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021: Preparing for Christmas
652 Plays5 years ago
This episode will help make planning your Christmas an ode to joy!
There are a lot of life admin life hacks that can maximise your peace of mind, save money and save time around the festive season. In this episode Mia and Dinah talk about:
- establishing and remembering Christmas traditions using Reference lists and To Do Lists
- nurturing traditions such as reading Christmas books, buying and decorating a tree, advent calendars, Christmas music playlists, carols by candlelight, gingerbread house making, and sending Santa letters.
- drawing on your established life admin tools and techniques such as Scheduling, Decluttering and Shared Calendars
- using Gift Giving hacks to make planning, shopping and wrapping enjoyable rather than hectic
- planning your festive meal and getting others to help, to make hosting less stressful
- planning earlier in the year to make the joy last longer.
LIFE ADMIN HIGHS OF THE WEEK
- Dinah talks about how she effortlessly switched her private hospital cover using the admin hacks she’d previously followed to determine what product features were important to her family.
LIFE ADMIN LOW OF THE WEEK
- Mia talks about the hassle of returning items you’ve purchased and the need for a process to help remember.
POWER TOOL
Book: Fair Play by Eve Rodsky – minimum acceptable standards for shared and delegated household tasks
RESOURCES
Life Admin Life Hacks episode on To Do Lists
Life Admin Life Hacks episode on Scheduling
Life Admin Life Hacks episode on Gift Giving
Life Admin Life Hacks episode on Decluttering
BBC Good Food Christmas Dinner Planner
Martha Stewart The Ultimate Holiday Dinner – Our Guide
SHARE
Please head to the Life Admin Life Hacks Facebook page to connect with listeners and share your thoughts, questions or suggestions.
Recommended
Transcript
Energy-Saving Tips for the Home
00:00:00
Speaker
Sometimes we forget how easy it is to save energy at home. So Georgia Power is here with a little reminder, because it's often as simple as a twist to switch to LED bulbs, or as easy as a lift to move furniture away from air vents. It could be the flip of a switch to turn off the lights in an empty room. One way or another, these small changes can make a big difference.
00:00:21
Speaker
Helping you save energy for the bigger things in life.
Introducing Life Admin Life Hacks Podcast
00:00:24
Speaker
Visit georgapower.com slash energy efficiency for tips and programs to help save energy and money. This is Life Admin Life Hacks, a podcast that gives you techniques, tips, and tools to tackle your life admin more efficiently, to save your time, your money, and improve your household harmony. I'm Dinah Roe Roberts, an operations manager who loves decorating her whole house at Christmas time, mailbox included.
00:00:51
Speaker
I'm Mia Northrop, a researcher and writer who was given serious, serious thought to designing our family Christmas. This episode will help make planning for the festive season an ode to joy. Hello and welcome to Life Admin Life Hacks.
00:01:07
Speaker
Well, welcome back listeners. We've had a bit of a break, but here we are for season three. We're very excited about what we've got in upcoming episodes. And we want to thank everyone for their patience and welcome the listeners who might've found us through the potential psychology podcast that we recorded with Ellen Jackson during our hiatus.
00:01:28
Speaker
Today for our first episode back, we're going to be talking about Christmas planning. It's a pretty exciting topic, particularly for Mia. So obviously not everyone celebrates Christmas, but a lot of what we'll be talking about today can be applied to other celebrations or traditions that you might have.
00:01:46
Speaker
And I didn't realize
The Magic of Christmas Traditions
00:01:47
Speaker
until Diana and I started talking about this how into Christmas I am and how that might not be really shared by everyone. But I feel like this is something new for me that's come since I've had kids and thought about how I want Christmas time to be special and what I thought was special about my Christmas and how to nurture traditions in our family so that the whole lead up to the big day, which is, you know, the ultimate day of a child's year is great.
00:02:16
Speaker
Yeah, I mean so many people find this time of year very stressful and resentful and there can actually be lots of lopsided responsibilities, but it doesn't have to be this way. Yeah, this Christmas is triggering. You know, we started talking about this and the stories that come out about awkward Christmases, Christmases where
00:02:39
Speaker
stuff goes down between relatives or just the stress of getting through December and work coming to a close and all of the social events that happen and the kids you know their academic year peaking and having so much to think about and so much to do and the pressure of having this perfect day can send some people batty. It can but I think
00:03:04
Speaker
For me, we lived overseas for 10 years, and particularly our Christmases in Dubai, they made me realize what a great Christmas is all about in terms of having a great fun time, having some enjoyable food not over the top, and still having some traditions and things that you can look back and remember.
