Latest / Let Them Fly - Heather Harries Ed Hub / Holding the Reins of Christmas

Transcript

Holding the Reins of Christmas · Let Them Fly - Heather Harries Ed Hub

• 0:34
  SPEAKER_02: Well, good morning, everyone.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_02: It's so lovely to be together as a team, and as it's Christmas, we thought that on Let Them Fly we would talk about Christmas traditions and how different they are within our families.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_02: Obviously, my children no longer believe in the magic of Santa Claus.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_02: I've Angela here, who's got young children who are very much into Santa Claus, Lindsay, whose children are a mixed age, and Santa Claus and Elf on the Shelf, and all these things are starting to come up.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_02: Christmas traditions are so important.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_02: They provide the roots and the memories that our children will carry a lifetime.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_02: So let's get started.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_02: And Angela, are your children ready for Santa Claus?
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_00: More than ready.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_00: Getting very excited.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_00: We have daily countdowns on the fridge at the moment, on the calendar, but the biggest thing in our house is elf on the shelf.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_02: You're going to have we're going to come to this in a minute.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_02: So I don't know anything about elf on the shelf.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_02: It's passed me by.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_02: Lindsay, tell me, are yours all ready for Christmas?
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_01: Mine are sending me website links, which just makes me so sad.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_01: I said to them um a few weeks ago that I want a written Christmas list with pictures, and I want it pretty, and I want it on paper, and I don't want links on WhatsApp because it just breaks my heart.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_01: So they have done it, but they've handwritten out website links instead.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_01: No! But I've got my piece of paper and I've kept every single Christmas list since they were able to write, and I've got the dates on it, and I've kept them, and that brings me joy.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, that's so lovely.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_02: Mine obviously arrived home from university with bag fulls of washing and the whole announcement of Mum, it's Christmas, what should we do?
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_02: Last year I got really caught up because last we always have this big tree decorating ceremony, and we sort of, you know, we have a few drinks, we put the music on, and we all sort of just have great fun as a family decorating the tree.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_02: So last year my middle son had said to me, said, Mum, do not decorate the tree till I come home.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_02: I said, Okay, I promise I will wait until you come home.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_02: So we arrived home with this bag full of laundry on about the 18th, I think it was of December.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_02: Slept for two days, partied for two days, by which it's like the 22nd or 23rd, and my tree's not up because I promised to wait.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_02: So this year I was having none of it.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_02: This year the tree is mine, and do you know what?
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_02: For the first time ever, the ornaments are where I want them, they're not clumped in one area.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_02: It has been amazing.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_02: So, what about your tree?
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_02: Tell me about your tree putting up.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_00: I put the lights on, unpacked all the decorations, gave them the non-breakable ones, and let them go.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_00: Did you move it when they went to sleep?
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_00: Only the old couple, only the young couple, but no, I let them go with it.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_02: It's when you know if you've got OCD or not, isn't it, when you decorate a Christmas tree with your kids.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_01: I've never been bothered actually, so I've never wanted to do it.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_01: Like I've never found any joy in it, so I've always liked just let them go with it, and it it's never bothered me.
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_01: Thankfully, it's never, it's never actually bothered me.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_02: So tell me, we're coming sorry, tell me Angela.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_00: I get the fun bit of unwrapping the tree and putting it together and make sure all the branches are spread out and then they've done the fun bit, but they did enjoy it.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, and it's it's so important because those memories and unpacking all those lovely little ornaments they've made through the years.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_02: You know, the I've still got my my eldest son's 27, I've still got his little ornament he made when he was in nursery school, which is looking very battered, the dogs chewed on it, he's obviously, you know, it's just but I love it, I just love taking it out.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_02: It goes to the back of the tree, it's not very beautiful.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_01: My daughter's very, very fresh shoe, it was a red little slipper, and she was six months, and that goes on the tree every single year.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_01: So that yeah, that's something like yeah.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_00: We've got quite a few of those, but it is something that's sort of passed down generationally for us.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_00: My mum had ornaments like that, and my brother and I, and my nanny brought her two little wooden skiers back from a holiday in the woods with our names wrote on, and I think my brother lost a limb below the knee at some point, but it still went on the tree.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and my nan did the same as well, and I remember helping her do her tree, so that's something we've carried on through with our.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_01: We buy a new ornament every year, and every year it's something specific.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_01: Like we've just been given new Christmas tags by someone in the office, and they will now be this year's Christmas decorations, which I just love.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_01: I just absolutely love it.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_01: So when we're doing it, it's really it oh, it's lovely.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_00: My new decoration this year are very organised.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_00: We did a pottery craft day when we're back in the UK in summer.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_00: And I made mine there.
