Day Nine

The 12 Days of an Alternative Christmas

For the person who has no time off.

December talks a lot about slowing down.

About rest.
About switching off.
About taking a break.

For some people, that is not an option.

If you have no time off this Christmas, the season can feel strangely disconnected from your reality.

Work continues and deadlines remain.

The pace does not soften just because the calendar says it should.
You might be holding a business together and keeping a team paid.
Making decisions while everyone else talks about holidays.

Tim Ferriss writes often about systems and leverage.
But underneath that is a simple truth.
Not everyone gets to stop at the same time.
Rest is not evenly distributed.

There can be guilt attached to this.
Guilt for not being present enough.
Guilt for checking emails.
Guilt for resenting the very work that keeps things moving.
Christmas messaging rarely acknowledges this.

It celebrates escape.
It assumes flexibility.
It treats time off as a moral reward rather than a structural privilege.

This post is not here to tell you to optimise your schedule.
It is not here to suggest better boundaries will magically appear.
It is here to say this.

Working through Christmas does not make you less human.
Needing to keep going does not mean you are doing life wrong.
You are allowed to feel tired and proud at the same time.
If rest comes in fragments, that still counts.

This series is for the people keeping things running quietly.
From key workers, to emergency services, to people on stand-by, reservists, multiple-job-keepers and more. Thank you.

Remember: I am writing this as someone who does not have it all together.

This is not positivity. It is presence.

If this landed, it is because you are not alone, even when it feels like you are.

I wish you good health this Christmas.
Truly.
Dave
The and. team
Debbie Halls-Evans

PS.
I am writing this series because the non stop marketing campaigns and messaging of Christmas idealisms can leave a lot of people unseen.
This is not about doing more and not about fixing anyone.
It is an invitation to notice and to think and to see.

One day at a time.

This is Day Nine.