preferences
00:42:12
Speaker
If they change the actors, I'm out. Nope, nope.
00:42:14
Speaker
okay yeah and then i just talked to a few people that i know in life and there was a couple other like cute traditions that i liked that i wanted to throw in as like honorable mention so one girl i know she said her family always did kfc for christmas dinner and i literally love that for her because we didn't get to have like we didn't have that very much as a kid so like the big buckets of whatever that was their like christmas dinner and
00:42:37
Speaker
I am all about like events that are supposed to be fancy made simple like yeah, I just like simplicity I like all that so she said that and I think that there's like a few people I know where their family yeah like picked up Chinese food or something and you can maybe feel like down on yourself that it wasn't a fancy like Christmas ham no do that no pick up the Chinese food love it yes love it and then another girl I know said for her kids every year they get a new Lego advent calendar oh my god
00:43:06
Speaker
And they, I didn't know this was a thing actually because when you think Lego, I think of the ones that take like a couple hours to put together. But like the different ones just have like you put together one little guy or one little, like their theme like Harry Potter, Marvel, whatever. So it'll be like one little house or one little building. So they get a little thing. Like as a kid, Advent already is fun and then having something to actually do.
00:43:30
Speaker
So that sounded like a lot of fun. And then last honorable mention, this was actually the way Chris's family did their presents, but he did it. I think a lot of families did this too, but he did it to where like you got to pick one thing to open on Christmas Eve and then you had to wait to open everything else on Christmas morning. And I like that for that anticipation. Like as a kid, like you imagine you've got maybe like
00:43:53
Speaker
Five or six gifts to pick from and you got to pick one then you're like, do I want to make present? Do I want a little one? Like do I want so yeah They got to pick one and then do the rest the next day. That's so fun I love that and actually real quick a little impromptu question just off the cuff. Okay, so random Ayla, how did you guys do gifts when you were kids? Like how did you guys? Yeah, like open them
00:44:17
Speaker
Oh, okay. Um, yeah. So like Christmas Eve, where we got gifts for each other. Yeah. The way I think it was, the way we did it, we started with the youngest, which was me usually. And you had to put on a Santa hat. We had like eight or nine Santa hats for some reason, but you had to put on a Santa hat and then you handed your gifts out.
00:44:38
Speaker
You got to like be Santa so that I'd give, you know, my present to my mom, my present to my dad and go around. And you had to wait until everyone like had their gift. Um, and that's still how my family does it to this day with all the nieces and nephews. It's like hard to teach them patience, but it's like, we all have to wait until everyone has their present. And then we, then you all like opened it at the same time. And then the next kid went and then for Christmas morning where we went down and there was gifts from Santa, you just went ham.
00:45:04
Speaker
It was just like, you just opened the whole pile. Yeah. That makes sense. But in general, when there's actually opening happening, it was all at the same time. Right. Yes. Okay. Yeah. Like you waited and then, and then everyone went around and was like, what did you get or whatever? And you just talked about it. And then the next kid went. Yeah. Okay. So that, yes. The reason I asked is because we were kind of the same way. Like we wouldn't necessarily have like the kid pass out all the gifts they got for someone.
00:45:26
Speaker
but like my mom would pass out one gift to each kid and then once we all had a gift in our hand we'd open them all at the same time and that was just like it would kind of but she would keep it flowing like there wasn't like a big weight it was like everyone gets on they open and she'd keep she would actually just keep passing them out I think like in piles and like sometimes they'd build up a little bit next to us and we just keep opening we all opened at the exact same time there wasn't like anything like
00:45:46
Speaker
Any kind of waiting really? Okay, but the reason I was asking is kind of waves. Like Christmas waves. Yeah, kind of in waves. But in general, everyone's opening something at the same time, right? And like if someone wants to pause and say, oh, look what I got or ask a question, like whatever. And if there was, as we got older, us kids started buying more gifts for other people, like for our parents or each other. And then of course, if we wanted to, we could be like, oh, here, open this one right now. I want, I want to watch you. But it wasn't like, okay, well, okay.