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_02: I'm really impressed.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_02: Well done.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_02: And tell me, Santa Claus, obviously, I mean, Santa Claus is that big question when do you tell children about Santa Claus?
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_02: Now, for me, my children for years always questioned it, and I've always said, it's up to you.
• 5:13
  SPEAKER_02: If you if you don't believe, he won't be he won't come.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_02: If you do believe, it's up to you.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_00: And we still have the magic, they still get Christmas stockings, but we've had a little wobble this year with my eldest, who's nine.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_00: She read a magazine article about being able to afford all the things on Santa's list.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_00: And she says, Well, I thought it's acceptable.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_00: And I said, Well, it's just the presents that mommy and daddy get you.
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_00: You know, Santa gets you some, and Mummy and Daddy get you some.
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_00: It's just the ones that Mummy and Daddy get, and we sketched over it, and I think we've got away with it.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_01: Oh yeah, I've never had that discussion because I've always said exactly the same thing.
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_01: I was like, if you don't believe the presents won't come, and I I just won't engage, I've I still won't engage with them, and they are deep into teenagers, and I won't, I just won't have that conversation with them.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_02: 27 mind still be like, Father Christmas will still come.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_01: I just I can't bring myself to have an adult conversation with them about my children about Santa.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_02: No, and I and I think they know, but they don't quite dare tell you they know because it's kind of not in their interest.
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_02: No.
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_02: But it's something very magical, it's it's just magic.
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_02: Yes.
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, exactly.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_02: And I think it's so it's just like.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_02: The only good thing about them growing up is that the mornings are not quite so early.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_02: This Christmas stocking is still so much fun, but it's done over breakfast rather than in bed at about four in the morning.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_01: I miss that because I feel like I'm in the in-between stage, and I feel like I'm really missing that really early morning wake-up and then not going to sleep and that absolute excitement where you don't get that, yes, it's more civilised, but that really and you know, like you doing like Santa footprints, that was how comfortable.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_01: Like stuff like that, which at the time you know, I just want to go to bed.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I just want to go to bed.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_01: But you look back and then you just go, that was such an amazing, magical bit of standard.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_02: How are you gonna do the snow in the desert this year?
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_01: It's my first Christmas here, so it's very weird.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I don't know yet.
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_01: We've got we've got loads of stuff up in the house, so we're trying to make it.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's very it's very odd, so it's yeah.
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe sand footprints, maybe sand footprints.
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_02: And are you do you all go on the is it Amtrak, the Santa Tracker?
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, we did it when they were younger.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_00: We do.
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_00: I've already been asked if Santa Tracker is live yet.
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_02: Oh what's it called?
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_02: Nord Track.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_02: Nordtrack.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yes.
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_02: I love it.
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_02: I used to love that.
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_02: I remember when it came out and it was kind of almost pre-Google and you had to really find it by accident.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, I used to love it.
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, it's very useful for getting them to bed.
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_00: Because he's on his way.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_00: If you don't get to bed, he's not going to be able to do it.
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_00: That's easy.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_01: Even those conversations just like bring joy, like yeah, yeah.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_02: That sort of bribery and corruption, all around a big lie.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_02: It's amazing, isn't it?
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_02: How we yes, we perpetuate.
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_02: So tell me, now I I have this I keep seeing on um social media elf on a shelf.
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_02: I have missed that.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_02: I don't even know when it started.
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_02: Tell me about elf on a shelf.
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_00: It's laborious.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_02: Not magical, that magical wasn't the word there.
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_00: No, I I think my enthusiasm dwindles.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_00: I think the first couple of nights I I put out nice piece of card, I put glitter glue on, and it's a last-minute thing before bed now.
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_00: To the point my husband last night went, I think you need to put a bit more into it.
