On Friday, my girls finished school for the year and are now free for a solid two weeks of Christmas vacation.

That means I’ll be there for the Christmas holidays too!

I look forward to these two weeks off throughout the season, because for most bloggers and influencers, October, November, and December are the busiest months of the year.

You’ll correctly guess, based on the catalogs clogging up your inbox, the increase in deal emails in your inbox, and the huge number of sponsored Instagram stories popping up, that brands have the largest marketing budgets in the fourth quarter (because that’s when most people spend the most), so if you’re creating content online, it’s one of the busiest times of the year, and this quarter’s revenue helps make up for the times of the year when marketing budgets are much smaller.

I also get more than the usual amount of DMs and messages asking for help choosing a book for a child or whether a Yoto Player or a Toniebox is better (spoiler: I’ll tell you Yoto every time!) or a reminder of what the little sound machine I love for travel is.

I love answering these questions and helping as much as I can – I feel like I have the best job on earth – so I’m happy to do it.

AND it’s very busy.

For the last five years or so, my team and I have worked incredibly hard to plan everything in advance for the rest of the year, so that when my daughters get out of school, I can unplug and enjoy this wonderful time of year with them (and my team, all the moms, can enjoy a break too).

I LIVE these weeks without timetables, without deadlines and lots of time to read in bed, play for hours with the girls and have some adventures.

Here are my plans for this year’s Christmas holidays:

My plans for the Christmas holidays

1. Read Katherine Center’s new book. I received an advance copy of his new book The shippers which comes out in May and I saved it for the Christmas holidays: I can’t wait to read it!
2. Stay up to date on making family videos. I have some family videos to catch up on, including our trip to Boston for fall break and our trip to Mount Rushmore (and last Christmas, which I definitely didn’t do the day after Christmas like I was hoping for last year). Details on how I make our family videos here!
3. New Year’s fondue. A few years ago, my girls started talking endlessly about our traditional New Year’s Eve fondue (which…I didn’t realize was a tradition after a year), so we invited a bunch of cousins ​​over and had a really fun New Year’s Eve. Now it’s really a tradition, so on New Year’s Eve there will be chocolate fondue and a wide variety of dips.
4. Start White Collar with Ani. A couple of years ago, we watched all seasons of White collar with Ella and now that Ani is 13, she’s eager to have her turn. Frankly, this is my favorite show of all time, so I’m excited to watch it again and the Christmas holidays are the perfect time to start!
5. Planning date 2026. One of my favorite traditions during the Christmas holidays is the day Bart and I spend together working on our goals and plans for the coming year. I wrote a whole post about it here, if you’re curious. It’s a great time for us to really think about what we want the year ahead to bring us, plan trips, think about our business goals and what we want our family life to look like!
6. Frame all our Christmas cards. I’ve wanted to do this for years (I have all of our Halloween photos framed and love putting them out every year) and would love to have a similar set of all of our Christmas cards that we’ve sent out over the last 15 years. I’ve had them in a box for too long!
7. Plan my office makeover. My office has been about 80% done for the last 4 years. In 2026, I’d like to make it look FINISHED (and more user-friendly) and hope to spend some time over the Christmas holidays on Pinterest figuring out what I want my office to look like!
8. Get a massage. I received a gift certificate for a massage from a friend for my 40th birthday in September and you better believe I’ll be cashing it in over the Christmas holidays! I have the program and I can’t wait!

What’s on your list for the Christmas holidays? I’d love to know how you spend your free time!

If you liked this post about my Christmas vacation plans, you might also like these other posts: