Things You Learn in Therapy
Things You Learn in Therapy
Day 4 - 25 days, 25 ways to a better Christmas morning
Day 4 - The quiet leap from “wish” to “promise” can turn a cheerful list into a Christmas morning flashpoint. We explore how kids interpret lists as expectations, why that creates friction, and the simple language you can use to keep the joy high and the drama low. Drawing from real family moments, we break down a short pre-holiday conversation that validates hope, sets loving boundaries, and gives you room to surprise. You’ll hear how to introduce clear limits without sounding harsh, and how to use the top-three method so your child feels heard while you stay realistic about budget and values.
By the end, you’ll have a simple toolkit for expectation-setting, prioritizing, and designing an unwrapping sequence that feels fair and fun. If you’re ready to swap uncertainty for clarity and keep the magic intact, press play and try the script with your kids tonight. If this helped, follow the show, share it with a friend who’s staring at a mile-long list, and leave a quick review to tell us your favorite expectation hack.
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Hey friends, day four of our 25 days, 25 Ways to a Better Christmas Morning. And uh today is about Christmas lists. So some of you may have your uh kiddo make a Christmas list, maybe they make them at school. Um maybe you need the Christmas list to make sure that you have something on the list uh under the tree, uh, whatever that might look like. So uh just a quick little reminder here that Christmas lists are great because I think it does provide us some of our kids' expectations. Uh, because you see, when they write it down, it's not just, oh, I would love for this to happen. Um, to some degree, this is sort of both their hope and their expectation, right? So um as you think about what they um have written on their list, or if you're gonna have them write a list, uh, it may be a good thing to remember that sometimes in their minds, uh they are kind of expecting these things. And so you might have to have a conversation. Um, otherwise they may be disappointed on Christmas morning if there is nothing from their list under the tree. Um, you know, sometimes I have my kids uh kind of circle, you know, the three things that they would really love to have and have them kind of think about what would be reasonable for um for Christmas morning, whatever that might look like for you. But just know that in their minds, even though they know it's a wish list, in a lot of ways, it's kind of an expectation list for them, at least for some things. Um, because on Christmas morning, you don't want to have the argument of I didn't get anything on my list. And then you go down this kind of rabbit hole of you're being ungrateful, and the kid kind of went into it with the list and they told you exactly what they wanted, and then you didn't get it, and then it's blah blah blah. All right. So uh just go into it preparing ahead of time for those things if you are having them create a list. All right, we'll see you tomorrow.
