Embracing Christmas Competitions & Family Fun

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Table of Contents

Podcast Description

We’re officially in the December holiday season which for me means letting go of a lot of the usual business routines and swapping out for even more family traditions.

In this episode, I’m sharing the replay to an interview I did for Deanna Seymour’s Anti-Hustle Holiday Series. In this episode, I shared what it’s like to spend Christmas Eve at my house filled with competitions, cookie baking and lots of fun!

Links Referenced in Episode:

▶ Grab the Anti-Hustle Holiday Series Private Podcast

▶ Check out my mom blog for Christmas game posts

Connect with me:

Website | Instagram

Episode Transcript

(Note: This is a formatted AI-generated transcript to make it easier for you to read through, but is not an optimized blog post. Please excuse any spelling or grammar errors and filler words – it’s just how I speak LOL)

Episode Intro

We’re officially in the December holiday season, which for me means letting go of a lot of the usual business routines and swapping them out for even more family traditions. In this episode, I’m sharing the replay to an interview. I did for Deanna Seymour’s, Anti-Hustle Holiday Series, where I shared what it’s like to spend Christmas Eve at my house, filled with competitions, cookie baking, and lots of fun. So grab your favorite cup of hot cocoa or your favorite drink and let’s dive into this fun episode.

Hey, I’m Lucy Reyes, your host of the Cheerful Productive Chats Podcast, where I’m on a mission to help online entrepreneurs like you focus on all the right things and kiss overwhelm goodbye. Here, you’re going to learn strategies that will boost your productivity so that you can scale your online biz and impact lives sooner. It’s your time to shine so let’s get started!

My Interview on the Anti-Hustle Holiday Series

Hey, welcome back to the Cheerful Productive Chats Podcast. I have a fun and different episode for you today. A few weeks ago, I was interviewed by my biz friend and logo designer, Deanna Seymour, for her anti-hustle holiday series.

It’s all about de-stressing over the holidays and features different online business experts, sharing various holiday traditions. I have personally been binging these episodes, especially now that we’re in December and I am in full Christmas mode. And they are so good.

And it’s not just Christmas ideas, it’s holidays in general. And so you can take these ideas and maybe find a new tradition or two for you to incorporate this December.

But listening to these episodes gave me the idea of bringing my episode to you here on my podcast, because, in case you didn’t know, or in case you just found out. I am a huge Christmas lover. Like we go all out in my family and enjoy a full month of Christmas-y things.

So in my episode with Deanna, I shared about our own traditions, including Christmas game competitions and cookie baking activities. So you’re interested in hearing more about my own Christmas traditions, and maybe even get some ideas for your own, here’s my interview replay from the Anti-Hustle Holiday Series, private podcast.

Episode Replay: Christmas Competitions, Family Fun & a Healthy Dose of Icing

Deanna Setmour: Happy Holidays! It’s another episode of the Anti Hustle Holiday Series. Today I’m chatting with Lucy Reyes from Cheers to Productivity. She helps you with productivity and strategy to avoid overwhelm when running your online business.

And I’m so excited to chat with her today. We have two topics we’re going to cover, so get excited. Uh, hi Lucy! How’s it going?

Lucy Reyes: Hi! I’m so excited to be here and to talk with you.

Deanna Setmour: Yes! Okay, so you polled your family about what their favorite traditions were. Is that true?

Lucy Reyes: Yes.

Deanna Setmour: And they came back with two answers. So those are the two things we’re going to talk about. But I’m going to let you decide what order we talk about them in.

Lucy Reyes: Okay, yeah, no problem. So yeah, when I got your email about like, hey, Let’s talk about Christmas. I’m like, yes, this is my absolute favorite holiday. We go all out for Christmas. And so I love the topic.

And I asked my son first, I was like, Hey, when we, when I ask you like what Christmas traditions we have in our family, like what’s the first thing that comes to your mind?

And he’s like decorating cookies. So we’ll decorate gingerbread cookies, like I’ll bake some. Actually, they’re not gingerbread, like flavored, we actually do like sugar flavored and then we’ll, we’ll just have a bunch of different like icings and, and shapes and everything. And we’ll just go out the table and we’ll just decorate like fun little cookies. And then obviously his favorite part is eating all the icing.