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's a bit googling, isn't it?
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_01: Like when you go, Oh, I've forgotten, and then you wake up in the morning and they go, Oh, it hasn't moved today.
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_00: But then you'll see that he's ill.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_00: When you've wrote the letters to Santa, that gave us gave us an outlook.
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_00: So I just said, Well, we've taken your letters to Santa, we'll be back tomorrow.
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_00: So that was a good guess.
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you have got a couple of get outs, but it just becomes as the weeks go by, it's exhausting.
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_02: So, what's the best ones you've done?
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_02: What's the best ones you've done?
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_00: Oh my gosh.
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_00: We've done the one my husband really liked the best was when they were skiing downstairs.
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_00: Quite like that one.
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_01: I've done the frozen peas one and where you put the peas and it goes, I've peeked myself.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_01: I haven't done the frozen peas, I have done the chocolate drops in water though.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_00: In the toilet basically with them sat on the edge of the toilet.
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, there's so many.
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_01: Just like, and then you go, and then you feel like an actual phone because then you look on like on like Facebook or you look on social media and people come up with the most whizzy dizzy, oh really, really, and you go, right, I just put mine in a bowl of piece.
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_01: I think two people spend a fortune on it.
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and hours on it as well, like life's too short, I can't.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_02: How do they find the time?
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_02: I just find in Christmas uh December is my busiest busiest month.
• 9:31
  SPEAKER_02: I could not cope with having to think up something every day.
• 9:35
  SPEAKER_00: Instagram has its uses, like Pinterest, things like that, and they're just then simplified to level.
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_01: I there is a lot now at disposal, like when it first started, like my kids were young when it first started and it wasn't so big, but now it's like literally that you can go to something give you like a breakdown of every day and like different levels you can do if you're so inclined.
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_02: And and what is the purpose of Elf on the Shelf?
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_02: Is there a purpose to it?
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_00: Well, it's meant to bring joy to kids, isn't it?
• 10:03
  SPEAKER_00: I think it's a little thing that they're Santa's elves and they're just coming to keep an eye on them.
• 10:07
  SPEAKER_01: And it's the magic, isn't it?
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_01: That they're meant to come alive at night and get out all these naughty little tricks, and they're like So are they instead of an advent calendar, do we do advent calendars as well?
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_01: We do advent calendars as well.
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_02: Of course.
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, we have three advent calendars each in our house.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_02: Oh I I have mine for the dogs, I don't for the kids anymore.
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, so we also have her.
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_00: So we have the normal Cadries one.
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_00: And then my mother-in-law is a wizard, craft and sewing and knitting shoes.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_00: Fabulous.
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_00: And she made each of them their own tapestry one with little sewing boxes and embroidered numbers on, and they hang on their bedroom.
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_00: But you have to fill those, presumably.
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_00: You just buy some chocolate.
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_00: But they're really personal and they're just reach specific charts, they have those.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_00: And then the elves, joyful elves, brought Lego advent calendars this year, which I don't think that'll bring next year because they're tiny little bits everywhere that's all over the floor.
• 11:09
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, we did that.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_01: I don't think that's it.
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_01: No, we did it one year and didn't do it.
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_02: The dog one's just got biscuits in, if that's any help.
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_01: That's amazing.
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_01: We've had dog ones, they're bad destroying.
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, they have the one.
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_00: Keep it simple, simple, stick with chocolate.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_00: Chocolate chocolate all the way.
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_02: I'd keep them all hyped up ready for Christmas Day.
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 11:26
  SPEAKER_02: And then when do you do traditions?
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_02: So, in terms of traditions, what do you do Christmas Eve?
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_00: They've got they each have their Santa stockings again, which have their names on and very personalised.
• 11:36
  SPEAKER_00: They have theirs by their bed, and we still do the glass of milk and a little treat for Santa.
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_00: It's normally something Santa has very specific taste, but they're very similar to my husband's.
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_00: Really the same, actually.
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_00: Really?
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_00: So they still have a little drink and he's a gift and he's like snap to keep him going throughout the night, and we still do that, and their stockings still go in their room.
• 11:59
  SPEAKER_00: And they only have a few in there, but they don't have a whole stocking full of presents for Santa.
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, they're just a few.
