A Stress-Free Season: How to Make Holidays Fun - Jodie Moncrief - S3E22

Ready for a holiday season without the stress but full of fun and taking it on as a badass? Strap in as we and our guest Jodie Moncrief, a keynote speaker and author, tackle the holiday chaos head-on with practical advice and unconventional traditions (yes, we're talking Nerf gun fights!). We'll be sharing how you can step away from the holiday autopilot mode and start planning your festivities consciously, making the season not just special, but truly badass.

We're going to be diving into the nitty-gritty of managing holiday expectations, engaging guests, and simplifying the task of sending out cards. With our insightful tips, you won't break a sweat (or the bank) while giving thoughtful gifts. Plus, we'll share how to start your own unique traditions that bring joy and laughter into your celebrations. Don't miss out as Jodi spills details about her exciting events and upcoming book, all aimed at empowering others to carve out their own badass path. Get ready to transform your holiday experience with this episode packed with fun, laughter, and some seriously badass advice!

Contact Jodie Moncrief 

We look forward to seeing you succeed! - www.KeepOnSharing.com - Code - KOS

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:14

Hey, I'm Coach Mickey and I'm so glad that you've joined us, and if this is your first time joining me, come on in and make yourself comfortable. Grab your favorite beverage. As you guys know, I have something to drink while we are having a conversation with some of my amazing guests, and I'm really excited because today we're gonna celebrate the holidays. As you guys can see from my background, we're just gonna jump right in, and it's that time of year. However, my guest this time is someone who is going to give you some amazing tips on not just how to have a great holiday, but how to have a badass holiday. So I'm excited to have you, jodi Moncreef. So thanks for joining us. How are you today?

Speaker 2: 0:53

I'm great thanks. This is gonna be fun.

Speaker 1: 0:57

Yeah, I love the fact. When you told me the topic that you wanted to discuss, I'm like this is gonna be good, this is gonna be good, so I'm just gonna let you take it away. How can we have a badass holiday?

Speaker 2: 1:09

Well, first of all, keeping everything in perspective that every single day, we've got so much going on right Just between emails and the errands were running in our work and just everything. So add on to that during the holidays baking, sending cards, hosting parties, going to parties, gift giving, deciding who to invite to parties, which parties to go to, traditions, expectations and decorating, and so much more. So my whole idea here is to kind of think about things and not be on autopilot, because I see so many people this is why I'm doing this. I see so many people that get stressed out during the holidays and they're stressing out over things they typically like to do and they either short on budget, so that's stressing them out, or they're short on time and that's stressing them out, or both. And it's a time to enjoy and every holiday shouldn't be. Well, I shouldn't say shouldn't be, but if you're stressed out, take a look at this and see are you on autopilot?

Speaker 2: 2:34

Are you doing things that you can't really afford to do or you really don't have the time? But you're just, I have to do this, I have to do this, I do it every year, I do it every year. And I'll give you an example. This is why I started this whole thing. I have a girlfriend and she bakes and she bakes, and she bakes five different, five or six different beautiful things right, the magic bars, the fudge, you name it. She bakes it.

Speaker 2: 3:06

So I remember her being so stressed out during the holidays and I'm saying why are you stressing yourself out to bake when you love to bake? Apparently, you don't have the time, and I didn't know if she had the budget either. And she said, just, people expect it from me and I've got to do it. No, no, a bad ass does not feel obligated to do things. Make an adjustment and maybe only bake two or three things or half of the amount of the five items, something like that, but you're stressing out because you have to bake. That doesn't make any sense to me at all.

Speaker 2: 3:49

And then the next, the biggest one, is gift giving. Gift giving can be such a stressful thing. If we've let it Now we don't need. First of all, I wanna say a bad ass doesn't feel like she has to give everybody a gift. That gives her a gift, that's okay if somebody gives you a gift and you don't have a gift for them. When you're scaling down your list, because a lot of people, especially with inflation and everything nowadays, they're cutting their list in half or they're just really scaling back. And so I think that's really important not to make yourself crazy and stressed out over money because you have so many gifts to buy.