Deanna Setmour: I was gonna say, I sense an ulterior motive here for your son.

Lucy Reyes: Yeah. I feel like that’s why he likes that the best.

Deanna Setmour: Okay, so wait, I have follow up questions about these cookies. So you’re saying they’re sugar cookies, not gingerbread cookies.

Lucy Reyes: Yeah, they’re like gingerbread shaped. Okay. And then we’ll have like some candy canes, some Christmas trees, some stars.

Deanna Setmour: Okay, so these are like cutting them out with the cookie cutters, and then you get to like put icing, put sprinkles, like. But it’s your canvas. It’s your canvas after that to do what you will with it. Okay, that’s fine. Let’s just get icing on it as quick as possible and then eat it. I like that style. Okay, perfect.

Do you ever, like, feel like it’s competitive at all? Like, do people, are people, like, trying really? Is there, like, different personalities in your family too? I feel like we have different Like someone wants to just hurry up and eat it, somebody wants it to be perfect, or like, how does that play out in your cookie decorating?

Lucy Reyes: Yeah, so at first it started with just like us, like here in my household. But lately, the past few years, sometimes my husband’s family will come over, sometimes my siblings will come over.

So if all of us are over, there’s definitely like different personalities. Some people are taking a really long time to make their, my husband actually is one of those, who’s like trying to make his so perfect, so perfectly outlined.

Deanna Setmour: And then you have the kids that are just like, like mixing all the colors, it’s brown, they’re like, who cares, it’s raining, it’s raining. Yes, and putting as much icing as possible on their cookies.

Yes, you know, I feel like I was just telling my husband the other day that I secretly want to learn how to Ice cookies, like the people I feel like I follow on Instagram and the people on the Food Network and the cookie challenges, like the, what is that, royal icing, when they like outline it and then they fill it and they have that little like, needle thing. I’m like, those are so pretty, and I’m like, maybe one day, like, when my kids are older and don’t want to hang out with me and I have time to breathe, I can, Try to do that.

But some cookies are really fancy, but we’ve decorated cookies as a family. And we’re not talking about that kind of caliber there. We’re talking about memories, not winning any cookie competitions at my house for sure.

Lucy Reyes: That’s a good idea though. I think we might, you just gave me an idea to like incorporate some sort of cookie decorating contest into the games that we do for Christmas.

Deanna Setmour: Yes. Okay. So this is round two. This I’m like, it’s round two. I’m getting serious because of the games. It is topic number two, which you said you asked your husband and he said the games. Okay.

I want to hear more about the games. Cause I feel like we need some games in our house. I think it was. Season one of the series, Liz Mosley talked about doing, like, her grandma made this house out of cardboard and, like, cotton balls and there were presents in it.

So we’ve been doing that. But it also doesn’t really feel like a game. It just feels like me going to buy stuff and wrap it and put it in the house. So when you said games, I was like, okay, my kids are getting older. How can we do some, like, games? So, tell me all the things.

Lucy Reyes: Yeah, so we have so many like Christmas specific games and so I actually started as a blogger and on my mom blog I have like full blog posts with like how to play these games, these Christmas games.

Deanna Setmour: Okay. I love it. I’m going to be there. I’m going to be taking notes. Okay.

Lucy Reyes: But we have one that’s really popular that we play, which is a Saran Wrap Ball Game, which is where we’ll put like a bunch of like little stuff. We’ll wrap it in saran wrap and then we’ll pass it around. So it becomes this big old ball. Like, I don’t know how, like two feet.

Deanna Setmour: Oh, okay. Okay. That’s a big ball. All right.

Lucy Reyes: It’s a really big ball. Just all saran wrap. There’s a bunch of stuff. You can put like money, batteries, like whatever little gadgets inside. And then we’ll have, everyone has oven mitts, they’ll have a Santa hat, and we’ll have dice, so they have to roll it.

And they have to roll it until they get doubles. And so the person who’s next in line, they’re trying to unwrap as much as possible because they keep all the prizes. And then once the person rolls the doubles, then it’s the next person. And so it’s kind of like, One of those games where everyone wins something.