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_02: And what what is what is the Santa, what is Santa's favourite gift this year that he's bringing?
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_01: We don't quite know yet.
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_01: We will know on maybe the 18th of December.
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_01: We don't know yet on the 17th of December because Santa hasn't quite got organised this year.
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_01: But it's okay.
• 12:27
  SPEAKER_01: I think it's about saying that as well.
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_02: And what what do you do Christmas Eve, Lindsay, if you've got a family?
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_01: So we were always so at home, we would always go out of family, we'd always go out for a drink, um, and then yeah, just stay up till quite late, and then go see some lights, and then go home, and then try and get a kiss, try and get a kiss to bed.
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_01: It's usually, isn't it?
• 12:45
  SPEAKER_01: With kids who are certain age, like it's sort of a counter going, if they only go to sleep now, they've got this much sleep because you know they're getting up in the morning and then you know you're doing a relationship with a crash.
• 12:55
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you've got to get them into bed by a decent hour.
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_01: When now it makes no difference, but I just think, yeah.
• 13:01
  SPEAKER_00: So for it when I this is only my second Christmas here, when I lived in the UK, my mum and I would still do midnight maths most years, yeah.
• 13:09
  SPEAKER_00: Um, which I didn't get to do last year, I didn't get organised to find somewhere in time.
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_00: I might try and do it this year, but I don't think it'll happen.
• 13:18
  SPEAKER_00: Get this in bed.
• 13:19
  SPEAKER_01: You'll be thankful and more thankful.
• 13:24
  unknown: Yeah.
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_02: We do we have a Christmas jigsaw we do every year, and and I try every year I make them more and more impossible.
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_02: And I think last year's was the worst.
• 13:32
  SPEAKER_02: Last year we were still doing it on New Year's Eve, and we were like, if we don't finish this jigsaw, we couldn't eat, we couldn't use the table, it was sort of the whole table up.
• 13:39
  SPEAKER_02: So we always have a Christmas jigsaw, and that's kind of goes on through Christmas, and everyone sits down for a few hours, you know, a day and has a little player with it, which is great.
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_02: We love that.
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_02: Definitely going to send my elderly trying to help.
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_02: Uh please do.
• 13:49
  SPEAKER_02: And I said I haven't bought it this year, I actually haven't bought it this year.
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_02: I need to go and find one that is even more difficult than last year.
• 13:55
  SPEAKER_02: So last year we'd all reached the point where we were like, yeah, I'm not doing it again.
• 13:59
  SPEAKER_02: And it was one of those with you know, it was sort of lots of sea that was all blue and the cliffs were all the same, and yeah.
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 14:06
  SPEAKER_02: But that's we've done that for years, and it's so lovely because we all after breakfast we all sit for a few hours together and do it, and then we you know it just sort of over the holiday, it's just really, really just interesting, isn't it?
• 14:15
  SPEAKER_01: You've got your own traditions of just what everyone does.
• 14:17
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 14:18
  SPEAKER_01: You speak to different people, and actually no one's got the same traditions, but everyone feels lovely about their own traditions and the background of it, and you just assume that everyone does Christmas the same.
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, yes, you do.
• 14:28
  SPEAKER_02: But my my children, if I don't get a jigsaw, they're like, Mum, where's the jigsaw?
• 14:31
  SPEAKER_02: And then a few years ago we stopped by stopped buying presents at Christmas, that sounds terrible.
• 14:35
  SPEAKER_02: But I was just kind of like, Do you know what?
• 14:37
  SPEAKER_02: I'm buying for the sake of buying, and this is now starting to annoy me.
• 14:40
  SPEAKER_02: So what we did is I said, right, in you had the little envelopes, and in January they opened an envelope, which is like a trip to Ski Jabai or this or that next thing, which all went really well until they went to university, because then of course they're not here to have those.
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_02: So I said this year, I just said you choose some.
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_02: We're going away, and we're not buying, I'm not doing this.
• 14:57
  SPEAKER_02: I can't I can't face them all to buy something just for the sake of buying.
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_01: I feel like I want to be where you are, but I'm very much where Angela is.
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_00: We do like experiences, and not for Christmas as much for birthdays, especially with the elders, we've moved towards book of experience rather than just a toy that's gonna last a short amount of time and then be discarded.