Speaker 2: 4:43

And I have some ideas about that. One is this is what I've been doing with some friends of mine is I say you know what, let's not do gifts, especially if you've been friends for so long and you've bought gifts and gifts and you try to figure out what to get. What to get, I said let's just go have dinner or lunch, you know, forget the gifts. There's other things to do to limit the amount $20, I'm telling you, mickey, two of my favorite gifts that I've ever gotten for Christmas were two things that were under $20 and they were both from Costco.

Speaker 2: 5:23

One of them were these cute little bowls that are bright colored on the outside and have patterns on the inside I swear they were probably $12. I love them. So it's not about how much we spend, it's the thought we put into it. And the other thing from Costco was a robe that I think it's Carol Hochman. I want to say the brand is the most flush robe from Costco $20, at least last year these were the prices and I just think we don't have to break the bait. You know, I know I love the idea that you've shared with me. If you can share that now with the Nerf, you know, doing something fun during the holidays with the Nerf gun.

Speaker 1: 6:14

Yeah, we have a tradition and you know that's the thing too is everybody has expectations of traditions and ours is just a little unconventional because every year who's ever guessed at our house? And obviously with my kids we've done it over the years and we still do it to this day, even though he's in college, and the other ones are halfway across the country or is across country. So we have everybody a Nerf gun and I put the Nerf gun, you know, cushion little bullets that are in their stockings, and after we've opened gifts and we've done breakfast, we have a full on Nerf gun fight in the house and it's fun and we do. I've had, I've had friends that have come over, that have come over for dinner, or we even stopped by join in, and it's just one of the really fun things that we do for Christmas and I think that's like I love and appreciate unconventional.

Speaker 2: 7:11

I truly do so. Here's another one. I've had groups of girlfriends where we've said, okay, let's just do something again me and my $20. Let's find something under $20 that is a favorite of ours. It could be anything. It can be a beauty chip, you know. It could be the cool makeup sponge. It could be a really nice brush that you use for your eyebrows or your blush. It could be anything. I think I'm just trying to think of the different things and I think that's really fun and just really fun. So you go to the group and you just bring there's a group of five of them, you bring four of them wrapped up for everybody, and everybody walks home with five items. That's all our favorites. Oh my gosh, I got to buy, got to got to A bad ass doesn't got to.

Speaker 2: 8:16

A bad ass says you know what? There's other ways to do this, and one of them is just picking a name and just buying it for one person, buying a gift for one person, and then there, of course, is the white elephant exchange. But the biggest thing I can say about gift giving, other than what I just said, is don't you know, do your? It's okay to re-gift, Just remember who gave it to you, Okay.

Speaker 2: 8:49

And then the other thing in this whole category is hostess gifts. You go to someone's house, you bring them a gift. It can be a dollar store gift, you know. It doesn't have to be, again, anything fancy. And one thing I learned recently is that it's not and this is according to the etiquette, which I don't normally go by, but in the etiquette way of doing things the correct way.

Speaker 2: 9:16

Don't bring someone cut flowers that come in those big beautiful bouquets, because the hostess has to stop and get a vase and put the water in and arrange it, you know, in the middle of her doing her hosting. And it's better to have something that's already pre-made, that you can just give in a vase, and it can be from your garden. I went to my garden I don't have that much I put some little flowers and I have bird of paradise and then I added some rosemary. That's, it's free, right. And then you've got a vase at home or you buy inexpensive ones, but that that is the best. The other is for a hostess gift. And then the best hostess gift I think are the practical ones, the holiday towels, or you can never have enough.

Speaker 2: 10:13

Candles, right, you have to know the scent if they are offended by a certain scent. But holiday scents are usually, you know they, generally people like those. But but the gifts are, you know. Just don't get stressed out and feel like you have to spend all this money. That's, that's a bad ass, doesn't feel like that, but they have to spend all the money. So the next category is parties parties. So some people have a lot of parties they have to go to. Have to go to a bad ass doesn't feel obligated. Sometimes you have to because of work obligations and you know work parties, but you can get around spending the whole time there.