Deanna Setmour: Uh huh.

Lucy Reyes: And so that one is really, like, super fun because it’s really hard to put on the oven mitts too.

Deanna Setmour: I know, well, I’m like, who’s wearing the oven mitts? The person rolling the dice or the person unwrapping?

Lucy Reyes: The person unwrapping.

Deanna Setmour: Okay, so yeah. Well, I’m like, either way, I think that would be hard to do with oven mitts. I’m like, are those persons, like, rolling these dice with oven mitts? Or they’re trying to unwrap Saran Wrap, which I feel like you need your fingernails. Like that would feel virtually impossible, but probably once you get it going, you do it. Okay. I’m already strategizing. Can you tell? I’m like, I’m gonna win this prize, but everybody gets to win.

Lucy Reyes: No, like you want to make sure when you’re making the ball, you want to like wrap it in different ways. Oh, so that way it’s not just like. Unwrap and then you’re just like easily unwrapping the ball. Okay. You want to like make it tight and like rip it and then reposition the wrapping paper.

Deanna Setmour: Oh, like start it again and then with oven mitts, they have to find a saran wrap starting point. So forget about it. Your turn is over. They’re going to roll those doubles before you. Okay. I love that.

Lucy Reyes: Yeah. It’s so fun. And then we have another one that we also play with oven mitts, which is, it’s the Oven Mitt Game where we put a prize, we put it inside of a box. Sometimes we’ll do like the multiple boxes, and it’s wrapped in wrapping paper.

And it’s the same concept where with oven mitts they have to unwrap the wrapping paper, open the box, whoever gets the prize ends up winning the prize.

Deanna Setmour: Uh huh, uh huh, okay, alright. This is also reminding me of an episode of Bluey. I don’t know, I don’t know how old your kids are if you’re into Bluey at your house, but I think they like pass a present around. Where they pass something around, kind of like the styrofoam, er, not styrofoam, saran wrap. And when the music stops, that kid at the birthday party gets to keep that.

But there’s like some shenanigans. I’m off on a tangent. Sorry, I just really love Bluey, and now I’m like, oh my gosh, Bluey and a fun game, sold. Well, what other games do you have? Do you have other games?

Lucy Reyes: Yes.

Deanna Setmour: Okay, give them to us. Give them to us.

Lucy Reyes: Okay. Okay. We have another one where it’s a Christmas Candy Cane Game. And so that one, it’s, we lay out a bunch of candy canes in the middle of like this big old white table. And then there’s two people on each end of the table, and they have a candy cane in their mouth.

So the little hook is sticking out and they have their hands behind their back and they’re trying to get as many candy canes over into a red plastic cup at the end of the table. Okay.

So it’s really hard because you can’t use your hands. You have to bend over and hook the candy canes, put them into the cup and hope that the cup doesn’t tip over. Because then you have to put all of them inside of the cup without your hand. And so that one’s timed. We usually do like a minute. Okay. So they’ll have a minute to put as many candy canes in the cup.

Deanna Setmour: Okay, okay. I’m putting you on the spot, but I’m like, what’s the record? Do you guys have a record?

Lucy Reyes: I’m usually pretty good.

Deanna Setmour: You’re like, I don’t want to brag, but it’s me. I’m the record holder.

Yeah, no, we’re super competitive. And this, most of these games actually started like within my family. Like my aunts and uncles, so I have like more experience. And so I brought them over into my family. And now we do it with like my siblings and my husband’s family. And so it’s a lot of fun.

Deanna Setmour: I love that.

Lucy Reyes: We’re super competitive.

Deanna Setmour: Well, I feel like it’s fun. Like, the candy cane one is fun for the people doing it, but also probably hilarious for the people watching. As a lady who’s had two babies, I’m like, y’all better go pee before you start laughing so hard at this game that you’re going to, like, pee your pants. Cause you better have a strong pelvic floor. Just saying. Inappropriate.

Lucy Reyes: Yeah. Yeah.

Deanna Setmour: Oh my gosh. Okay. Give us, can you give us one more?