00:03:22
Speaker
that's right this whole thing is supposed to be fun and if it's not you know it's easy to say oh you're doing it wrong if it's not fun but we can understand why it's not fun because they can be emotional minefields the navigating relatives and relationships and family dynamics all that stuff comes up at this time of year and if you are having to
Life Admin Hacks for a Stress-Free Christmas
00:03:42
Speaker
do the
00:03:42
Speaker
the burden of gift buying or planning to host and everything that comes with that. It's a truly stressful thing. It's really great to be able to use some of your life admin life hacks to help you get organized this year and into the future. Yeah, this is really one occasion where you can really maximize your peace of mind by knowing things are under control. You can save yourself time and not that hectic running around.
00:04:09
Speaker
that we all seem to do in December and clearly save some money by shopping in a methodical way and not being trapped with outrageous last minute purchases. And listeners, I want you to understand that this is the one thing in Diana's life that she doesn't have a list for.
00:04:27
Speaker
No, I don't have a list. I do have a list for gifts, definitely. And we talked about that in our episode on gift giving. And I don't have a Christmas list. And that's actually because often we travel at Christmas time. So every Christmas for us is a little bit different. A bit different to you, Mia, which is all about traditions and nurturing traditions. So I think we've probably got quite a different approach. So, Mia.
00:04:52
Speaker
I just want to mention before we get into it that we're going to have a separate episode coming up on organising your social life because Christmas time, this time of year, can be when lots of people try and catch up, there's work functions, and we're going to cover off how to handle some of that in another episode. And I also want to suggest that people listen to episode 16 on gift giving for a deep dive on buying great presents. So Mia, I know you've already started your Christmas preparations in October,
00:05:21
Speaker
kick us off with how you're doing that. Yeah. So a few years ago, I started a little list, a reference list in my notes on my phone that lists out the Christmas traditions that I wanted to embed in my family. Cause I, I guess my kids got to an age where Christmas is off the charts, the best day of their lives. And it made me stop and pause and think, okay, well, what are we going to do for Christmas?
00:05:50
Speaker
Lots of families have these deep-seated traditions. We don't have that many in mind. I always had pretty fun Christmases growing up. My parents got divorced when I was about eight then Christmas has got weird for a while because you're doing that back-and-forth shared thing which lots of people can relate to and I stopped and thought okay well what are the bits of Christmas that I really like that I'd like to do year-on-year
Building Family Christmas Traditions
00:06:14
Speaker
help build that anticipation and that excitement and don't put all the focus on just December 25th, you know, the whole month.
00:06:24
Speaker
things can happen. I spent like an afternoon googling what other people do and just taking on the things I thought oh that sounds fun I'd like to do that or we've done that a few times. I've just been very ad hoc in the past and I'm like well I'll actually think about what we want to do every year so that those traditions become really embedded and special. So you've actually designed your traditions? Yes.
00:06:48
Speaker
And I tell you what, so I did this about two years ago, and the last two Christmases have just been just lovely. Well the last two December's. So it starts in October. Okay, so what do we need to get doing in October now? Yeah, that's why we started this episode. So October is when I start thinking about the gift wish list. I have a spreadsheet. Stop giggling!
00:07:13
Speaker
He loves spreadsheets. What are you talking about? I have a spreadsheet and I actually, this is pre-sped sheet. At this stage, I just float with the kids. You know, we're in term four, Christmas at the end. What are you guys thinking? And I set up wish lists or they have wish lists. I look at their wish lists that they've been adding to all year.
00:07:36
Speaker
And I make sure I have a wish list and anyone else I have to buy for if you know partners and family members start compiling ideas so that I have one place where I can start putting ideas and One of the things I like about Christmas is the Christmas books so things like
Gift Planning Strategies for the Holidays
00:07:57
Speaker
I can't think of one book. The Night Before Christmas. What's that one with the train? From Midnight Express? Not Midnight Express. That is not children express. The Polar Express.
00:08:11
Speaker
a good library of Christmas books and every year I like to add to them so I'll have a quick scan and see if there's some classic out there that I don't have or if there's a new Christmas book because we start reading those books for nighttime bedtime stories on the lead up to Christmas and the kids love it. So that's what I do in October. You buy Christmas books in October.
00:08:31
Speaker
I order them on Book Depository or Amazon because I can get because they're going to be delivered and then I've got you know six weeks of delivery time and can shop around and find good prices. Very good. So they're ready for December 1. So October we start thinking about gifts by books. Yeah so I also have reference lists that I store in my to-do list app which is the wonder list app and I enter that throughout the year adding ideas so I do start to probably think more about it this time of year.