• 15:21
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and and I think I you know, I'm I'm I got to the stage with my kids where I was like, oh, I just need to buy some I just need to spend, I used to allocate a budget per child, and I had to spend that much and I was just buying things for the sake of buying them, and I just got to the point where you know this this is crazy.
• 15:37
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_00: I've started with mine to say, are there any toys that you don't want anymore?
• 15:43
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and if you put them under the tree before Christmas, Santa will take them and then give them to somebody else of an age who might then find them more interesting.
• 15:53
  SPEAKER_00: It's a good way to have a pre-Christmas clear out and just invent that bit more of a Christmas spirit that it's not all just about having for yourself, it's about kindness and showing your stories as well.
• 16:05
  SPEAKER_02: I think that yeah, we used to do I I I started here at Giving Tree in the school, which was so lovely, and you used to have a little tag and used to just and used to put on it what age the gift was me used to give them away.
• 16:16
  SPEAKER_02: But it's really hard here to do that charity that you do in the UK.
• 16:19
  SPEAKER_02: And what's Christmas dinner?
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_02: What's your favourite part of Christmas dinner?
• 16:22
  SPEAKER_02: And don't mention Brussels sprouts, I hate Brussels sprouts.
• 16:25
  SPEAKER_01: I we don't mention it.
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_01: They have to they when I they grew up, they had to have one for each of their age, and then there was a at a certain point it was absolutely 16 Brussels sprouts, it's a bit yeah, it's an absolute no go, so we don't do that anymore, but there still has to be there.
• 16:39
  SPEAKER_01: Um it's very lavish, like it's the one meal of the year that it's really, really lavish, and it's a really important what's your favourite part?
• 16:47
  SPEAKER_01: Potatoes has to be a good potato, you can't you can't knock a like really, really good roast potato.
• 16:53
  SPEAKER_01: That came out really quickly.
• 16:55
  SPEAKER_00: For me, it's my breakfast.
• 16:56
  SPEAKER_00: Oh really?
• 16:57
  SPEAKER_00: I have a box of Gillian chocolates for my breakfast every year.
• 16:59
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, you don't?
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_02: Yes.
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_02: And then you have Christmas dinner on top?
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 17:10
  SPEAKER_00: Is that something you've done forever?
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_02: I love that.
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_02: Since we've been here, we so our morning breakfast is we go to the desert and we take some champagne and some orange juice and bacon sandwiches, and we sit in the desert, and that's our Christmas, because it's like we're in the desert, we need to we need to embrace this, and that's and we take the dogs and they all run riot and we have a breakfast there, and then we obviously we usually go out for lunch these days.
• 17:30
  SPEAKER_02: I I used to cook, though I have to say to everyone, everyone laughs at me, when we used to cook, because obviously mum used to be here, we we get our turkey from IKEA, and everybody laughs at me.
• 17:39
  SPEAKER_02: But do you know what?
• 17:39
  SPEAKER_02: IKEA turkey is amazing.
• 17:41
  SPEAKER_02: And no, don't do the joke about do I get an egg because it needs to be assembled.
• 17:45
  SPEAKER_02: No, it's already assembled, and it's amazing, it's absolutely amazing.
• 17:49
  SPEAKER_00: Wow, uh we we again our second only second Christmas, so we're going to friends again for Christmas this year.
• 17:55
  SPEAKER_00: So we went last year, and it was a very different experience spending Christmas with friends rather than I'd always do with my parents and my brother.
• 18:03
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and last year it was quite strange because my husband hadn't quite realised it because he's travelled over Christmas before.
• 18:09
  SPEAKER_00: It was the first year that I've never spent Christmas with my mum and dad and my brother.
• 18:13
  SPEAKER_00: It's quite hard.
• 18:14
  SPEAKER_00: So it was quite a bit.
• 18:15
  SPEAKER_01: So this is my first Christmas for me without any of my family, and it's very, it's very tinged, isn't it?
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_01: Like it's a lovely experience, but there's definitely it's highlighted that actually being here, you're you're away and you're quite separate.
• 18:27
  SPEAKER_01: And when you're at home, you're always sort of like, I'd love to go somewhere.