Speaker 2: 11:03

You just come and spend a short amount of time and leave. If it's something you just buy, it's right. You know, I used to have my husband used to have work parties and, oh my gosh, if I was smarter than like I am now and a bad ass, I'd be saying we'll go there for an hour and then we'll leave and you know whatever, but we don't have to make excuses. A bad ass does not make excuses. If you want to say no, say no and not feel guilty. We don't need to feel guilty. A bad ass does not feel guilty. And then there's the people that you invite. You know if you're hosting a party and you know we all want to be inclusive, but you know what, just invite the people that you want to have.

Speaker 2: 11:58

And the other thing about hosting I used to get so stressed out and, you know, really just run around like a chicken with my head cut off. And my one friend said recently she said put the emphasis on the people, not make trying to make it look you know your house look perfect. We all go to each other's homes and we're entertaining and we all think that their house looks like that every day. So we feel like we have to keep up with that and I just learned recently that there's something called scruffy entertaining and it's really interesting. You got to look it up. About basically what I just said. We don't have to be perfect and you know, the people that wrote the article had some housework going on and they're saying, you know, we could have. We could always say, oh, we want so and so, to come over when this is done in the house and when that's done in the house, and oh, and we, and then we never do it because we don't have a perfect house. You know, just enjoy, enjoy, enjoy the holidays and your friends, because that's what it's all about.

Speaker 2: 13:11

So the other one is decorating. So decorating, maybe you go all out like the griswolds here in the lights and maybe you know you are stressing yourself out because you don't have time to put 10,999 lights up this year. A bad ass gives yourself a break and says you know what? I'm just going to do part of this, or I'm going to do it a little at a time or I might not do it at all this year, but the idea is, a bad ass knows what is in their realm that will not stress them out. So the other part other than decorating. Oh, this one's really important. This has to do with a lot of different areas.

Speaker 2: 14:06

Remember Uncle Eddie in Christmas vacation with Chevy J? He needed to get some boundaries. Somebody needed to set some boundaries with him. He was all over the place. Remember, he gave the list of all the things that his family needed and he needed. And you know he was kind of, he was pushing the boundaries. And we all have maybe we all don't, but some of us have Uncle Eddie's in our lives, whether they're neighbors, their friends, their family, and they just push and push. And a badass that's boundaries and keeps them does not feel guilty. And so get your Uncle Eddie's in line. A badass, you know, does that.

Speaker 2: 14:59

So the other thing is your guests. You know asking them or letting them know your expectations. You know when you, when they come to your house for a party, you know whatever your expectations are, so they can know ahead of time whether it's you're going to play a game. So they know make sure to, when you have a party, to introduce different people. And the best thing at a party is to have something that is an activity.

Speaker 2: 15:30

I'm not a fan of white elephant, but I'm a fan of how they do it, how it's done. I think that's why it's so popular, because everybody has so much fun and everybody's engaging with everyone, instead of you've got three people over here, four people, the neighbors are over here, your work people are over here, your other friends are over here, and so that, whatever activity it is, I would highly recommend having some type of an activity. And again, the white elephant is just a blast and I mean I have people talking about gifts that they've gotten and fought over, you know, for years. They've had so much fun, so it's very memorable. And again, just let your guests know your expectations. The other I think this is the last thing is sending cards. Do you send cards, mickey?

Speaker 1: 16:28

Not so much anymore. I'll do the e-cards. I'll do more If I think about it. I'll go online and just do e-cards, but not send them out physically.

Speaker 2: 16:37

Right. So that's another thing people stress. I've got a list of not me. I've known people to have a list of you know one or 200 people and they send a card dog, damn it every year and we've got to do it. And they're stressing themselves out and I mean there are ways. I'm not sure it's going to sound like I work for Costco, but I swear I don't. But remember Costco used to have I don't know if they do or not, but the photo department and you could just pop a photo in order them, go pick them up and, you know, put them in envelopes and have people would pre address them. You know, in the labels that you print out and you know, make it really simple. But don't stress yourself out.

