Shownotes
Cotton-headed ninny muggins, it’s time to get festive! 🎄 In this episode, I am talking about what it means to show up to the holidays with full-on Buddy the Elf energy—sparkles, syrup, snow angels, and all. From turning ordinary days into magical moments to spreading cheer louder than a caroler on a sugar high, I’ll explore how to sprinkle extra joy into every corner of the season. Warning: side effects may include uncontrollable smiling, spontaneous hot cocoa breaks, and an urge to hug random Santas.
For All To Hear:
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Transcripts
Conversations with Kate is like a conversation with your friend, hairstylist or therapist, where we will talk about music, life stories and everything in between with interviews and guests sprinkled in. As an LCC student, it's an honor and I love bringing a fresh perspective to the podcast menu on LCC Connect. I am your host, Kate.Let's get into this episode.
Cotton headed ninny Muggins. It's time to get festive. What did that make you think of? If you were thinking Buddy the Elf, you're right.
This episode is all about bringing out your inner Buddy the Elf. Welcome back to Conversations with Kate.
I am your hostess, and today we're gonna be going through the sparkles, the syrup, the snow angels, and everything that will help you bring back and bring to light your inner Buddy the El.
Whether you're already knee deep in tinsel or still trying to find your holiday spirit, this is the episode that is your permission slip to turn up the joy, drop the perfection, and show up like Buddy, unapologetically festive and full of magic. Because, let's be honest, the world can feel a little heavy at times. We need joy.
We need that big, silly, contagious kind of happiness that everyone makes everyone feel like. It's okay to smile. It's okay to laugh too loud. It's okay to sing.
So grab your hot cocoa, peppermint mocha, hot coffee, maybe a candy cane or two, and let's talk about how to unleash your inner Buddy the Elf. What Buddy the Elf Energy Really Means so what does it actually mean to have Buddy the Elf energy?
It's not just about yellow tights and guzzling maple syrup. But if that's your thing, more power to you. Buddy energy is about leading with joy.
It's about seeing magic in the mundane, like the lights on a coffee shop window or the sound of wrapping paper crinkling, which is one of my favorite parts of Christmas. I don't know about you, but rapping is one of my favorites. It's about believing in small gestures. A smile, a compliment, a cup of hot cocoa.
That holiday drink that you like. Whether it's coffee, cocoa, or tea, we tone ourselves down so we don't seem too much. But guess what? Buddy is too much in the best possible way.
And the world needs that energy. So here's your first challenge this week. Notice one small magical thing in your everyday routine.
Maybe it's how your morning coffee smells or the way the sunlight hits your window. Just pause, notice it, and smile. That's Buddy Energy. Turning ordinary Moments into holiday magic. Buddy doesn't wait for Christmas Eve. Neither do I.
He creates Christmas magic every single day of the year. So let's talk about how you can do the same thing even without needing a North Pole zip code. Start small. Make your mornings cozier.
Add cinnamon to your coffee. Do this every single day myself. Light a candle that smells like sugar cookies.
Or like mine, I have a perfect Christmas smell, which is winter frosted cranberry and fresh balsam from Bath and Body Works. Or playing your favorite holiday playlist while you get ready for the day. You can even turn errands into cute little adventures.
Call your grocery store, trip a reindeer snack run, or wear a Santa hat while you shop. I do this regularly, actually. And my personal favorite, Give Buddy level compliments. Tell someone you have the best smile I've ever seen.
You smell like cinnamon and joy. It's silly, it's unexpected, and it instantly lightens the mood. No matter what, every single time. Someone will always smile when you do that.
When we infuse ordinary moments with just a smidge of fun, it changes everything. You start to see the joy that doesn't need a special occasion. You can make it happen anytime, anywhere and with anyone. The power of spreading cheer.
Buddy said it best. The best way to spread Christmas cheer is singing very loud for all to hear. Now, you don't have to do that, even though I do.
And my daughter definitely rolls her eyes at me regularly. And I mean, this happens all year long, not just during my Buddy the Elf months.
And yes, months, because in my house, my Buddy the Elf comes out full fledged on Black Friday. We put up the Christmas tree decorations and we make sugar cookies. So yeah, she kind of rolls those pretty little peepers at me. So again, sing.
Watch a video. We always watch actually elf. That's our first thing. And we, we usually have cookies. We usually have Christmas themed snacks.
That's another way that you can spread cheer. Joy is contagious. Like literally. And that is one of the reasons why I am so peppy every day and even more so during the holidays.
Because happiness and joy is contagious. You can walk into a room and have a smile on your face. When you smile or laugh, your brain releases dopamine and serotonin.
And the people around you get a hit of those feel good chemicals too. Because science behind it, we do have an electrical field that beams out from us.
So if you're doing those things, it's gonna get passed along to people that are within that radius of you. So when you choose joy you're not just helping yourself. You're actually helping and uplifting everybody around you.
Some easy ways to spread cheer that I would recommend that you do. Send a random text of appreciation. Drop off a coffee for a friend or a family member, or any loved one. Compliment a stranger.
I do this all the time, not just during the holidays. Volunteer for a cause that matters to you.
And that can be as simple as volunteering at your children's school, volunteering at a food bank, whatever your favorite cause is. Spreading cheer doesn't mean ignoring hard feelings or pretending life is perfect. It means choosing light.
Anyway, being kind even when you're tired and hopeful, even when life is messy. And yes, that is literally one of my flagship things in life. When people see the demeanor that I have, that's it right there.