00:46:11
Speaker
I'm getting ahead of myself. The reason I'm asking is because Chad's family, I'd never ever seen this before. The first Christmas I spent with his family, how they do it, it's like they literally have every person open a gift and they're the only person opening a gift at that time. I don't know if I'm explaining this well, but it's like all eyes are on you.
00:46:32
Speaker
All eyes are on you. So like when I was handed a gift, there was silence. You could hear a pen drop. It was literally just like me opening a gift in every single, every aunt and uncle, grandparents, parents, siblings. That's like your birthday. Yes. Like on your birthday, you open stuff all by yourself, but I feel like you're expecting it then. It's like when it's Christmas and you're like in your PJs or you are just like, I don't know. I did. It was so unsettling. I was like, Oh my gosh, I'm going to like have a heart attack right now because then also there's like,
00:47:00
Speaker
the pressure of how do you react? You have to react right instead of relaxing and I feel like I just don't have the best reactions when I open gifts if everyone's watching because I feel like I'm so distracted by thinking about, oh my gosh, do I look okay? Am I sitting up straight? Am I opening the gift right? That resonates. No, that's so true because like,
00:47:17
Speaker
my mom had to teach me when I was growing up like she had to teach me how to open gifts because like as a kid you just want to like tear through all your gifts right so I'd like forget to say thank you or something so I'd like open a gift to be like cool and like go to the next one so she had to teach me how to like take a moment appreciate it like say thank you and go to the next one and I think I still just try to do that because I love opening presents so I still have to like cross and be like but also I I don't want to
00:47:45
Speaker
I think I overthink it because I don't want to seem not thankful, but I am thankful, so I could just react. But instead, in my head, I'm like, am I reacting enough? I know. Am I overreacting? Yeah. And it's not like I get a gift and I'm like, oh, what's this? It's gifts I'm thankful for that I asked for. Like say I ask for like, oh, this year, the only present I want is like a nice cast iron pan because I don't know, I guess I'm a grown up and that's what I want.
00:48:12
Speaker
Yeah. But like, let's say that's what I want. And I open it and it's in there. I'm obviously going to be stoked. My reaction is like, Oh, perfect. That's what I wanted. Thank you. Like, and I'm trying to not see, I'm like, I swear I'm the latest. I think the only time I have a big reaction is if it's something I maybe mentioned like six months ago and forgot about if that's in there, I might be like, Oh, you know, but like generally.
00:48:37
Speaker
Generally, if it's something I like and I'm happy with, I'm like, perfect. Thanks. Yes. Okay. No, seriously. I'm not a big reactor either. Like I feel like in some ways I can be a very, like, like emotive person or whatever, exogenous person. But, um, also, you know, what gets me though, about the pressure of everyone watching you is because I worry like, what if my reaction is bigger on one person than the others?
00:48:56
Speaker
Every single person is going to watch you and you're like, oh my gosh, like, am I going to hurt feelings if like I have a reaction that looks more genuine or that looks a little bigger? Like, it's too much. It's too much pressure. So, and I, like when we were kids and we'd open gifts or in my family still, you might come after. I get it. 100%. And it's nice to talk to someone else who's the same because for a little while I was like, oh, is it just my family that opened gifts this way? Like, am I crazy? Am I too, like, am I, am I the only one who thinks this is like a lot of pressure?
00:49:20
Speaker
But like also we'd still think people it's just like after you're done opening gifts like you think everyone you go around yeah yeah like everyone opens it and then you say you're thinking because then you can experience the moment like kind of in private you could be like oh cool like however no totally everyone wants to watch you like I was saying like if we had a gift like if I gave Sarah a gift I'd be like oh hey Sarah I want to watch you open that so let me know when you're opening it
00:49:42
Speaker
And then it's like throughout the chaos, like she might tap, go about to open it. Or, you know, there were some gifts where our parents were like, okay, we do want you guys to open these like one in time. But that was like maybe every few years there was like one time. Yes. If you got something important, if it was like a big deal, then yeah, totally. Well, and then like the way like Chris and I do each other's gifts is like, we give those just to each other, like in our own home. Uh, cause usually the last couple of years that I've been in Canada, we go out to his families for Christmas like day.