00:09:00
Speaker
You can actually find a bit more detail on that in episode four about mastering to-do lists. Yeah those reference lists are crucial I think in terms of having those gift wish lists really saves yourself some time when you're shopping in terms of second guessing those purchases and avoiding the last minute shopping dashes where you end up buying things that cost more and aren't a great fit and
00:09:23
Speaker
we all want to avoid gifts that are going to end up in landfill. I think it's really useful, one of the things I have in my reference list is to have this spreadsheet that lists out who we're buying gifts for and of course between our kids and then we have that conversation about okay well I'm going to shop for my side of the family, you shop for your side of the family and we divide it up by people. Do you divide it up by people or by
00:09:48
Speaker
shop where they're going to buy stuff. Yeah. So when we've actually finally decided what we're aiming to buy, and even though that might evolve over time, I add those to our shopping to-do list, which we organize our shopping to-do list by location. So whether it's in the big shopping or whether it's online shopping, and that really is how we divide up who's going to buy what, depending on who's going to be able to do those different things.
00:10:10
Speaker
Yeah, I think the most conversation for us comes when we're talking about what to buy the kids, what we're going to get them, what Santa might bring, making sure we're not duplicating there. And then we've also got some traditions around giving wishing tree gifts, which are those initiatives run by.
00:10:27
Speaker
some of the charities through some of the retail stores where they'll give gifts to disadvantaged families.
Celebrating Christmas Away from Home
00:10:32
Speaker
And the kids are involved with choosing things for those. We have to think about what's going in the stocking, what's, we might be buying for teachers or people who do the extracurricular stuff with the kids. Yeah, I think a spreadsheet is useful to keep across it all and to be very clear on who's doing what. Because it can be really easy to forget someone and then have to do them last minute dash. So I'm getting that year on year is a really great idea. And it's fun.
00:10:57
Speaker
I just, I love that license to just start shopping. I will have a look at some of the toy catalogs on the one, the fundraiser. I'm past toys. Yeah, right.
00:11:09
Speaker
So Christmas is harder for presents for us. Your past toys, post toy world. Usually because they've got such extensive wish lists this year, I'll just be going online and searching for those particular items and just finding the best price. So how do you think Santa manages if the things that are on their wish list, they change their mind closer to Christmas? Good question. Santa's pretty nimble.
00:11:37
Speaker
I think sometimes children have to understand that Sand has been watching all year and the fact that they write that letter, there might be some parental supervision when that letter comes because you can remind your child, hang on, but didn't you mention all year that this happened? And maybe the gifts from the parents are more on the fringy side. So is your aim to be finished present buying in November?
00:12:01
Speaker
or are you still shopping into December? I don't have strict deadlines on that, Diana. I just start then, and usually it is done by the end of November, so I don't have to face the shops in that frenzy period. You realize mince pies and all the Christmas stuff is in stores already. Indeed, I do, I do. And I have actually already started to think about what I'm going to buy my kids, because when you're traveling you have got
00:12:28
Speaker
complexity there too around so in the past when we've had Christmases overseas I've done online shopping to my destination and had the presents arrived there also I've thought about buying small gifts that are much easier to transport or that are things that we can use while we're on
Smart Christmas Shopping Tips
00:12:43
Speaker
our trip that's what I'm doing this year going for a small gifts so we already my husband I actually agreed this morning what we were gonna buy each of the kids so
00:12:52
Speaker
to win. The prospect of last minute buying when you have no ideas of what to actually get the person that is what we're trying to avoid in this entire episode. So if you take one thing away from this episode today and find that December 26 you got through this whole process without panic purchasing at any stage then you're winning. Do you tend to just also have a little swag of gifts for people just in case you forget that you realize I'm seeing so and so for
00:13:22
Speaker
on the weekend and I forgot and I forgot something. Yeah, so I think lots of people have that kind of gift shelf and I definitely have one of those. It's usually got a couple of candles in it, but I also might secretly stash gifts in there that people have given to me that perhaps I don't really want. Re-gifting? Re-gifting. I love a bit of re-gifting, so I definitely have a few things in there and I usually try and consult that little shelf before I go out shopping to think about actually if there's some of these I can use, particularly for things like
00:13:51
Speaker
you know, piano teachers or things like that. Were you just looking for something, a little token? Often that shelf comes in handy.
