Stress Around The Festive Season And Family
Nyree Taylor and Dean Aitken explore some techniques to help you have the best Christmas Day with your family and friends.
Nyree: G'Day Guys, I'm Ny, and I'm here with Dean, and today we're going to talk about, "Positive Family Management On Christmas Day". So, a little fairy told me Dean, that you dress up as Santa on Christmas Day. Is that true?
Dean: That is true Ny. It's been more than once. I am known to wear a few costumes though, so Santa Claus is just one of many costumes that I wear during the year. It's a lot of fun, and it enables me to connect with people that sometimes I probably wouldn't get too close with.
It's a bit of fun, and we do it so we have a very small sort of Kris Kringle, $15, a gift, and we call each person up, and I'd say, "So, Ny, tell me about you. What have you been doing this year to deserve this present". So, it's just a bit of fun, and it's one of those things that just breaks up Christmas Day.
It's not just about the meal. It's about sharing, and having a laugh, and interrupting, perhaps what can be for some, a really serious day.
Nyree: And I think it probably really gets into the spirit of it. It engages people and gets this "fun" happening. It's a really wonderful way to distract people from just sitting around the table, eating lots of food, having to make conversation when, maybe they might not feel like it. And, it can just provide some laughter and some entertainment, and a bit of excitement. That's a great idea.
What else do you do on Christmas Day?
Dean: Well, we do a number of things. One of them is that we pay games. And, again, if I go back to my family, and my childhood. As a child probably my greatest memory was playing cricket around this time. On Christmas Day, why that was so special was that my whole family would be there. You, know, my Grand Parents were there. Mum and Dad would be there. And none of us could really play cricket (except for my 2 uncles).
So, everyone would be there. And whether they were just standing cheering and clapping, or fielding, or having a bit of a bowl and bat, it was an activity that again, brought everybody together.
Because, I think, for some of us, we don't spend a lot of quality time with people. We may not have the relationship, and this sort of breaks that barrier and gives something common that we can all share, and again, have a bit of a laugh about.
Nyree: And what a fantastic way to do it. You know, you have everybody is sitting down, you have lunch, you might be feeling a bit full, and you say, "OK, cricket's on". And, up you get and off you go and play. And, it makes people feel a lot better too. They get their breathing happening, and their digestion happening. That's a great idea.
Dean: It's good fun, good fun. So, some of the other things we have done are things like the "minute to win it" game. It's a game show on TV, and what it enabled us to do was that it's just got some games that are really playful. You've probably heard of the expression, "ice breaker". Well, this is sort of a "Christmas breaker", in a sense.
We do one particular activity, which is called Junk In Your Trunk. So, see people strap on a tissue box full of pingpong balls around their waist (the box is at the base of their back). The idea is to move and wiggle your bottom as fast as you can to remove as many of the pingpong balls as you can within a minute. It's a lot of fun.
Nyree: I reckon that would get everybody going.
Dean: Everybody's laughing, and I think that's probably the thing that you've got all of these people coming together, and if there's one thing that's common, you can share, that's easy to do, and create a bit of laughter.
Nyree: That's exactly right. And, what a better day to do it on, than Christmas Day. Thanks for sharing that Dean, that's great.
by: LeadershipMotivation
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