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Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeart Radio.
Good morning.
This is Laura.
Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.
Today's tip is that Christmas tends not to really be over on December 25th.
Many people are still off work, but even if they aren't, many kids are still off of school.
To avoid going stir crazy, it is best to figure out a plan for this post-holiday time of year.
Don't let it catch you by surprise.
A lot of December is spent in the buildup to Christmas.
If your family celebrates this holiday, and particularly if you do stockings and presents on Christmas morning, then a lot of the holiday prep does have to happen by then.
But then what?
My kids are generally out of school until January 1st each year.
This year, since January 1st is on a Thursday, they go back to school on Monday, January 5th.
I don't have to tell you that there is a lot of time between December 24th and January 5th.
This is one reason we are traveling this year.
But we don't always.
And even someone taking a few days away would still have a lot of days to work with.
Not everyone gets this many vacation days either.
So best to come up with a plan.
So each day isn't a repeat of those early days of COVID when we were trying to work with kids at home underfoot.
I'm not sure how many people remember that time fondly.
First, if you do plan to work, then you and your partner if you have one need to figure out a schedule for who is with the kids.
You could trade off and each party could take the kids out to various trampoline parks or science museums or what have you each day?
Or you could enroll your kids in a break camp, which many communities have, as do many commercial establishments like rock climbing gyms.
Even if you do plan to take all these days off work, you are probably going to want at least something of a break.
So establish a few hours at least, when you will trade off with your partner or you will hire a babysitter.
As for the time you are covering, why not make a post-holiday fun list?
There might be items from your original holiday fun list that you haven't gotten to yet but that are still available.
Or you might want to repeat them.
For instance, if you wanted to go ice skating.
I'm guessing that your ice skating rink doesn't close after Christmas.
Lots of light displays will still be lit.
The Nutcracker may still be being performed.
Indeed, these are all things even people who aren't tending small kids might choose to do to stretch out the holiday fun.
If the weather is terrible in your part of the world in late December and early January you might look for some indoor fun.
Make a list of the indoor options for families in your community and create a rough schedule.
When can you go to a movie?
When should you do an escape room?
For bonus points, you might try to get other people to join you.
Speaking of which, playdates are a great way to fill the post-Christmas hours.
Over the holidays, it might be possible to have more of a family playdate.
Go hang out with another family and the kids can play in one area while the adults chat in another.
You might make visits to extended family members.
Indeed, it can be fun to have an extended family celebration after Christmas, so you can stretch out the gift-giving fun.
And who knows, maybe some relatives will take the kids for a bit while you are there giving mom and dad a break.
We often plan tightly in the weeks before Christmas because there is so much scheduled during this time.
It is not easy to get to all the holiday performances and parties and get enough work done to be ahead of the game for the time off over the holidays.
But then we get to the holidays and everything is a lot less tight.
That is fine in some ways.
But when your kids have been watching YouTube for 10 hours straight but still interrupting you every 10 minutes, things might feel a little bit crazy-making.
Best to avoid that, if possible.
Think through the week after Christmas and you might just feel festive and merry rather than harried.
And I want that for everyone listening to this.
In the meantime, this is Laura.
Thanks for listening.
And here's to making the most of our time.
Thanks for listening to Before Breakfast.
If you've got questions, ideas, or feedback, you can reach me at Laura at LauraVanderkam.com.
Before Breakfast is a production of iHeart Media.
For more podcasts from iHeart Media, please visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Hey everybody, it's Chuck and Josh from the Stuff You Should Know podcast, and it's that time of year again when we knuckle down to do our annual holiday episodes.
We collected our best past classic holiday episodes and compiled them into a 12 Days of Christmas Toys playlist that the whole family can enjoy.
That's right.
Maybe you missed it the first time we detailed the history of Beanie Babies, Monopoly or Yo-Yos, and a whole lot more.
So listen to the 12 Days of Christmas Toys playlist on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.
Have you ever listened to those true crime shows and found yourself with more questions than answers?
Who catfishes a city?
Is it even safe to snort human remains?
Is that the plot of Footloose?
I'm comedian Rory Scovel and I'm here to tell you Josh Dean and I have a new podcast that celebrates the amazing creativity of the world's dumbest criminals.
It's called Crimeless, a true crime comedy podcast.
Listen on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
This is an I Heart Podcast.
Guaranteed human.