00:50:08
Speaker
So usually before we leave for that trip we'll do our own presents like a couple days before. Not like they have to be secret. We just like that's always what we've done. Yes. But obviously that's my husband. I can watch him react to the gift. I know. What's a real one person? But no, that's niche Chad. That's interesting. I'm just kidding.
00:50:28
Speaker
Oh, I love it. But I guess if it's all normal to them, like you might walk into it being like, wait, how do I do this? But they don't worry as much as like you might. Because they're like, oh, this is just like what we've done. That's just what they've done. And everyone's involved in it. So it's like grandparents on both sides do the same thing. Like, you know, it's like they're all together on Christmas day. And so it's like they're all used to it. And I'm sure as soon as you have an in-laws and extended family involved, you think everybody probably does it like that. Like it's just wrong to you. Right. Well, and then if you look at other people's reactions, like, are they always like, wow.
00:50:57
Speaker
golly this is great like are they always super or no it's they're all i don't know they feel like they're really average but they're all comfortable around each other too it's like i'm an in-law and like since i had chad's the oldest i was like the first in this family this particular yeah i can
00:51:12
Speaker
in Chad's family. I was the first in law. So it's like, Oh my gosh, I'm like, everyone's so comfortable. This is not like what I'm comfortable doing though. It's so much pressure on me. Um, but anyways, it's just fun. It's all fun. And I'm obviously a lot more used to it now. Um, and I do enjoy, I get why they do it too. I do enjoy if I get a present for my brother-in-law or for my mother-in-law or whatever. And I'm really excited about it. It is really fun to get to know that I'm not going to miss that moment. And I get to watch that. Totally.
00:51:39
Speaker
But it's just a lot of like, when you're not expecting it, it's a lot. So sometimes you don't want all eyes on you. But you know, I'm just not the one who wants to be the center of retention. So it's just so hard. Well, totally. Yeah. Like I think now, if that were to be Chris's family, like I, I don't know, I'm like used to them now. So it's all good. But like the first Christmas, you'd be like, whoa, but yeah, exactly.
Poll Results: Christmas Festivities and Preferences
00:52:01
Speaker
Next up in our Christmas extravaganza is last week on the first day of December. We put some Christmas polls out on our Instagram stories. Just a little something fun since we really like participating in holiday polls. So we wanted to do that for you guys and then share the results here.
00:52:21
Speaker
So I'm really excited to get into these. Let's start. The first poll was when does Christmas start in your house? And I was excited for the results of this one because I feel like this is a controversial topic here. So
00:52:35
Speaker
When does Christmas start in your house? And the options were, I think Beth has the options. Yes, I do. I'm just going to pull them up really quickly. Um, okay. So the options were number one, day after Halloween, number two, after Thanksgiving, and number three was December 1st.
00:52:53
Speaker
And the answer was I'm doing the tiniest little drum roll on my laptop. The majority of people said after Thanksgiving, which is a very appropriate answer. That's kind of what my household always did. It didn't like it was a little bit before December, but just so long as Thanksgiving was over, we were about ready to roll into the Christmas decorations. So I like that answer. Beth, what was yours?
00:53:16
Speaker
Yeah, we actually had the same answer because for me, I used to like to start Christmas as early as possible when I met Chad. Chad's birthdays actually falls on Thanksgiving day a lot, but either way, it's always Thanksgiving week. So he just requested early on that we save Christmas for after Thanksgiving just so that his birthday doesn't get drowned out by Thanksgiving and Christmas. Yeah. So that's what we do.
00:53:41
Speaker
Yeah, I will say I noticed, because I think most people I knew growing up, it was after Thanksgiving, if not like December 1st, they started doing stuff. But I have noticed a bit of a difference up here in Canada because our Thanksgiving is like mid-October.