00:13:59
Speaker
Some of the other activities that we do in the lead up to Christmas is a bit of decluttering. And we talked about this in episode six and seven, because I guess it's one of those times of year where you do need to identify what the kids might actually need. So it's good to go through their stuff and work out what is broken or what they've grown out of, what might be passed on or given to an op shop. And also kind of making room for the influx of stuff. And if the kids
00:14:28
Speaker
you know, want to put things on the Christmas list that goes off to Father Christmas, they might want to spend some time giving stuff away. Yeah.
00:14:37
Speaker
also do a little bit of decluttering when we take out the decorations box and really what I've started to do is if we don't actually put the decoration out then really that's time that either needs to be maybe used for a craft project or thrown in the bin if it's broken and or just really worn out or it might be something that we can donate and it's much better to donate any Christmas decorations you no longer want at the beginning of Christmas
00:15:01
Speaker
so that the charity shops can actually sell them to someone who might be able to use them rather than give them to them in January when they're really no use to them at all. Something I like to do earlier on in the piece too in November is order a Christmas tree. So we get a tree from the Scouts and it gets delivered and that's a little fundraising activity that they run. So I order that online and it gets
00:15:22
Speaker
conveniently delivered to our house. Yeah for us also it's a good time to look through our kids clothes and see what no longer fits and possibly add some clothes to gift ideas either for us or you know some often it's a good thing for grandparents to give. I often buy nice summer pyjamas as a gift. Do your kids have advent calendars?
00:15:43
Speaker
Indeed, we always go for the old Cadbury Advent Calendar at the supermarket, so it's a nice and easy tradition. And you, have you got that tradition? Yeah, we've tried two. We've got like a wooden one with little boxes in it for each day. Actually, we have three now that I think of it, because my mother-in-law made a beautiful one that's got different decorations that you take out
Sharing Holiday Responsibilities
00:16:05
Speaker
each day for December and put on the tree.
00:16:08
Speaker
Then we have a wooden one that the kids use and that's in the past either had chocolates in it, lollies or Lego minifigures or whatever. And then in the last couple of years we've had those Lego advent calendars. My kids are really into it and I, I don't know, they've actually caused a bit of friction in our household.
00:16:28
Speaker
because they've opened up days. Well, we've had the lollies. There's been this kind of pilfering from other days. Yes, that has been a problem. And people's taking too many and with the Lego opening up days that, you know, it's not the right day. You've opened up three days worth and it's actually caused a bit of a stress. And I, I'm going to be having a chat with my husband about whether we do it this year. Maybe we disco the one from the supermarket. It's got one chocolate in it in the story. Anyway,
00:16:58
Speaker
You have to buy it in November, that's the key thing. It's all gonna start from December 1st, so make sure that that's a task in your calendar. When do you start your Christmas shopping proper?
00:17:08
Speaker
Yeah, I think it's really important that you think about when you're actually going to do your Christmas shopping. Are you going to actually schedule in a day to go and do your Christmas shopping? You know, is that something you want to do together as a couple and so you need to organize someone to look after the kids? Or is it something that you want to, you know, schedule in using online shopping and so you can just do it in 10 minute kind of
00:17:30
Speaker
time killer approach. I've got one friend who has a really great tradition that she has an annual weekend away with her mum and they go and stay in a hotel in the city and they get all their Christmas shopping done. And I think things like that can really add to the joy of Christmas. That sounds so lovely. It's just, what a lovely thing to be able to hang out for that time and, and just spend the whole day shopping. I tend to do mine sort of online. I'll dedicate one night,
00:17:57
Speaker
I sit down and just try and bang out a whole lot online earlier on in the piece and if there are thin things I can't find online or I know the store that I want to go to or I just want to wander around the shops for a bit I will put in the calendar a chunk of time so I know exactly when I'm going to go and get this done. I think that is also part of the stress for people is that they have an earmarked time to do the shopping and are trying to do it incidentally around other things.
00:18:24
Speaker
Yeah, I think the reality is it does take up a bit of time and so you really need to schedule it in. I think just like some of the other scheduling tips that we talk about in Episode 5, thinking about the tasks you've got to do and scheduling them in are really important. Things like if you really value doing Christmas cards or a Christmas newsletter, really putting some time aside in your calendar to do that in a
00:18:46
Speaker
you know early on in December to allow the post to get there on time because otherwise it does become a source of stress and anxiety. Yeah something I'm thinking about now, October is what kind of category of gifts I'm going to give everyone this year. So in our gift giving episode we talked about the idea of buying everyone something from the same category so you might decide this year everyone's getting books or everyone's getting an experience or some kind of magazine subscription
Planning the Christmas Feast
00:19:14
Speaker
And it can help give you boundaries and not endless choice that you're going to struggle with. And in your family, what do you do with gifts in terms of like the format? Do you buy for everyone in your extended family or do you have a Kris Kringle?
