Comments on: The 12 days of Christmas are over…here’s how I did on the 2024 holiday fun list https://lauravanderkam.com/2025/01/the-12-days-of-christmas-are-over-heres-how-i-did-on-the-2024-holiday-fun-list/ Writer, Author, Speaker Sun, 12 Jan 2025 17:31:45 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.7.2 By: Laura Vanderkam https://lauravanderkam.com/2025/01/the-12-days-of-christmas-are-over-heres-how-i-did-on-the-2024-holiday-fun-list/#comment-582772 Sun, 12 Jan 2025 17:31:45 +0000 https://lauravanderkam.com/?p=19872#comment-582772 In reply to BethC..

@BethC – I definitely need to put the Christmas markets on my list! So glad your holiday went well, and yes, good to recognize what is important given how terrible the start of this year has been for so many.

]]> By: BethC. https://lauravanderkam.com/2025/01/the-12-days-of-christmas-are-over-heres-how-i-did-on-the-2024-holiday-fun-list/#comment-581520 Sat, 11 Jan 2025 03:40:00 +0000 https://lauravanderkam.com/?p=19872#comment-581520 Thank you for helping so many of us be more intentional about each season. In early December, we headed to the Christmas markets in Frankfurt, Strasbourg, and Colmar, as well as to several smaller but picture perfect Alsatian towns. They were magical, although the food and merchandise selections got a little repetitive after a while. I’m still trying to work off the 3 pounds that the Christmas markets and post-market cookie baking wrought. We had shopped for gifts, gotten cards out, decorated and got our tree cut out and festooned before we left for Europe. This made things easier when we got home. After we got back, I got to wander around in a few stores (such as Trader Joe’s) which had themed merchandise. I dedicated an entire peaceful afternoon to a marathon Christmas magazine reading marathon (with copious cups of tea and Christmas cookies mixed in). My 3 year old grandson and I baked cookies together, and the big grin on his face as he dropped chocolate chips into the dough was priceless. His father (my son) accused me of putting “demon eyes” on the gingerbread men when I used Craisins, which added a bit of bantering and levity to the proceedings. My husband and I used the Christmas Prism app to drive around with hot chocolate one night and view some of the decked out houses in our area (complete with light shows set to music). Someone in the Philadelphia area created the app several years ago, and it maps out where some of the houses are located. We also had good times with family and friends-and in light of the way this year started in New Orleans and LA, I am grateful for that opportunity most of all.

]]> By: Laura Vanderkam https://lauravanderkam.com/2025/01/the-12-days-of-christmas-are-over-heres-how-i-did-on-the-2024-holiday-fun-list/#comment-581044 Fri, 10 Jan 2025 15:53:11 +0000 https://lauravanderkam.com/?p=19872#comment-581044 In reply to Jen.

@Jen – we don’t deconstruct! We just store them intact and then pull them out the next Christmas. I can’t imagine how much work that would be to rebuild 8 sets or something like that!

]]> By: Jen https://lauravanderkam.com/2025/01/the-12-days-of-christmas-are-over-heres-how-i-did-on-the-2024-holiday-fun-list/#comment-580170 Thu, 09 Jan 2025 21:30:55 +0000 https://lauravanderkam.com/?p=19872#comment-580170 We have the same Lego set and now have a whole holiday Lego village. My BIL and SIL have been sending our kids a Christmas Lego set for the last 5 years and it has become a tradition in and of itself to re-build and set out the Lego village. They are still out and I am looking at them at the moment and trying to decide if we should package them up mostly whole so we don’t have to re-build them all come December. We’ll likely have the new one to build and it was a job this season because we bag up each set each in their own large zipper bag but it’s not the same as the sub-division of the set when its new. Also, my husband and i both were sick at the end of November so we felt like we were late getting all the holiday stuff going. We shall see. it’s going to get put away this weekend.

I enjoy your reflection on the holiday season and being intentional about fun since it’s so easy for it to pass feeling like all obligation. There is still a lot of fun to be had and enjoyment of getting to be with family and friends!

]]> By: Laura Vanderkam https://lauravanderkam.com/2025/01/the-12-days-of-christmas-are-over-heres-how-i-did-on-the-2024-holiday-fun-list/#comment-579948 Thu, 09 Jan 2025 17:56:59 +0000 https://lauravanderkam.com/?p=19872#comment-579948 In reply to Katherine B.

@Katherine – I’m aware of it being my high school senior’s last full season here – I assume he will be home for Christmas next winter and may indeed have a longer break but it’s hard to know what it will be. He mentioned an idea for spring break 2026 and I reminded him that I had no idea if his spring break would be ours next time!