00:53:57
Speaker
And actually, now I kind of share my birthday with Thanksgiving a little bit. But because it ends in mid-October, I feel like a ton of people start their Christmas in November. Like November 1st, if not halfway through, that's when a lot of people are starting their Christmas shopping, putting decorations up, putting lights out, getting their trees in some cases.
00:54:17
Speaker
So I thought that was kind of interesting because I would have never started it that early, but it makes sense. If Thanksgiving's out of the way, a lot of people get going and like Christmas stuff hits the stores way earlier. So fun little tidbit from around the world there that I noticed. Love that. That's awesome.
00:54:32
Speaker
Okay. I guess I'll move on to the next poll question then. So the next one was real tree or fake tree. Um, so a line, uh, I'm excited to hear your little thoughts on this because most people actually said fake tree and I was shocked. And so most people are wrong. Oh my God.
00:54:51
Speaker
Okay, so really quickly, I grew up with real trees, but I always wanted a fake one because we grew up with real trees, like I said, but we would go out and cut them, which is so cool. I'm glad we did that as a child. So that's awesome. But that means they were usually pretty like, they weren't very full. Let's just say once or twice in our natural branch.
00:55:10
Speaker
But no, nothing wrong with it. I mean, and then sometimes we would have big, full ones. So, you know, but in general, my favorite thing about a Christmas tree is big, full, tall, huge Christmas tree. I want it to be very full and even looking. So to me, I always wanted a fake one because I was like, man, then every year would be so beautiful.
00:55:26
Speaker
But my dad was like, no way. Like it's going to be real and it's going to be chopped from the forest. There are no, no other options. Like you didn't even go to like, I like to buy a tree. I don't think we bought a tree once in my life. It was always, we go to the forest legally, of course. And then we chopped down a Christmas tree and you just never know what you're going to get with that.
00:55:44
Speaker
So sometimes we didn't get the, you know, most full trees, but you know, it was still fun to decorate and it was still, it was honestly looking back. I'm so glad we did that as a childhood memory. That's so cool. I can always say now that we used to cut our own trees and everything. Right. I think I remember the trees that you guys had and like, yeah, like some years they were huge. And I think I remember a smaller one, one year. And you were like, I hate our stupid guys.
00:56:04
Speaker
Christmas tree. There was a year, I was very bitter. To be fair. You were probably older. Like we were little kids, you were probably older and you were like, everyone else liked this. I was so upset about it because to what happened that year, I'll tell you what that one, my parents cut a tree that was very small because they wanted to then replant it. And then a few years later we were going to have the Christmas tree that we planted in our house.
00:56:25
Speaker
So it was actually really cool but I didn't really get it because as a kid I was like but why because now we have a two foot tall Christmas tree and I was so upset about it. Looking back I'm like okay that's actually really cool and it's a fun memory and they actually did end up planting it and it survived and grew in our yard so that's awesome. Yeah but as a kid at the time I was like why is our Christmas tree two feet tall?
00:56:46
Speaker
Yeah. Well, okay. That makes more sense. But yeah, I am a real tree person all the way. I know. I think I said earlier in the episode, we have had real and fake since getting married. And I'll explain if I like, yeah, if I was just prepared enough for it every year and had my way, I'm a big real tree person. Like that's just always what we did growing up. We usually got it from a tree farm, like either the ones where you cut them down or they were already cut and just there for you. But something about the smell and all of that,
00:57:15
Speaker
It's like, this is might be a hot take. It's a pet peeve of mine when people say they don't get real trees because they're messy. I'm like, okay, they're like not though. Like, yeah, you bring it in and needles are going to fall. You vacuum them and then they're gone. And then it might shed needles a little bit. Guess what? You can just vacuum them again. Like it's not like my mom had five kids in the household and we had real trees. Oh my God. I love it. Getting salty. But like, I'm all good if other people like do fake ones or whatever. But like for me, if I had my way, it would be, yeah, like a big old,
00:57:45
Speaker
real one every time. To me, it doesn't feel like Christmas until there's like a real Christmas tree in there. That being said, the first Christmas that Chris and I were up in Canada, we had a fake one that was just an extra one his family is and we set it up and once it was decorated and like music was playing and lights were on, it still did give like some of that Christmas feeling. So yeah, sorry, not to shame fake trees too much, but I just, I don't know.
