Have you ever thought about what truly matters to you during the holiday season? Sometimes as adults, we end up with default holidays instead of our ideal holidays, especially at Christmas! For example, maybe your Christmas celebrations are full of traditions that you grew up with, or traditions that you see others doing, but they don’t really bring you enjoyment. 

On this podcast, we want to create space that helps you create a clear vision of what it would look like to have the kind of holiday that you look forward to celebrating. The first step in crafting this vision, and making it a reality, is to take our Holiday Profile Quiz.

This quiz will clearly identify what matters most to you when it comes to the holidays…and what matters the least! Then you will be able to start planning your ideal holiday. It’s never too early to start your holiday preparation!

Episode Highlights:

[01:00] - Thinking about different Christmas traditions

[02:54] - How to figure out your full holiday profile

[06:51] - Important conversations to have with your loved ones to ensure the holidays are enjoyable for everyone

[09:23] - Our “Get A Headstart Tip” for adding to your wallet now to help with holiday spending later

[11:59] - What’s on our to-do list this week

Links & Resources:

• Gramercy Rolling Cart
• Game: Cover Your Assets
• Follow on Instagram @theholidayheadstart 
• Leave us a review on Apple Podcasts! 

Show Notes: https://www.secondstorywindow.net/hh-podcast/plan-your-ideal-holiday/

Heidi 0:04

Welcome to the Holiday Headstart Podcast where we get intentional about keeping overwhelmed to the curb and bringing the joy back to your holidays, and every day. I'm Heidi.

Emily 0:15

And I'm Emily. We're two sisters and former elementary school teachers who've taken the simple strategies and practical tips we mastered in the classroom and put them to work in our personal lives.

Heidi 0:27

And we're here to help you do the same. Join us each week as we share how, with a little planning and a little prep, you can ensure that the days that make life special don't become the days that make you stressed.

Emily 0:39

You can check out the show notes at the holidayheadstart.com. Ready to get a head start on your holidays? Let's go.

Emily 0:50

Hey there, friends. Welcome back to the Holiday Headstart Podcast. Today, we're talking about our new holiday profile quiz and sharing a headstart tip for saving money.

Heidi 1:02

Now this may come as a surprise, but people like Christmas. Google didn't give me a clear response, but something like 85% to 93% of Americans celebrate Christmas. But even though we are enjoying the same holiday, there is a huge range in what celebrating Christmas means.

Emily 1:23

If you've taught elementary school, you know that teachers love to do their holidays around the world unit in December.

Heidi 1:29

It was my favorite.

Emily 1:31

The kids color wooden shoes for Christmas in the Netherlands, and we talk about poinsettias for Christmas in Mexico. But those broad cultural traditions are just the tip of the celebration iceberg. Forget about traveling across the globe. Think about your closest two neighbors and how different their holidays are from yours.

Heidi 1:50

Right? Maybe one of your neighbors goes all out with a Griswold style yard display, and maybe your other neighbor doesn't even have a tree.

Emily 1:58

Or maybe one neighbor gets together with their family on Christmas Eve, and everyone pitches in to make tamales, and maybe your other neighbor orders Pizza Hut on Christmas Eve while they watch Home Alone.

Heidi 2:08

They should probably get Little Nero's, though, if they really want to be authentic to Home Alone.

Emily 2:08

They should watch out for any statues they have in front of their houses, though.

Heidi 2:15

But despite what social media may lead us to think, no one way of celebrating is better or more valid than another way. There's only what Christmas feels like to you.

Emily 2:28

Growing up, we had a neighbor family whose tradition was that the kids all slept in the basement family room on Christmas Eve and stayed up late watching Groundhog Day, of course. Now that has not been a part of my personal holiday journey, but I love that so much for them. Anytime I see that Groundhog Day is playing on TV, I immediately think of all seven of those kids in the basement and smile.

Heidi 2:54

So how do you know what feels like Christmas to you? We could crowdsource a massive list of ideas, and then you could check off all of your favorites, but that might take a while.