Speaker 2: 17:24

I love sending cards. I'm kind of freaked. I will spend a lot of time finding the right card with the right vibe on it and I send them out and I just add, I just address them like five at a time. You know, during the night when I'm watching TV and I don't stress myself out and if there's a time ever that it's going to be stressful for me, I won't do it because it's something fun and it's ridiculous to think, oh, I'm going to stress myself out to do something fun, something that I really want to do, you know, for people.

Speaker 2: 18:02

So I think the last is the traditions and expectations. So traditions are, you know, if it doesn't make sense this year and I can't give an example right now because my head just went blank but if there's something that's a tradition that doesn't make sense, don't do it anymore. There aren't new ones, and really it's a time to just enjoy friends and family and lower we need to lower our expectations, badasses. Don't have gigantic expectations, because when we do, we know what happens, and that is that we are disappointed. And if we don't have these gigantic you know expectations, then we'll have an enjoyable time. And that's what I have to say about being a badass holiday, and I don't know if I missed anything.

Speaker 1: 19:00

No.

Speaker 2: 19:01

I think you got it all.

Speaker 1: 19:02

I mean, that is pretty detailed and I think that's what we all go through. We go through these moments of who are we going to invite, where are we going to go, what are we going to get, how am I going to do this? And when you, like you said, when you take the stress off of you, then it makes the holiday so much more enjoyable. If I may, I'd like to add in on your white elephant, on what I do for a white elephant. That made it a little bit more fun. We do an ugly Christmas ornament. I tell everybody, no more than five bucks and find the ugliest Christmas ornament that you can get.

Speaker 1: 19:38

And I had one year where and I think you were actually at that party and we had one year somebody had brought this pink skull. It was a skull, it was pink, and that thing was fought over the most and I thought, oh, my gosh, that is so funny, but I like things that are. You could take something that's ordinary and just put a twist on it to, like you said, to make it more fun. Yeah, and you would say, oh, Sorry about that no go ahead, no go ahead.

Speaker 2: 20:09

What were you saying I was done? Oh, I thought of a couple extra things that are free and I think they're really cool. One is an activity that you can do for kids. You know you're getting tired the kids. You're getting challenged on what to do with the kids Maybe, especially if they're teenagers. And I read somewhere and you can look it up online, google it that they do scavenger hunts and just really get creative. And it's not, it's free, there's nothing to do except maybe writing something down or typing it or whatever. But I thought that was a good one.

Speaker 2: 20:50

And then I have a girlfriend that her family. They collect jackets, coats, jackets, sweaters Every holiday. People collect, they collect them and they know to go to their house and drop them off to the garage and they deliver them to the homeless, and I thought that is really so. Those are things that you can do that are free with your family or free to help someone. And, yes, I just think it's important to not be on autopilot. Ask yourself am I breaking the bank? Is that stressing me out? Do I really want to do this? That's how to have a bad-ass holiday.

Speaker 1: 21:33

Well, I love it and I am so glad that you had an opportunity to stop by and share that. So how can people reach out to you, jodi, because besides doing the holidays, you have got quite a few other events that are coming up that people can definitely benefit from?

Speaker 2: 21:47

Yes, my program right now that I'm working with is aligning with your bad-ass self soccer, and how to reach me is my website, and that is transformyourlifeoccom. Transformyourlifeoccom. Thanks for asking.

Speaker 1: 22:10

Yeah, and, as you guys know, all of the links will be embedded into the YouTube channel down here, so please look for those. And then also, if you're new, please remember to subscribe Kind of new to this thing too and please reach out to Jodi. She has got some amazing events that I know you can all benefit from. She has a keynote speaker, she is getting ready to author a book and also she has done many, many events that I know everybody that I've ever spoke to has had some major benefits from. So I am looking forward to having you back again, jodi, and seeing what you've got coming up for the new year. So thank you so much and have a happy holiday. Happy holiday.

Speaker 2: 22:52

A bad-ass holiday.

Speaker 1: 22:54

I love it. All right, you guys. Thank you so much for joining us and remember the most courageous thing you can do is yourself, and I will look forward to seeing you soon. Bye.