00:58:11
Speaker
I yeah, I just I love a good real tree and then if I can't get a tree because like I said We were living in a small space for a while or whatever all I might collect like some branches to display around the house like I think something about the smell isn't only nostalgia just for Christmas, but like
00:58:27
Speaker
where we grew up was very mountainous and had pine trees and stuff. And so I think if I can just like get that again in some way, I always really like that. But yeah. So the next one, speaking of Christmas trees, the next poll question was how do you decorate your tree? So the option was number one was a theme or aesthetic.
00:58:48
Speaker
Second option was as packed as possible, tons of decorations. Number three was as a family altogether. And number four was something new every time. And the majority of people chose, and this surprised me as well, but they chose with a theme or aesthetic.
00:59:05
Speaker
So I thought that was cool. I definitely chose as packed as possible. I'm a sucker for all the homemade stuff and just like I love colorful lights. I love like tinsel like getting the tree just looking crazy. But yeah, Beth, what did you do? I kind of cheated. I'm not gonna lie. I actually chose to I chose but they're both because it's true. I chose with a theme or aesthetic and then also something new every time just because I get bored easily and
00:59:32
Speaker
I don't know I just I always want to try something new so it's always a new theme or aesthetic if that makes sense so like for example a couple years ago I decorated our tree with a bunch of lights just like white lights and then I printed out a bunch of black and white pictures of like Chad and I and our family members and friends and I decorated the tree only with black and white photos and of course the lights and so that was like one of my favorites I've done okay I like that stuff like that or then like this year for example we have a tree decorated with like
00:59:57
Speaker
just we have a couple trees we have like a bedroom tree and a living room tree and um i decorated one of them with like seashells um along with some other things too there's like some white ornaments on there and lights and stuff but so stuff like that because i just i i don't know i used to do and i still do sometimes all decked out and as a kid that's how we decorated our tree i don't know if we should we we should have shared that too but like oh yeah as a kid we would have all of us siblings and parents or like my mom
01:00:22
Speaker
And we would all decorate at the same time, just kind of grab all the ornaments and we all just throw things on the tree. And yeah, so it was definitely very colorful and I love that too, but this is how I do it.
01:00:31
Speaker
I love that. I love the idea of actually changing it up every year. And kind of like I said, when I look back, I did a lot of different stuff. There was a couple of years when I was going to college, I lived alone for like three or four years and I did something different than to actually as far as like the physical tree. Like some years I got a real tree, like just from a tree farm. There was one year I just wanted like a little one cut down, like yeah, kind of a Charlie Brown tree to put on like a side table. And then there was actually one year where I collected scrap
01:01:00
Speaker
pine branches and pin them to a bookshelf I had in like a tree shape and like wrapped lights around that so that was like college years I was like living alone being a little bit more scrappy but as a family yeah we we decorated it just like we like I said we had like four or five tubs of Christmas decorations and I wanted every single one on there so I think we decorated it as a family it was like we took turns like picky one
01:01:25
Speaker
yeah and then putting it somewhere until until we were through all the boxes but i tried it to again not be salty i have a lot of hot takes about christmas apparently about the like matching theme aesthetic i think i'm all good with it now if family like yeah because i've done similar to that like i had the beer can aesthetic we already talked about it but
01:01:46
Speaker
but like there was one year so yeah there was one year like i said my family always did all the decorations that we had and one year my mom and sister wanted to do like a themed aesthetic tree and i was not about it i was probably like nine maybe ten
01:02:05
Speaker
No, there's no way I was that old. Eight to nine, maybe it was a little old for the reaction I had, not gonna lie. But they were like, we wanna do like a themed one so that my sister wanted to do like white and silver. She wanted to do white lights, like silver ribbons and then blue and silver of like the shiny like ball things that go on there. And I was like, no! I was like, no, like I just wanted to do the same tree that we always had. I was like, that's always what it's been. Why would we change it? And I had a...