00:19:27
Speaker
And I guess this is probably why I haven't gone with your spreadsheet approach, is because it really depends on who we're spending Christmas with. So we really only buy presents if we're spending Christmas together. On one side of the family and the other side of the family, it's a slightly different approach. And we often travel at Christmas time as well, so often we're staying with friends overseas, and so they need to be added to the list that we wouldn't normally buy presents for them, except that we're spending Christmas with them.
00:19:54
Speaker
So every year it kind of changes for us. And are you hosting this year? Oh no, so this year we're overseas again, so staying with some friends. So we'll have a nice cold Christmas this year, so it'll be pretty exciting. And Yume, are you hosting the big lunch? We're hosting. It's not going to be a big lunch. We've got a pretty small family here. But we will be hosting, which I'm looking forward to. So I'm going to be drawing on the to-do lists and our reference lists for this.
00:20:21
Speaker
There'll be some tasks in there to plan what we're going to eat and to plan the shop, deciding who's going to help with bringing any food or drink and delegating that. There'll be a task on there for someone to organize a music playlist. It's a ball about Michael Buble and Bing Crosby and Harry Belafonte in our house. We have the Boney M Christmas Carols one, which is a big favorite in our house. I'm going to add Boney M. That has been the missing ingredient. Thank you, Dana. Oh, and there's usually also a bit
00:20:51
Speaker
What's that choir? The King's Carol's choir? That Boys' choir? Yeah, definitely. So yeah, playlists are
Balancing Holiday Logistics and Family
00:20:58
Speaker
very important. And I guess, you know, apart from the traditions, if we're hosting and we've only hosted once, like, was it last year or the year before? We hosted for the first time and I felt like I'd finally become an adult.
00:21:14
Speaker
been working my whole life for this moment. It's like, you're taking the reins. You're now in charge of this important day. So how did you go about planning your menu and getting everyone to contribute so you didn't have so much to do on the day? Well, luckily we didn't have hordes of people coming. We literally had
00:21:33
Speaker
my husband's parents, ourselves and my mum and my brother for Christmas. So it was pretty small in terms of numbers. So we didn't feel the need to delegate or outsource any of it.
00:21:45
Speaker
we bought a daughter hey christmas edition magazine and some other magazine and spent a night flicking through and deciding what we're going to cook we decided to just go traditional because love all of that comfort food well you know it depends on how often you entertain and what kind of well-oiled entertaining machine you have at your place whether you decide to try new recipes
00:22:12
Speaker
which some people would find highly risky thing to do for Christmas or whether you want to go and think okay we're having a Spanish Christmas this year or we're having a blah blah blah Christmas that can up the anxiety levels if you're cooking things that you've never cooked before and you want Christmas to you know be successful in the food department. For us we decided that you know we're going to eat
00:22:34
Speaker
eat turkey at Christmas time. We don't make cauliflower cheese very often. We don't often have a lot of the traditional Christmas dishes in our household, so we're happy to actually eat prawn cocktails. And I don't want to change that. I'm happy to do some fancy potatoes, but I'm still having some roast potatoes with my turkey. And we just sort of made that decision. We don't have to think about it every year. We know what we're cooking.
00:23:01
Speaker
Yeah I actually think there is something comforting to having the same kind of food on Christmas Day but I have hosted for very large numbers of people and I guess knowing the logistics of trying to serve up hot meals for 30 people I've definitely opted for the turkey but salad option just to kind of make
00:23:19
Speaker
a bit more manageable in terms of how much I needed to be in the kitchen and serving up plates and make it easier for people to self-serve. Also makes it easier to contribute then because it's much easier for people to bring a salad than to bring a hot vegetable dish.
00:23:34
Speaker
So I think that now that the kids are a little bit older, I probably feel less like I need to be around them for the whole day. We don't have the same number of presents and excitement. And so I feel like I'm much more comfortable spending a bit of time in the kitchen, which is something I really enjoy doing. So I think it's about thinking about what you actually what's fun for you in the day. And if cooking for you is not fun,
00:23:58
Speaker
then don't make Christmas about a really long and complicated meal. Make it about something that you feel really easy cooking, possibly things that you can prepare ahead and get others to bring food. I feel like Christmas is one of those events where people are very happy to contribute. It's not one of those days where you can reasonably expect 15 people to just rock up your house and for them to be fed without bringing something or helping or contributing in some way.
