Untitled - December 10, 2025
00:00:00 Speaker: Christmas time is here and I love the holidays. Hi, it's Denise and thanks for joining us on this episode of the Working Moms Redefined podcast. Christmas magic has been something that I remember being in my heart for a very long time. How totally my mom and I know it. Whether it was the decorations that she created, the cookies that she was baking, the songs in the background, my mom made Christmas. I think a lot of us can relate to that. And then the weight that sometimes comes with that. I want our kids to experience the magic that I got to growing up, and yet it's not very fair of me, and I know this to be able to try and assume that I know how they are feeling, and then try to raise the bar on that expectation to reach it and exceed it. Dare I say, when really, it's the simple things around the holiday season that totally make Christmas magic stand out more so than any. And because I am a list gal, I put together an ultimate Christmas checklist. And I oftentimes encourage all of my coaching clients that are working moms to do this, because I want you on December thirty first to be able to look back on Christmas break or Christmas as a whole and know that you did enough. Know that you did what you said you were going to do, and you did what the kids wanted to do. How do you do this? We have to track it. Now, there are some good friends of mine that are like, nah, I just know I'm going to do it. Okay, great. We are different and that's okay. For me, I need to be able to look at my cell phone note and know that I am checking off those little bubbles. To say that my Christmas plans of twenty twenty five have been achieved. Is that the Enneagram three in me? Very well. Could be. But for me, if you're watching on YouTube, you can see the very few amount of checked boxes. I want to know that I provided for them the traditions that I wanted to create with Jeremy for our kids. It's a lot to put pen to paper sometimes. So I did it for you. So in our show notes, you can download our Ultimate Checklist for the Working Mom Christmas Edition. You can follow us on Instagram and Facebook, and you can just send us a DM and it will automatically send it to you. Good old technology. But I want to say, first of all that this is a checklist for for like not necessarily even accountability, but as a guide you don't have to do everything on the list. You get to choose what you want to do. You have enough pressure on you around the holiday. I would really love to remove that comparison trap that social media makes it so easy to be able to get in. Pinterest decor, decorations, all of that stuff. Presence over perfection is what matters. And with that thought in mind, this list are the things that focus on the presence. And I hope that it is imperfect because each of our stories are different, and the relationship that we have with our kids are very different. So this is a guide, a menu, if you will. You could check, you could pick and create your own, but nonetheless, it's a guide for you to have a place to start so that you don't have to gather them all up. You can print it off. It's pretty, but it's all about traditions. Creating connection. Some things on this list that we swear by. Simple things which I would dare say that you're going to do these anyway. As a mom, you are going to probably encourage your kids to write a letter to Santa. That's why it's on this list is so that then you can say, oh, I did that. I, I provided an experience and a tradition for them. Address and mail. Letters to Santa. If you put them in your mailbox, great. If you drive somewhere and put them in a Santa mailbox, that's super decorated. Wonderful. But I'm not decorating my mailbox. I'm just gonna say no. You drive around and look at Christmas lights and sip hot chocolate. Watch a Christmas movie each week. You decide these little micro moments that, over time, are what create the Christmas magic. Our kids the day after Thanksgiving. Love that day, because we know that we are going to sit in Christmas pajamas pretty much all day. We're gonna watch Christmas movies. We're gonna drink hot chocolate. They get Cool Whip and marshmallows on it that day. Maybe even a candy cane sticking out the side if I'm feeling fancy. But they look forward to it. Did I have to spend any money? An exorbitant amount. No. Maybe I got the fancy hot chocolate packets that day instead of the Swiss Swiss Miss. But either way, it's not about the money, it's about the connection. And I always love asking them ahead of Thanksgiving. Hey, what are some things that you want to make sure that we do this Christmas? They love the giving manger. We are not an elf on the shelf household. We've talked about that. If you're you're wondering, what are you talking about? Denise, go back to a previous episode. We don't need to go down that road, but instead we do the giving manger. And that is where you take pieces of straw after you read this book that explains the manger and what came of it. And when you do a kind act, you put a piece of straw in. I'll tell you what, our kids are the most well-behaved around Christmas, and it has nothing to do with an elf. We also are in this season of life that is temporary. I know that our kids are not going to be home forever around the holidays, and I want to. Remember this feeling for so very long. And so one thing that we do that I have absolutely, thoroughly enjoyed is they get to pick out an ornament each year, and that is what goes on our tree. I used to have a fancy gold ribbon tree that had the most beautiful glass ornaments and sparkles. That is long gone for the past ten years, and I couldn't be more proud because now I look at this tree and there are ten years of Christmas memories that range from Cookie Monster when Hudson was two because he loved that song and we would sing it to him every night before bed, or Sydney, the Moana ornament, because she was in the hospital around the holidays and we watched that movie six times. It's fun, and I wouldn't remember that if we didn't go and select ornaments based on their loves. I'll be sure to post on socials, um, the ones that they pick out this year when we give them ownership in deciding what the magic of Christmas looks like, it gives them confidence and a connection within their family. And my hope is down the road They're going to want to do something like this with their kids. Not the exact same activity, but the concept of letting the kids decide. Plus, it's the same thought process for me with meals. Like, I don't want to be the one to only be making the decisions all of the time, which is the whole concept of this list, because literally you don't have to make any. It's not about perfection, it's about presence. And you are going to be present this Christmas season, something that I absolutely have enjoyed doing. And if you have little ears around, now is the time to pause. Jeremy started your pause. Right. Okay, good. Jeremy started the Santa boots. It has been what my little girl inside of me has always wanted. He takes baby powder with his boots and he dips them in. And then he stomps them in the living room where Santa walks. So he walked to to go get the cookies and you walk to go put the presents at the tree. They love it. We also, and this is from my parents. Santa always leaves a bite of cookie. And Santa, when I was growing up, did not like milk so it was hot chocolate. Santa likes milk in our house this time. A little bit of drink in the mug. I don't know why, but it's so much fun to run out and be like, let's fight over the last piece of stale cookie that's on the plate. It's these little things that sometimes we get too caught up on. Do I have the right Garland? Across the fireplace? Is the stocking placed nicely so that it looks perfect from every angle, when really it's the stuff that we don't give two craps about. And yet those are the things that make the memories acknowledgement of what you already do, and you do so well, and normalizing that you don't have to do it all. This list I cannot wait for you to download. Visit us at Working Moms Redefined dot com. You can download it on there. Or like I said, visit us on Facebook or Instagram or LinkedIn or any of those places, or shoot me a text or an email because I want you to know that you are doing a good enough job this Christmas season and your kids are thriving. Thriving because all of the hard things that you are consistently doing. Merry Christmas! Thank you for listening to the Working Moms Redefined podcast. It is not lost on me that you chose to spend time together. Thank you. Let's connect outside of this space on socials. We'd love for you to follow us on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest. We've got it all to connect with you! If you feel as if someone in your life could be impacted by this message, feel free to share it. That is the biggest compliment as we part ways together. Remember, you can do hard things.