01:02:30
Speaker
I was like no and like I think I had a diary at the time and I wrote about it in that diary I was like they want to do stupid boring white lices like they're ruining Christmas and I hate them like so
01:02:46
Speaker
They ended up still doing it. I hope so. And I didn't want to help decorate. I didn't want to look at the tree. I didn't want to help decorate it. I didn't want anything to do. And then they never did. We never did a themed tree. I can't traumatize them. They were like, that didn't go well. So I think I'm fine with it now, but there's a small part of me on the inside that remembers that. That is so funny. And I can, by the way, I can totally see Cheyenne wanting to do that. Like Cheyenne wanting to do like a beautiful aesthetic. She probably thought it through and was so excited about it.
01:03:14
Speaker
Yeah, she's always been so good at that stuff and like keeping the matching and like her aesthetics and I've always been a bit more all over the place and like, and we always got to do what I wanted for Christmas. And then one year she was like, hey, should we do this? I was like, yeah, let's do it. That is so funny. I'm not gonna lie. That reminds me a little bit of me. I feel like I was like that. Like my older sister was more like, I don't know, just kind of quiet and she was so creative and good at that kind of thing. But like, God forbid, if she recommended something and I didn't like it because it was like, excuse me, that's not how it works.
01:03:43
Speaker
Oh my gosh. Obviously, if we were all together for Christmas again, she wanted to do that. I wouldn't care. But at the time, I was like, how could you? You're ruining it. And the decorations that we had, we had a little metal piece of corn that was a decoration that I just needed to have on there. And my mom was like, maybe not this year. And I was like, no. The corn was one of my favorite ones. And I was so mad.
01:04:11
Speaker
Oh my gosh, that's so funny. You're like, excuse me? What? Okay. Wow. Well, all right. The last one for this week was which of these is your favorite to do this time of year? And it was watch holiday movies, holiday crafts, baking, or family game nights. And the majority of you said watching holiday movies, which I thought was awesome. Makes a lot of sense.
01:04:36
Speaker
That's what I chose to. So what I like about that is I feel like that's the only thing from that list that you can exclusively do during the holidays. Or not true, but that you do exclusively during the holidays. Like you can bake other times of the year, other holidays, crafts, stuff like that. But anyways, Ayla, what'd you choose? Yeah, I chose movies as well. I feel like this was like a...
01:04:56
Speaker
less of a hot take like Christmas movies is a pretty safe one but yeah definitely love my holiday movies however my second choice would probably be baking and it's because I don't bake a lot like I'm not a super huge
01:05:10
Speaker
baker but if I do around Christmas I love to do something like decadent like pepperminty chocolatey like something you'd only make around then so I definitely get that too well perfect that's all for the polls that was the best time so I think we're also that'll be the end of the episode we'll just round the episode out with that
01:05:28
Speaker
We are going to be putting some more fun holiday polls on our stories actually every week this month and then sharing the results right here on the podcast for our December episodes. So if you're not on our Instagram already at Art of Intention podcast, you'll want to hop on there so then you can participate and your poll answers might show up in an episode and we can just keep the holiday joy going. So you'll definitely want to hop on that.
01:05:54
Speaker
Also, to keep it going, for a fun little Christmas surprise that you can use this month, you're going to go to our Instagram, go to our most recent post, scroll to the last photo, and you're going to see a fun little something for you from us. I'm sending you on a little treasure hunt here. We're going to be sharing tons of fun things this month on our Instagram, everything from holiday recipes, crafts, DIYs, Christmas tradition ideas, like today, and more. So make sure you're following our Instagram, like I said, at Art of Intention Podcast.
01:06:24
Speaker
After that, you can feel free to subscribe to us wherever you get your podcasts, where we are on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, and Zencaster. And as always, if you haven't already, definitely leave us your five star rating. If you ever have a new idea for an episode, you're always welcome to message us on Instagram or email us at art of intention podcast at gmail.com. Tune in next week for another fun episode. Bye.
01:07:02
Speaker
you