Lucy Reyes: Yeah, I think this is probably the last one this last one is like more simple, but it’s still it’s surprisingly really fun. Like it’s one of those games where it’s like It doesn’t look like it would be fun because it’s so simple, but it actually is.

So we’ll, we’ll buy like a bag of Skittles or M& M’s and you know, they’re all mixed colors. And so each person has like five or six cups, however many colors there are. And they have to, with one hand, have to separate the colors and the cup. They have a minute to get as many as possible.

And so it’s, like that’s the game but it’s actually hard because every single color has to be in its correct cup and then sometimes the cups fall and so the M& M’s will roll all over the place.

So I think it’s that one I feel like it’s more fun for the people to watch because they’re seeing like, oh man, and then you know. This one I feel like it’s harder for like men with like big hands, which like my husband has. It gets stuck in the cup and then he takes it out and then the cup tips over and then it’s like.

Deanna Setmour: So wait, is it more than one person going at one time? Like racing?

Yeah, so it’s like a, it’s, yeah, that one is a race. So it’s usually like four people. Okay. And then whoever gets done first.

Deanna Setmour: Oh my gosh, I love this. So do you guys have like a game night, like, do you, like, put it on the calendar and you’re like, Okay, everybody come over, we’re gonna play these games, or do they just pop up surprisingly, you’re all together, and you’re like, Oh my god, we have a bag of M& Ms, let’s do this! Or like, here’s some candy canes! How do you do it?

Lucy Reyes: We do it on Christmas, so it’s, uh, like a Christmas actual day tradition. The games are. Okay. The cookies, we usually do, like, Christmas Eve.

Deanna Setmour: Yeah! Oh my gosh. So fun! Alright, well, I’m definitely gonna do some of these. Okay, we’ll tell the people about the blog so they can, if they’re listening right now and they’re like, well, I want to play these games. What was your blog or is your blog that they can go find those on?

Lucy Reyes: And so the blog where I have like the details on the Christmas games is my mom blog, which is cheerstolifeblogging.com. There’s a bunch of stuff on there about, there’s like where you can get like Skittles Cheat Sheets and rules and stuff like that too.

Deanna Setmour: Okay. Awesome. But when we’re done taking our break and we want to get back to business and we need to talk about that strategy and that productivity, where can they find you for all those tips?

Lucy Reyes: Yeah, so you can find me at cheerstoproductivity.com. I have a free quiz that you can take that’ll help you figure out what type of planner you are, that will send you a collection of my podcast episodes from my public podcast, the Cheerful Productive Chats, to help you plan and organize your business. So that’s at cheerstoproductivity.com/quiz.

Deanna Setmour: Oh, and that’s perfect for January when we’re ready to like sort our lives out after we’ve sorted Skittles, sorted candy canes, rolled doubles, then we’re ready to get productive. Oh my gosh. Thank you so much, Lucy, for being here. This was awesome. And my kids are going to be excited that we recorded this episode. Cause they will get to play more games this Christmas.

Lucy Reyes: Yeah. I would love to know what happens.

Deanna Setmour: I will keep you posted for sure.

Episode Wrap-Up

And we’re back. I hope you enjoyed this interview. If you want to hear all the other hilarious and fun stories and traditions from business owners you love, head to antihustleholiday.com to get access to that private podcast feed with the rest of the episodes for just $9.

100% of the profits get donated. That’s not even an affiliate link, but it’s such an amazing private podcast feed with so many episodes.

So, if you are feeling the holiday spirit, if you celebrate some, some different holidays this December, now is a time to go listen to that episode or to those episodes, so that way you can truly de-stress this holiday season and maybe find some new traditions to bring into your own household.

We’re still in the beginning of December, if you’re listening to this live, which means there’s plenty of time left for you to get ideas on how to a jolly up your holiday season. Just saying. All right. My friend, I will be back next week with part two of blowing up my business.

Thank you so much for listening to the Cheerful Productive Chats Podcast with me, Lucy Reyes. To view the complete show notes and all the links mentioned in today’s episode, visit cheerstoproductivity.com/50. And before you go, make sure you follow wherever you’re listening so you know once the next productive chat is released. Talk soon and choose your productivity and success.