00:24:27
Speaker
people should feel comfortable in asking for help and asking people to bring whatever they think is necessary.
Scheduling for a Stress-Free Holiday
00:24:34
Speaker
And there are actually lots of really good web resources about the things you can do ahead of time around particularly for roast vegetables and which ones you can peel the night before and all of those sorts of things to really set yourself up for a less stressful day.
00:24:46
Speaker
Yeah, we'll have a link to the show notes. We found some crazy resources with people literally sort of day by day, week by week, like Martha Stewart, classic for that. She's literally got this, oh by hour, peel the potatoes now, soak them in cold water, put them in the fridge. They'll be good for like two days and then do this and do that.
00:25:04
Speaker
And you can't, it's not one of those days where I think you should just think I'm just giving, giving, giving. I'm making it really fun for everyone else. And I'm burning myself out in the process. It should be fun for everyone there. Yeah, actually I had someone that I worked with whose tradition on Christmas Day
00:25:22
Speaker
was to watch a movie with his son, and the two of them would just get together, and that was the tradition that they made, and people kept asking if they could join them, because people who had had miserable Christmases, and they're like, no, that's our tradition, just the two of us, and it was so special to them, it was like they would talk all year about what movies they were gonna watch on Christmas Day, and what special foods they were gonna eat, and so they made it special in their own way, so I think I really admire that kind of idea.
00:25:50
Speaker
We don't have really a lot of logistics on the day apart from creating that meal. We don't have to go and visit places or visit other families and that can also be a source of stress for people, the logistics of squeezing everybody in on the day. It's really good to think about having that conversation really early with families and trying to come up with a compromise about maybe
00:26:10
Speaker
celebrating over a couple of days. Some people like to celebrate on Christmas Eve so, you know, having a Christmas Eve dinner can be a really nice lead into Christmas or having a Boxing Day celebration with other members of your family can also take the stress off the actual day. Yeah, we tend to do a Kris Kringle with my step-family, the weeks leading up and then on the
00:26:32
Speaker
actual day depending on where we are. It's with my in-laws, my mum and brother and so on. So it has changed over the years. And then for those, it really is about getting those items into the shared calendar so everyone's very clear about where and when we have to be. I feel like this year, since we've spent a lot of
00:26:52
Speaker
months working on all of these life hacks. It's really just about keeping them running, having the discipline to use the to-do lists, use the reference lists, use the shared calendar and stick to some of that scheduling, gift giving kind of protocols that we already have set up and trusting that that's going to deliver a smooth Christmas. I'm sure it will. The task that I'll have December as we get closer to the event will be around getting letters to Father Christmas written early on
00:27:22
Speaker
just making sure we're all calibrated there and they get in the post box.
Enhancing Holidays with Family Activities
00:27:26
Speaker
So do you think, Mia, that you might add some of these things to your calendar as recurring events so that they automatically appear for next year? Yeah, I hadn't put them in as specific days. I kind of find myself just looking at the reference list every other day, but perhaps it does make sense to actually put them as scheduled tasks.
00:27:47
Speaker
Yeah. The kids have to be in the mood, you know? They do. So it's kind of thinking about not letting it run away too long because you definitely don't want those letters to follow Christmas to go too late. He doesn't want any surprises. Yeah. Those elves have a lot of presents to make. And then we also put up a tree and decorate the house in December early on. We usually go and do a drive by one of those decorated streets. People who really embrace the Christmas lights.
00:28:16
Speaker
got the LED phantasmagorical thing happening. We usually drive by one of those. It's pretty fun. Yeah. I've actually scheduled in, we always put our Christmas tree up the first weekend in December and it has to be after the second of December because that's my son's birthday and we've decided we can't start celebrating. Yeah. So last year I think it actually, we had to then wait until a bit later in December.
00:28:40
Speaker
But it is something I actually do put in our calendar so that we don't inadvertently agree to go to a barbecue at someone's house or something like that because it does take a couple of hours. And it is something where I try and get the kids to put on their Santa hats, play the carols, and get into the spirit. So I definitely think scheduling that in is really important. It's something I've done in the past, but it'll be even easier now that we have a shared calendar.
00:29:03
Speaker
We also based the gingerbread house. I've been getting the kits. I'm not making it from scratch, but I get the kits and we put them together and have them standing there and it sort of builds that anticipation of the fun of Christmas day when we get to hoe into it.