• 18:30
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, I'd love to do, but you're here, and you sort of get actually there's so much about Christmas that's rooted in family that it's quite strange, like it, yeah, it definitely feels quite strange.
• 18:39
  SPEAKER_02: And it's all those friends, you know.
• 18:41
  SPEAKER_02: You always uh we when we were at home, you know, on the 22nd we always went to this house, and on the 24th, it was and actually that's all gone, and it's really hard.
• 18:48
  SPEAKER_02: And our our wedding anniversary is actually on the 30th of December, and I always just and it always used to be so wrapped up with Christmas and celebrations and new year.
• 18:56
  SPEAKER_02: I really miss that now.
• 18:57
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, but you know, when you do like at home, you feel it's onerous, yes, and actually you come away and you go, actually that's what makes it actually that's a lot of it what makes it, and all these things, and all these you know, school productions and and friends and going out and getting drinks in and all these things which at the time you're going, oh enough, enough, you come away from it and you suddenly go, actually.
• 19:17
  SPEAKER_02: It was lovely, yes.
• 19:18
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, I think it's just I think it's the Christmas cards and the popping to see people and the carol singers that come around the house, and we just don't you don't you miss that so much, yes.
• 19:27
  SPEAKER_02: And I think the wrapping up warm, I really miss, I know this sounds so bizarre, but those cold, you know, you know, as you come up to Christmas and you've got the lights in the air and it sort of gets slightly misty and very cold.
• 19:37
  SPEAKER_02: And I miss those nights.
• 19:39
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, gosh, when I was there, probably the three that I went out, but you know, and I used to come in and go, gosh, it's cold.
• 19:44
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, but now I really miss that.
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_01: Christmas songs on the radio is the sun though.
• 19:50
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, you just feel it should be cold and miserable, and you're going, I just want to get in the house and I just want to warm up because then it's on the radio.
• 19:56
  SPEAKER_01: But listening to it on the radio in the heat, yeah, something very odd about it.
• 20:00
  SPEAKER_02: A Christmas pudding, what do you think about Christmas pudding?
• 20:02
  SPEAKER_01: I feel you should do it, but I don't like it.
• 20:04
  SPEAKER_02: I don't like it.
• 20:05
  SPEAKER_01: I don't like it, but I feel you should do it.
• 20:07
  SPEAKER_00: I feel like mixed pies all the way, but no, I've never been a Christmas pudding fan.
• 20:13
  SPEAKER_02: No, and Christmas cake, and I hate Christmas cake, I always make it and I hate it.
• 20:16
  SPEAKER_00: I like the icing, I don't like cake.
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I think we used to do that, we used to pick the icing.
• 20:20
  SPEAKER_00: The rice in and the cake on the coke, it's music pan for now.
• 20:23
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I know something about music panel.
• 20:25
  SPEAKER_02: Share with it.
• 20:26
  SPEAKER_01: But I think this is the beauty of Christmas cake because you always find people who just don't like the cake or like the icing or like the mask.
• 20:32
  SPEAKER_02: Or pick the cherries at the middle.
• 20:33
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, oh I don't see it.
• 20:36
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, we can all share that because I like the cherries.
• 20:40
  SPEAKER_01: This works out well actually.
• 20:41
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, we should be really good.
• 20:42
  SPEAKER_02: So, Christmas, so where are you going for Christmas?
• 20:44
  SPEAKER_02: You're going to your friends' house, Lindsay, where are you off to?
• 20:46
  SPEAKER_01: I'm going to a golf club.
• 20:48
  SPEAKER_01: Um, yeah, happy now.
• 20:50
  SPEAKER_01: I think it'll be interesting.
• 20:51
  SPEAKER_02: Amazing.
• 20:52
  SPEAKER_01: I'm assuming people dress up still.
• 20:53
  SPEAKER_01: Can people dress up?
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_02: Um it's Jabai.
• 20:56
  SPEAKER_02: Anything goes.
• 20:56
  SPEAKER_02: It's like you can wear shorts and the kids will turn up in shorts and t-shirts.
• 20:59
  SPEAKER_02: Some children will turn up in beautiful, beautiful cocktail-y type dresses, party dresses.
• 21:04
  SPEAKER_02: Adults will be in shorts.