]]> By: Laura Vanderkam https://lauravanderkam.com/2025/01/the-12-days-of-christmas-are-over-heres-how-i-did-on-the-2024-holiday-fun-list/#comment-579945 Thu, 09 Jan 2025 17:55:22 +0000 https://lauravanderkam.com/?p=19872#comment-579945 In reply to Holly.

@Holly – nice work on pivoting. The winter market sounds fun – I definitely want to visit a good one some year!

]]> By: Holly https://lauravanderkam.com/2025/01/the-12-days-of-christmas-are-over-heres-how-i-did-on-the-2024-holiday-fun-list/#comment-578996 Wed, 08 Jan 2025 22:43:11 +0000 https://lauravanderkam.com/?p=19872#comment-578996 A Sunday afternoon choral concert with friends, a Black Friday Holiday Stroll and Christmas tree lighting in a nearby village on my list did not happen. Other stuff that didn’t happen include a getaway for our anniversary (we both had colds) and our planned trip to see my husband’s son and family out of town. Instead, they came into town on Jan 3 to drive up to the Jan 5 Packer game. So instead of a 6-day trip, I had 6 houseguests for what turned into almost 4 days. All good, all fine.

What did happen: a very local to us Sunday afternoon Winter Market with vendors, music, etc., was more fun than I’d anticipated
our condo association Christmas dinner out was also good fun
a couple of dinners out with friends turned into us entertaining here twice, both times doing carry-in catering

I’d planned to take my oldest kid and his family (includes a 7-, 6- and 3-year-old) to an afternoon at a conservatory with a Desert Dome, Tropical Dome and Show Dome. The latter was a wonderland of holiday exhibits and flowers. We’d had to reschedule from the 14th to the 22nd because of a sick kiddo which allowed me to rearrange things to have my Christmas Eve birthday celebrated that day as well, with daughter and family joining all the rest of us at a restaurant after we were done with the conservatory.

Then church on Christmas Eve, and all the local family came here for Christmas brunch. It worked, but I’m always looking to tweak, expand and change as people evolve (and we all get older!)

]]> By: Katherine B https://lauravanderkam.com/2025/01/the-12-days-of-christmas-are-over-heres-how-i-did-on-the-2024-holiday-fun-list/#comment-578810 Wed, 08 Jan 2025 18:21:27 +0000 https://lauravanderkam.com/?p=19872#comment-578810 I didn’t make a list this year but many things happened even so, not all as I envisaged though. “The Nutcracker” at our local theatre, lovely, but my 85 year old mum forgot her inhaler so we had to move at the interval and I watched the second half from the front row which is an interesting way to see ballet but not the best. Local National Trust property decorated for Christmas (18th century country house), lovely, but my companion, my 20 year old daughter, was stressed over her pending Masters application so it was a bit of a rush. “Polar Express” at our local cinema, with same daughter, who hadn’t seen the film since she was a child, was stressed out by the noisy and restless small kids there, one of whom kicked her repeatedly from the next seat, (surely there was far too much peril in the film for 4 year olds?) so we left at the interval! Carol service at local church with mum and dad, lovely, but daughter left at home too stressed out to come with me as planned by trying to put the lights on the Christmas tree and an allergic reaction! Older daughter, now working in a full time job so only able to come home on 23rd in the end not making it until Christmas Eve because all trains cancelled out of Sheffield on the evening of the 23rd. Christmas light show at Belton House on Boxing Day, a mile trail through the grounds and up to the lake – amazing and thanks to my husband as we braved an hour’s drive each way in fog on country roads . Family get together for 15 of us 3+ hours from home on 28th, made it happen despite my husband being ill – 20 year old drove both ways in one day, including the infamous M25. I was very aware, as was the 20 year old, that she graduates from university in the summer and if she isn’t doing a Masters from the autumn but working in a job, this would have been her last full Christmas at home and our last as a family – shorter visits only from then on. How weird is that?

]]> By: Laura Vanderkam https://lauravanderkam.com/2025/01/the-12-days-of-christmas-are-over-heres-how-i-did-on-the-2024-holiday-fun-list/#comment-578782 Wed, 08 Jan 2025 17:33:13 +0000 https://lauravanderkam.com/?p=19872#comment-578782 In reply to Stephanie.

@Stephanie – ha! I try to be pragmatic when I can, I guess.

]]> By: Stephanie https://lauravanderkam.com/2025/01/the-12-days-of-christmas-are-over-heres-how-i-did-on-the-2024-holiday-fun-list/#comment-578741 Wed, 08 Jan 2025 16:34:55 +0000 https://lauravanderkam.com/?p=19872#comment-578741 I read your blog in hopes that your pragmatism will rub off on me. Only time will tell!

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