#holiday-planning

#holiday-planning

Many of the parents felt that their way of doing presents wasn't working. Their children were disappointed, overwhelmed, or both. One mother described it this way: "Everybody opened everything all at once. It was chaos. I had a headache." The second topic was relatives: When they came, how long they stayed, and how many presents they gave. One mother with three small children had tried to control the overwhelm by having everyone come to her house instead of having to travel. That too was chaos.

While traditionally this is a time of year to start a diet or clean up your eating habits, what's really needed is to lean into old favourites: the dishes we grew up on and that were there for us in the past. There's something quietly radical about indulging that nostalgia in January. About choosing familiarity over novelty, pleasure over punishment, comfort over guilt.

Your card for the week is the Two of Pentacles, which represents balance, flexibility, and the need to adapt. It's the perfect card to keep in mind during the holiday season, especially if you feel like you're being pulled in multiple directions. When this card pops up in a tarot reading, it's often a sign that you have two (or more) important things to juggle.

About five years ago, I ran into a problem many people face as they get older: The people I holiday shop for typically just buy everything they want throughout the year. That, of course, left me hanging during the holidays, not knowing what to get anyone and relying on gift cards to allow them to buy the things they love. (The people in my life are notoriously hard to shop for.)

Don't lie to your wife. And absolutely don't ever suggest your children lie to her. Come clean but without being mean. Her parents don't have to suck (or steam too many vegetables) for you to start a family holiday tradition of your own: Christmas at home, just the four of you-why not? It may be too late for this year, I grant you (I do wish you hadn't waited until December to realize you didn't want to spend Christmas away from your own home-or,

The holidays can come with a lot of expectations. Beyond finding the perfect gifts for the people on your list and digging out grandma's secret cookie recipe, there is also pressure to express seasonal joy in a particular way. We're supposed to want a full calendar of holiday parties, big family gatherings, and endless opportunities to mingle. We're expected to stay late, be chatty, participate in group games, and make small talk with distant relatives.

Very few product or service businesses escape the kind of seasonality that forces active engagement with the market through promotions, offers or specials. Right now, we're all bombarded with deals on everything, including digital services and B2B SaaS. After all, nothing captures the holiday spirit quite like an extra terabyte of cloud storage. It's a surge of activity that's hard to ignore - especially for someone who pays close attention to how these offers are put together.

Holiday cover is a business-critical task, yet it's often overlooked until the last minute. We want to help businesses plan ahead so their customers still receive a five-star experience while their teams enjoy a well-deserved break.