Emily 3:06

Just a little while, or we could identify some filters to guide us in the right direction. Enter the Holiday Headstart Christmas Profiles Quiz.

Heidi 3:19

I need to work on my air horn. It's very subpar.

Emily 3:23

Heidi, tell us, what is this quiz and why is it so fabulous?

Heidi 3:28

Well, let me tell you everything. We set out to answer the question, I want a holiday that's full of blank, and we came up with six responses that apply to most of our celebrations. Those are connection, so I want a holiday that's full of connection, tradition, experiences, magic, abundance and spirituality. We call them our holiday touch points because they are how we connect with the holiday experience.

Emily 3:58

Most people probably wouldn't have trouble choosing one of the touch points that resonates with them. I want a holiday that's full of tradition, or I want a holiday that's full of abundance.

Heidi 4:08

Right. And because there is likely a lot of overlap, plenty of people will want a holiday that is full of tradition and abundance. We set up a quiz to give you your full holiday profile. That means you can see how you rank with each of those six touch points.

Emily 4:26

The quiz has 60 questions, but they are all yes or no responses, so you can take it in just a few minutes. I've tested it. I can vouch for this.

Heidi 4:35

And all of the questions are pretty straightforward. For example, do you make an effort to send Christmas cards, yes or no? And, is it important to you that there are piles of presents on Christmas morning? Yes or no.

Emily 4:48

I love a personality quiz, but is this actually useful, Heidi?

Heidi 4:52

Well, the studies are still being run, but personally, I think so. The main use of this quiz is to help you identify what matters most to you about celebrating the holidays, and you can determine this in a couple of ways. First, you can see if your results match up with your feelings about Christmas. For example, if you score an eight out of 10 in tradition, you can ask yourself, Does this feel true for me? And if the answer is yes, then you know that Christmas traditions are an important part of your ideal celebration, so continue doing them, or maybe add some more of them.

Emily 5:32

But if the answer is no, this does not feel true for me, then that's a sign you need to change something. If you score an eight in tradition, because your Christmas plans include making great grandma's homemade caramels every year and hanging the stocking you had when you were two, but none of those things really matter to you, that's a sign you need fewer traditions in your holiday.

Heidi 5:53

I think that as adults, we often end up with default holidays instead of ideal holidays, and this is especially true at Christmas. We do things that we grew up doing, or we do things that we have seen other people doing.

Emily 6:10

Who is really sitting down to think about what they want for their holidays? Regular life is busy enough, we rarely stop to consider if what's happening is really what we want to be happening.

Heidi 6:20

Until now. That is our goal with the Holiday Headstart. We want to create a space that supports you in crafting a clear vision of what matters to you about celebrating the holidays and share resources that enable you to make that vision a reality.

Emily 6:38

And the place to start is by taking the fun little quiz. Identifying what matters most to your enjoyment of the holidays and what matters least is a great guide for helping you create the kind of holiday that you look forward to celebrating.

Heidi 6:52

But this can also help you create a holiday that your loved ones enjoy. One thing that I think personality quizzes can do is to give us a shared vocabulary. Maybe your husband's insistence on taking the kids to do a Santa breakfast in December drives you nuts, but you can't really explain why. With the data from the quiz, though, you have a way to name your frustration. Maybe you've only scored a two out of 10 for wanting a holiday full of magic. So giving up one of your rare Saturday mornings in December to go stand in line at this Christmas breakfast does not feel magical to you. It feels like a waste of time and energy.

Emily 7:32

Once you understand this, you could use this information to talk to your husband about switching up the Santa plans, or you could use it to help you reframe the situation. You recognize that holiday magic isn't a priority for you, but you can see that your husband has a different profile, so you can go along to help make his holiday special.

Heidi 7:49

And if he takes the quiz, it really gives the two of you a great tool to compare where your profiles are similar and where they diverge, and that gives you an opportunity to have some important conversations. What things are we willing to do to enrich the other person's holiday experience? What things need to be tweaked so that everyone can enjoy them and not just endure them?