Early Holiday Prep for Joyful Season
00:29:20
Speaker
Didn't you make some epic gingerbread mansion last year? Yeah, we did. And my daughter really wanted to embrace that tradition. We had used the kits in the past and now she's a bit older. She really wanted to go all out.
00:29:32
Speaker
So that again was something I scheduled in to make sure that we had a whole Sunday afternoon free because we went right from making the gingerbread to decorating it. It probably did take the best part of the day. So really thinking about making sure you've set aside the time so you don't feel stressed by it and you can actually enjoy it. Yeah. I do love the fact that we've got all these activities splashed out across December. So there's still emphasis of course on December 25th being the big day.
00:30:00
Speaker
There's all these little activities that are marking the journey to get there and it feels like it takes off some of the pressure of that day being perfect because you've actually had a whole bunch of other things to help the season be festive. One thing I did want to add to my schedule, and I'm going to pop it on right now, is I think my kids are finally ready to go to Carol's by candlelight. Not the big one that's on television, but one of the little local ones. I think that would be really fun. I love holding candles.
00:30:30
Speaker
little pyromaniacs. But I think that'll just be, you know, I like the community spirit of those kinds of events. Yeah. And that's really a good one to sort of look around and figure out what options there are. And often I would recommend putting a couple of different options in your calendar. Cause that's something that really can be a lot more fun if the weather's warm and not so much fun if it's cold or rainy. So if you've got a few different options that can usually make things easier.
00:30:57
Speaker
Brilliant. I'm literally talking that in as we speak. And I guess one last thing to think about me, we probably should have mentioned it earlier, is if you're keen to make traditional Christmas cake and Christmas pudding, now's the time to get going. If you haven't already, I know some people actually get their boiled, the fruit ready for their pudding months and months in advance. But I think if you're going to make a pudding or a cake, you might want to start scheduling it in for the next few weekends. Yeah, that's kind of like an October thing. Yeah. Hmm.
00:31:25
Speaker
I've never made one. My stepsister does. She makes her own puts. All right. Yum. Some life admin tasks that we've talked about, you know, there's, there's the tasks themselves and then there's a mindset and the headspace you need to get in to be able to execute on them. Christmas is one of those, this whole period of the year when things are winding down at work, you're trying to tie up Lee Sen's.
00:31:48
Speaker
You've got the school year kind of coming to a crescendo. It can feel like you're in this tunnel rushing along at a million miles an hour trying to get to the finish line without everyone falling apart. Starting early, doing things gradually and methodically is one of the best ways to make sure that you don't dissolve with stress by the end of it.
00:32:10
Speaker
So everyone, now is the time. You have permission to just get started on these tasks. Don't worry if it feels ridiculously early, you'll thank yourself once you get to that final week in December and everything is looking smooth and calm and sorted. Great.
Life Admin Successes and Challenges
00:32:25
Speaker
Well, I hope you can use some of our hacks to make your Christmas this year more of a joy and less of a stress. So Mia, do you have a life admin hire or a life admin loop?
00:32:36
Speaker
Well, I have a low. Should we start with a low this week? I just, I don't know. I've been buying the kids clothes and taking them shopping with me, which isn't my preferred way to buy kids clothes. But at the ages they're at now, sometimes they just need to try things on, especially shoes. Sometimes though, we still have things that do not fit and I need a system
00:33:00
Speaker
remembering to take them back. I plop things on my desk with the receipt and I think I need to start keeping them in the car because I will often forget that I am going to be going past a certain store and that would be a convenient time to return. They'll exchange the thing and I just forget. So you know I've had a pair of shorts sitting on this desk. We thought they were size 9 but they were size 6 because we were looking at the number on the wrong way.
00:33:30
Speaker
So what I'm going to do is I'm going to put it in the car and I'm going to set one of those reminders in the reminder app on my iPhone so that if I'm approximate to that store, the reminder will just come up and say, don't forget to return the shorts. Yeah, it's a great idea. And it's nothing worse than if you pass the time when they're willing to accept the return and then you're left with something that you bought and never used. Yeah.
00:33:54
Speaker
How about you? Do you have a life admin high of this episode? I do actually. So it could have been a low, except that I think that the previous work we'd done has made it into a high. So my private health insurance fund contacted me to let me know that they'd closed the hospital product that we were on, which I must admit did fill me with five minutes of dread thinking, oh, here we go again.
00:34:16
Speaker
But actually because I'd done the thinking before about what parts of the product were important to me, it was really easy for me to quickly compare the product they'd selected for me to go on with a couple of other insurers and decide what I wanted to do and switch. So, you know, 30 minutes I'd made that decision. So what could have been quite a horrible experience was actually reasonably easy.