It's being kind, even when you're tired and hopeful, even when things are messy. That's where the real magic of Buddy Energy comes from. It's grounded in joy. It's kindness with a little bit of sparkle.
Now I'm gonna give you permission to play. In bringing out your inner Buddy the Elf, Buddy reminds us that play isn't childish. It's actually sacred. And I agree.
Like, I completely agree with that. So I want to ask you, when was the last time you did something purely for fun? No goal, no productivity, just fun. As adults, we forget how to play.
We think we're supposed to be serious all the time, unfortunately. And joy starts to feel like a luxury. But joy is not a luxury. It's fuel. So let's take a note from Buddy. Make snow angels.
Bake cookies, even if you burn them. Watch Elf while you're eating syrup covered spaghetti if you dare. I mean, you don't have to if that's not your thing.
Or just do something silly that makes you giggle. Dance in your kitchen. Build a pillow fort, Wear reindeer ears to the store. The more we play, the more we reconnect with our inner child.
To creativity and to connection and genuine happiness.
Some of the things that my daughter and I do to invite in the Buddy the Elf energy like I talked about, if you know me, you know me well, and this is no surprise. But if you don't know me, as soon as September 1st hits in the year, my inner Buddy the Elf steps out and of the closet.
And I mean that BY like, okay, September 1st is when we put out the fall decorations. So out come all of the fall decorations around the house.
The plugins from Bath and Body Works, Leaves and Autumn get plugged into the house and you know, the Buddy the Elf is like, just got the little pinky toe out at that point. And then comes October 1st, Buddy the Elf kind of creeps out a little bit more. And I put out the Halloween decorations and add those in.
And then November 1st we put away all the Halloween decorations and we bring out Thanksgiving things to add to the already fall decorations that are out there.
There's pumpkins on the front porch, which that's another thing that my daughter and I do to make the holidays special and to bring that Buddy the Elf element to our fall. Every year we go to Young's Orchard for their frozen slushies and their cinnamon donuts and then we go to Pregitzer's to get our pumpkins.
And I'm just going to share a little quick story with you. This year for the first time, we went on a Saturday afternoon after I got out of work and boy, oh boy, it was busy.
So FYI, if you're going to go and do pumpkins and cider on a Saturday afternoon, be prepared for it to be busy. It was still just as fun. We love it. It's tradition. We've been doing it since she was very little. And I did happen to get quite a few pumpkins.
I picked out ginormous one and Autumn picked out a few of the other sized ones. And we do have a little collection on our front porch. And then of course comes Thanksgiving, it's always a big deal no matter what.
Even if it's just me and Autumn at the house, we always go to her grandparents house. Wonderful fact about that, I don't have to cook. I just have to show up with a smile. And my buddy the Elf energy and Tupperware.
And then of course, that very next day comes. Dun dun, my buddy the Elf energy gets to break out in full force.
And we clean up all the fall decorations, put them away for the rest of the year and put up the tree, put up all the lights and plug in all of the smells. Like I said before, my perfect, perfect Christmas smell wise is from Bath and Body Works.
And if you want to try it, that's cool, please, by all means, give it a go. Go in there and smell it first. It's the winter frosted cranberry and fresh balsam. All three of those scents together.
Whether it's plugins or candles or room sprays, it's the perfect Christmas smell. And again, we also make sugar cookies every single year. And then it just progresses throughout the season.
I have cute little outfits to wear during the holiday season. T shirts, socks. I actually have a Buddy the Elf outfit, which is. It's just a T shirt with Buddy the Elf on it and socks with Buddy the Elf on it.
And then I usually wear my Santa hat to work. Fast forward to the week of Christmas, and this is really where the inner Buddy the Elf energy comes out.
And at work at my salon, we always do kind of like a spirit week, like you do in high school, for a spirit week of homecoming. And we have a theme for each day of the week leading up to Christmas, where it's like, wear silly hats or wear Christmas PJs, that type of thing.
And then we have our Friendsmas where we have a hot cocoa bar, we have deals on services, deals on gift cards, deals on products. And we also have. And by we, I mean my salon owner, Katie. She is chef's kiss about putting Tencel in for people.
So if you would like to come and see me in all of my Buddy the Elf energy glory, please keep an eye on Addispa, Leslie's Facebook page around December, and we will put up our information about our friends. Ms. Because it is joyful and wonderful and we love to see everybody's smiley faces out there. And we're gonna go ahead and wrap everything up.
And I have a little Buddy the Elf challenge for you. All right, my festive friends, here's your holiday homework. This week, do one thing that makes you smile uncontrollably. It doesn't have to be big.
Just something that feels silly, warm, joyful, something that your inner child would totally approve of. Remember, you don't need permission to be joyful or happy or silly. You don't need to earn for fun or earn your fun.
You just have to show up with heart. Buddy didn't wait for the moment to be perfect. He just brought that magic out and made the moment magical.
So this season, add a little bit more sparkle, a little bit more syrup. If that's your thing, you don't have to. More silliness. Definitely do that. Please be the reason someone smiles today.
And if anyone calls you too much, just tell them. You'Re spreading Christmas cheer the only way that you know how. The Buddy the Elf way. Until next time, stay sparkly, stay kind.
And remember, the best way to spread Christmas cheer is singing loud for all to hear.
Thanks for listening to this episode of Conversations with Kate. You can find more information on LCC Connect's site as well as all social platforms, Facebook, Instagram, yes, TikTok as well. Big love.