Emily 8:13

And these are such important conversations, and they're not just limited to your romantic partners. Knowing the holiday profile of anyone you celebrate with is a valuable tool. It enables you to make the right kinds of plans and enhances the patience you need when someone else's holiday style doesn't quite align with yours.

Heidi 8:32

We are still months away from the holiday season, phew, but we definitely recommend you take the quiz now. That's because it is much easier to have big conversations about Christmas before you are in the thick of holiday stress. If you wait until December to let the people you love know that you are now instituting a night of caroling as a way to connect with your neighbors, because connection is important to you, there's going to be some pushback.

Heidi 9:01

But changes will be received much more easily if you can address them now while the pressure is off. So take that first step in identifying what matters to your enjoyment of Christmas. You can find a link to our holiday profile quiz in the show notes.

Emily 9:17

And I can't wait to hear what everybody's profile is and if it matches with what they expect it to be.

Emily 9:23

Now it's time for a get a head start. Tip. Each week we leave you with a small actionable tip to help you get a head start on your holiday planning. This week's get a head start tip is buy gift cards each month. Tell us more about this, Heidi.

Heidi 9:38

Well, obviously one of the big headaches of Christmas is the expense, and here at the Holiday Headstart, we are very pro save all year long, but we are also maybe not the best at remembering to do that. Or maybe Emily's great at this, and I'm just speaking for me.

Emily 9:55

No, no, you are correct.

Heidi 9:57

But one way I combat this is to buy gift cards each month. I know that I'm going to do a bunch of holiday shopping at Target and Amazon, so each month, I try to buy myself a gift card from those stores. That way, when it's time to start my Christmas shopping, I have already got a little boost in my wallet.

The nice thing about limiting your gift cards to places you regularly shop is that even if you don't spend the money on gifts, you know you'll be shopping there eventually, so it's not going to waste.

Yeah, I am anticipating that there will come a day when Amazon and target are fighting over my last dollar. So it is not much of a risk to buy gift cards to those places for future spending. And for me, it works to buy a set amount of gift cards once a month. But another way to do this is to just add a $5 a $10 gift card to your cart every time you check out. That way, you're not losing a big chunk of money all at once, but it will add up in the end.

If you do this, you need a secure space to store these, whether they're digital codes or physical cards, make sure you put them somewhere safe and remember exactly where that place is. Send yourself an email or a reminder or whatever you need. So when December rolls around, you're not digging through your desk for the envelope you could have sworn was in there. Oh my gosh, where are the gift cards??

That would quickly turn getting ahead into falling behind? So pick a safe place. I keep mine in a Christmas themed zipper pencil case from Amazon, of course, that I store with my T shirts. And I don't know why I ended up with my T shirts, but that is where it is, and I don't think I could change at this point and not forget where I moved it to.

Well, at least you know where it is for sure. So this week, get a head start on your holiday shopping by buying gift cards to stores you regularly shop at and store them in a secure location you won't forget about. And if you could please refrain from robbing Heidi's t shirt drawer, we'd really appreciate it.

Yes, we would.

As a way to keep ourselves accountable and give you some ideas of what you can do in advance for your own celebrations, we are sharing what we're working on this week. Heidi, what's on your to do list?

Well, I am still working on organizing my closet, but I also just reorganized my wrapping cart. I bought a huge pack of tissue paper, like, it was way bigger than I expected. So I did need to organize it, and I got some non holiday themed gift tags I could tie into gift bags. And I got everything sorted and stored and tucked everything away on my little rolly cart, so I feel like I've got a gold star pin right on my shirt today.

We both use the Gramercy rolling cart from Michael's, and it's pretty handy for storing wrapping supplies. We'll put a link to that in our show notes, but if you get one, definitely wait for a deal and look for a coupon that can be combined with a sale price to get the best bargain.

It really has been a handy little cart, and we, I think you had talked about getting one for regular gift wrap and one for specifically Christmas.