00:34:40
Speaker
It's interesting that they contacted you because they closed the product because often with those providers, you'll be on a product that's no longer offered in the market, but they won't actually tell you and shift you off it. Yeah, so I think that there was quite a bit of action of products changing on the 1st of July when they've changed some of the legislation around what had to be included and excluded in products. So I think that's how it came about. So I'm sure other people are going through this torture. And do you have a power tool for us this episode?
00:35:09
Speaker
Yeah, so I actually just recently read this book. It's called Fair Play, and it's by Eve Rodsky. It's sort of positioned as a hands-on strategy to divide up the invisible work that women have to shoulder. The idea is that you have like a task card system, so she has 100 tasks, and that you use that to play almost a game to divide the cards between partners.
00:35:34
Speaker
I must admit I didn't love the book. I didn't really like the approach of these games and I do have a bit of a problem with some of her approach which is around the idea that one person has to be responsible for an entire task from conception, planning and execution. But there was one particular part of the book which I actually found quite useful. It was around agreeing what she calls a minimum standard of care.
00:35:58
Speaker
for a job or task and how you might go about approaching that with your partner because I do feel like that's probably still an area of contention between my partner and I that he will agree to take on a job but he won't necessarily do it to the standard which I think is appropriate and it probably does fall down to
00:36:17
Speaker
And negotiation before we agree who's going to take on the task about what that minimum standard should be and sort of how we make that decision. So I did quite enjoy that section. Yeah, interesting book, I guess. That minimum standard idea, I'm just out of flashback about a discussion about lunch, making lunch boxes for the kids and me perhaps yelling across the kitchen something about the
00:36:41
Speaker
KPI isn't just making a lunch. It's like there was something about nutrition and things that will actually be eaten, but it's, yeah, it's probably worth, but that discussion is an important one if you are sharing tasks. Yeah, and I think particularly when there is a feeling of resentment around the level that's being undertaken, I think having an adult conversation about what's reasonable and what a reasonable person might expect is probably worth having.
00:37:08
Speaker
So she was saying that one person should conceive and plan and execute on a particular task. I think what we've discovered this year is a lot of the tools that we have started using and the systems and the processes mean that one person can conceive it and plan it, but it can be executed by anybody if they have all the resources available to them.
00:37:29
Speaker
So if you have things like shared calendars and shared email and everyone is across or confined in the information because they have access to it, then anyone can execute. Definitely. So her concept that someone has to be in charge of
00:37:43
Speaker
weeknight dinners, for example, that means they have to conceive, plan and execute. Well, that's certainly not what happens in my house. I do a lot of the conceiving and planning, but you know, my daughter helps with the execution and so does my husband. So I really don't agree with that idea. I think if you set up the right systems and everyone can contribute. Agreed.
00:38:05
Speaker
So we hope these hacks make your Christmas more joyful. We certainly have plenty of lead time to get there. So let us know on the Facebook page if you put some of these into action. Our top hacks are, decide what makes Christmas joyful for you and your family and plan for it. Draw on your established life admin tools and techniques, such as scheduling, to-do lists and reference lists, shared calendars, plus gift giving life hacks,
00:38:33
Speaker
to approach it efficiently. And remember, it's supposed to be fun. And if it's not, change it up. If you'd like to join us on our life admin journey, please head to our Facebook page, life admin life hacks to follow us and share your thoughts on what we're doing and feel free to post any comments or certainly post suggestions that we might be able to use. We hope to see you there. Thanks for listening.
Summer at the Biltmore Estate
00:38:58
Speaker
Show notes for this episode are available at life admin lifehacks.com.
00:39:02
Speaker
If you're a fan, please subscribe and share the love and tell a friend or review us in your podcasting app. It's an extraordinary story. It's a family story. It's a story of languid afternoons and quiet refuge, of timeless beauty and priceless works of art. The story of lighthearted laughter floating on a warm, gentle breeze.
00:39:30
Speaker
of endless gardens, rolling green meadows, and shared memories that last a lifetime. It's the story of 1,000 men, and the six years they spent creating America's largest home, with 250 magnificent rooms, each with its own stories to tell. But all this can't begin to tell the full story of summer at Biltmore.
00:39:52
Speaker
Come walk in the footsteps of the Vanderbilt family and immerse yourself in the grace and grandeur of European charm right here, close to home. Because as wondrous as the story of summer at Biltmore may be, it can never be complete without you. Plan your stay at Biltmore.com.