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Big Fat Positive: Pregnancy and Parenting (BFP)

Ep. 390: Holiday Q&A: Traditions, Santa, Gifts and More!

Big Fat Positive: Pregnancy and Parenting (BFP)

Laura Birek, Shanna Micko

Parenting, Comedy, Kids & Family

4.7 • 531 Ratings

🗓️ 22 December 2025

⏱️ 47 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

It’s Christmas week, and Shanna and Laura get festive answering listeners' holiday-themed questions in the special segment "Checkin' the Inbox!" They answer questions about handling the logistics of Santa, managing sibling jealousy during the gift-giving season, whether to do Elf on the Shelf and more! During the check-in, they share their families' plans for the holiday and discuss their gift ideas for their kids, their husbands (and each other!). In the special segment "Checkin' the Inbox: Holiday Q&A," Laura and Shanna. Finally, they share their BFPs or BFNs for the week. Shanna's kids are 6.5 and 9.5 years old, and Laura’s kids are 6.5 years old and 4.5 years old.


Topics discussed in this episode:

  • Navigating holiday overwhelm while juggling work, parenting and year-end transitions
  • Should I keep Christmas plans low-key and realistic or go all-out?
  • Holiday activities that help kids burn energy (and parents stay sane)
  • Navigating the mental load of gift-giving and holiday expectations
  • How kids’ interests change faster than we can shop
  • Whether or not to exchange gifts with other adults
  • The pressure to give “perfect” gifts vs. embracing simpler ones
  • Family traditions we carried over from childhood - and new ones we’re creating now
  • Holiday light displays as a new seasonal tradition
  • Elf on the Shelf: love it, hate it, or skip it entirely
  • How different families handle Santa
  • Big gifts vs. small gifts (and who should get the credit)
  • Fairness, siblings and navigating different ages during the holidays
  • Deciding which holiday expectations are actually worth the effort
  • Blending holiday traditions from different backgrounds
  • Finding ways to make the season feel special without overdoing it


Products, links, and resources mentioned in this episode:

-Tiny Chef

-Descanso Gardens Enchanted Forest of Lights

-LA Zoo Lights: Animals Aglow

-5 Nights at Freddy's Costume

-Harry Potter Legos

-Kids Pottery Wheel

-Labubu

-Menorahs at Target

-The Boar's Head Carol

-The Alex Theater


Past BFP episodes mentioned in this episode:

-Ep. 343 - (Where Shanna talks about giving her kids a trampoline for Christmas)


Connect with Us


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Big Fat Positive: A Pregnancy and Parenting Journey is produced by Laura Birek, Shanna Micko and Steve Yager.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Ho, ho, ho, and welcome to Big Fat Positive with Shauna and Laura. This week we have our weekly check-ins.

0:08.1

We have our special segment, a holiday check-in-the-in-box where we answer questions about gift-giving, holiday traditions, and more.

0:15.4

And we close with our BFPs and BFNs for the week. Let's get started.

0:23.0

Hello, everyone. Welcome to episode 390 of a big fat positive. Ho, ho, ho. It's Christmas week.

0:29.5

Ho, ho, ho. All right. So speaking of festive, we are going to do a holiday themed check-in. We're going to talk about

0:39.3

Christmas-y stuff since it's Christmas week when this airs. So, Shauna, you're up first. What do you

0:44.9

have to share with us this week? Well, Christmas is still a few weeks away, but let me tell

0:50.3

you, I can already see into the future that I am not going to be prepared at all for this

0:56.6

holiday. This time of year is just bananas for me. I mean, and it's for everybody, right? Especially

1:03.9

when you're a parent, but it's like Steve's birthday, my wedding anniversary, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Cece's birthday, birthday party.

1:13.6

You know, it's all just one after another, and I'm just working through that right now.

1:17.7

So I've got a birthday party coming up, Cece's actual birthday, we've still got Thanksgiving.

1:23.6

And I usually like to jump into the holiday spirit, like right away as soon as I can, but not this year at all.

1:32.1

So nothing has come out of the garage yet.

1:35.5

My girls are already asking, like, where are we going to put up the tree?

1:39.1

Where's the elf on the shelf and all this stuff?

1:41.6

And I'm just like, kids, one thing at a time.

1:45.7

One thing at a time. I'm already overwhelmed and we haven't even dove in to Cece's birthday yet. And it must be

1:50.8

stressful at work, right? Because things are wrapping up. Ah, yes, yes. And not just year-end stuff,

1:57.9

Laura. I don't think I've talked about this on the show yet, but I will be leaving

2:03.6

my full-time job that I've been at for eight years at the end of December, December 31st.

2:11.6

So on top of everything else, I'm like writing documentation about all the work I do and training people and getting ready for a huge transition and also like worrying like what am I going to do, starting to apply for jobs. So I am a very overwhelmed at the moment. So you're underwater a little bit already, even though we're a couple weeks out. I'm underwater. Yeah. Yes. But what are you, are you like traveling? Are you going anywhere? What's happening for actual

...

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