I know I'm still on the fence about it. For right now, since I had my storage closet reorganized, I have just a bin for the non Christmas supplies, because I don't get super fancy with my wrapping for non Christmas events. So I just have, like, several different sizes of different brown bags in there. I have a roll of brown paper and, like, baker's twine in there, and then we, like, decorate it with markers or whatever. That's sort of how we're keeping it simple for now.

If I decide I want to have a rainbow selection of tissue paper like you, I'm going to need a second card, I think, because I don't want to take all the Christmas stuff out. Have another bin I can store it in. I think I would just rather have two carts and have the Christmas one put away till December, and the other one more accessible. But for now, I've got the bin. We'll decide if I need to expand in the future.

Oh yeah, stay tuned, everybody. This could be a big twist.

This is the kind of stuff you can expect on this podcast.

Well, Emily, what are you working on this week?

I'm in birthday mode around here. Yes, my oldest child and I am not as far in advance as I would like to be with the birthday prep, but I've been doing some shopping for my soon to be 14 year old. Ordered some cute candles for the cake, some tall, trendy ones, not the cheapo ones I normally do, and she's getting to that hard to buy for age. So yeah, I'm definitely scraping the bottom of the idea barrel for gifts for her, especially because she doesn't want a lot of the typical stuff that you see on those gift lists on Instagram.

Yes, that, she's tricky to buy for.

Especially things that she doesn't already have because she has had the same interest for a long time. So it's like, how many sets of cool, special markers can I give this child who loves art? She's, she's got, she's got a lot of markers.

She could have a marker store at this point.

Yes.

It's nice that her birthday and Christmas have several months between them, so you're not having to come up with ideas so back to back. You're gonna be in real trouble with your youngest though, you've only got like, a month.

It kills me every year, I'm like, I used up all my ideas for her birthday. What am I gonna do for Christmas? It's so hard. And then in between, she feels like, oh, when? When is it my birthday? It's so far away. So all her gift giving is kind of back to back, which is a bummer.

That is rough. Well, it's nice that you give her a half birthday in May, at least.

We will, for sure, talk about half birthdays soon. That's one of my favorite traditions.

To wrap up the show, we are sharing our nice list. Emily, what has made it on your nice list this week?

Well, we are game lovers at my house.

Yes, you are.

And our favorite games come from Grandpa Beck. We love them all, but our most favorite game is the game Cover Your Assets. The goal is to gather as many assets as you can in this quick, moving card game. The rules are easy to teach, and my youngest has been able to play it since she was five or six, which is a huge win for me. In fact, she's kind of ruthless, and sometimes she beats us all soundly.

Yeah, she'll, she'll come for you.

Yeah, and if she's not winning, then she's like, uh, I'm done. She doesn't even want to count it up at the end. She's like, I didn't win, and leaves the table.

Yeah, all of your kids are good at that. I think I've only won that game once.

Yeah, and I have a rule in my family that I don't let kids win. And there was a time I, for sure, let kids win, and I do in certain more tactical games, give a little bit of grace and hints to my youngest. But in general, I have a rule of, no, we played a win in this household, and I'm not going to let you win just because you're little and you have puppy dog eyes.

What's on your nice list, Heidi?

Well, it's not card games, but on my nice list is grocery delivery. It is not something I need often, but when I do, gosh, it's a gift. I am so grateful for stores that offer it, and extra grateful for the people willing to fill the order and drive it over to my house, it can be such a lifesaver.

Oh, here, here.

That is it for today's episode. Take the holiday profile quiz and remember to buy those gift cards now for your December spending. Thank you so much for joining us, and we hope to see you here next week.

Thanks for tuning in today. Use this week to get a head start on planning for what's ahead. And remember, don't get it perfect. Get it going.

Take our free quiz to help you identify your holiday profile so you can plan the Christmas celebrations that are perfect for you. You can take the quiz at holidayheadstart.com/quiz.

We'll see you here next week!