• 21:06
  SPEAKER_02: You can see one partner will be in denim shorts, one partner will be in a beautiful dress.
• 21:09
  SPEAKER_02: You know, it's kind of a it's very Jabai.
• 21:12
  SPEAKER_02: I've been to balls where people have been in jeans, I've been to balls where they've been in, you know, thousands, several thousand pounds worth of dresses.
• 21:18
  SPEAKER_02: It's Jabai, you can do anything goes, but yeah, I know.
• 21:21
  SPEAKER_02: We're going down to Anantara on the par.
• 21:24
  SPEAKER_02: Not been there before.
• 21:25
  SPEAKER_02: I'm quite excited.
• 21:26
  SPEAKER_02: Um, I will be dressing up because I like dressing up for Christmas.
• 21:29
  SPEAKER_02: My kids will be with me and they will be in shorts and t-shirt, but that's all kind.
• 21:32
  SPEAKER_02: I don't care.
• 21:33
  SPEAKER_02: It's all good.
• 21:34
  SPEAKER_02: It's all good.
• 21:35
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it's all and that's if my husband's home, I think he might be working, but you know, if he comes back from wherever he's gone, he's gone to Kuwait maybe yesterday.
• 21:43
  SPEAKER_02: I'm not sure if he'll be back.
• 21:45
  SPEAKER_02: Anyway, whatever it is, it is what it is.
• 21:48
  SPEAKER_02: It's Christmas, it's Christmas.
• 21:49
  SPEAKER_02: And then New Year, what are we doing for New Year?
• 21:52
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not sure.
• 21:55
  SPEAKER_00: My um in-laws are here, and obviously with young children to keep them out late, it's just it's too much.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: Last year we just climbed up onto the roof and watched the fireworks from Global Village.
• 22:04
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, lovely, yeah, it's really nice, yeah.
• 22:06
  SPEAKER_00: And then just had a drink at home between us, and the children had already took themselves and gone to bed by then because it's just too timey for them.
• 22:14
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's a long day.
• 22:14
  SPEAKER_00: So I think it'll just be watching the fireworks again.
• 22:17
  SPEAKER_02: A New Year's Day if you've got a New Year's Day tradition?
• 22:21
  SPEAKER_01: Not much, yeah, not a lot.
• 22:24
  SPEAKER_02: I I don't do New Year's Eve because I have this thing about starting New Year the way I want to go on and feeling good about New Year's.
• 22:31
  SPEAKER_02: So I never go out New Year's Eve.
• 22:33
  SPEAKER_02: I'm very sad, very kind of but I love New Year's Day.
• 22:35
  SPEAKER_02: I like to be up super early and a really long walk and and be positive that it's a new ahead.
• 22:41
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, they hate me, they hate me.
• 22:45
  SPEAKER_02: I I can certainly babysit New Year's Eve because I I don't, I literally, I hate, I hate that whole being drunk and waking up with hangover in the morning.
• 22:52
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I need stuff.
• 22:53
  SPEAKER_02: No, I need to know that my new year is starting the way I want it to go on, so I need to feel healthy and happy and positive and yeah, and up really early, and up really early, which as you say, my child sometimes I'm I it's not it's not it's not unknown for me to be up to start my new year before they've gone to bed, and I'm making them breakfast as they go to bed, you know.
• 23:13
  SPEAKER_01: I'm just starting to lose control when my kids are starting to go out the new year's.
• 23:18
  SPEAKER_02: We had one party where I'd had breakfast and lunch before the the rest of the party goers had gone, you know.
• 23:24
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah, no, no.
• 23:27
  SPEAKER_02: So, whatever you're doing, enjoy Christmas.
• 23:30
  SPEAKER_02: Christmas is such an important time of the year.
• 23:32
  SPEAKER_02: It's all about tradition, it's all about celebration, it's about coming together, it's about kindness, it's about it's just about still being here for the end of the year and still knowing that there's so much to come ahead.
• 23:43
  SPEAKER_02: So, thank you for joining us on Let Them Fly, and we look forward to seeing you all in the new year.
• 23:49
  SPEAKER_01: Happy Christmas.
• 23:50
  SPEAKER_02: Happy Christmas, everyone.