I swear the holiday burnout starts earlier every single year. It used to creep in around Thanksgiving, maybe the week before Christmas if I was lucky. But now? I feel it in my bones by the time the last trick-or-treat bucket is dumped onto the living room floor. Halloween ends, the plastic skeletons get shoved back into their tubs, and suddenly the world expects me to become this glitter-covered, memory-making, festive superhuman with unlimited emotional bandwidth.
Meanwhile, I’m over here still trying to remember where I put the scissors and why my coffee from this morning is still sitting in the microwave.
People ask, “Why are you already feeling overwhelmed? It’s only November.”
And I laugh internally because if only they knew.
The Season Starts Early On This Homestead
For most families, November is still “fall mode.” Here? November kicks off the most chaotic stretch of our year — and it starts way before the Thanksgiving turkeys hit the shelves.
Every weekend in October and one in November, my mom and I run a concession stand for Nightmare on 19th Street in Lubbock. It’s fun, it’s family business, and honestly I do love it. But since we moved, it now requires 200+ miles of travel every single weekend. Yes… every weekend. With all the kids. With their schoolwork packed into backpacks so we can keep up with homeschool hours while living halfway out of the truck.
And then there’s my partner — who already puts in 50 hours a week as a manager for a fast-casual restaurant chain. Most men would call that enough. But not him. He clocks out of his long week, kisses us, and still trucks his bottom all the way to Lubbock to help out at the family concession stand because he is more man than most. He shows up tired, but he still shows up. Every single weekend.
Meanwhile my dad handles the weekend chores we leave behind while we’re gone — feeding animals, checking waterers, keeping the house from looking like a crime scene. The man deserves a medal, honestly.
This season isn’t just busy — it’s a marathon we run with kids, backpacks, travel mugs of coffee, and a whole lot of determination.
Fun, Exhausting, and Everything In Between
There’s nothing quite like serving hot cocoa and funnel cakes with your mom while the sound of screaming teenagers echoes through the haunted attractions next door. The nights are long, the energy is wild, and the memories are genuinely something special.
But it also means:
- Sleep schedules don’t exist
- Laundry sits in baskets looking at me with judgment
- Chickens get fed by whoever remembers first
- The kids are doing math worksheets with flashlights in the backseat
- Weekend rest? What is that? Truly, what is that?
By the time we get home Sunday night — after two hundred miles of “Are we there yet?” and “Can we stop for snacks?” — we fall into bed only to wake up Monday morning pretending we’re completely functional adults.
And that’s when the holidays decide to make their grand entrance.
The Holiday Expectations Hit Before You’re Ready
The minute the calendar flips to November 1st, the pressure begins:
“Are you ready for Thanksgiving?”
“Have you planned Christmas gifts yet?”
“What about the menu?”
“Are you doing Elf on the Shelf this year?”
“Have you booked holiday photos?”
“Are you coming to the Christmas event for the food truck?”
“Do you want to host?”
“Have you started December bakery preorders?”
And I’m standing there like…
Friend, I am still mentally in July.
It doesn’t matter how organized I try to be — the season just hits different when you’re already juggling travel, homesteading, homeschooling, business, and the emotions of little humans who rely on you for literally everything.
The burnout doesn’t wait for December.
It starts somewhere between the fourth weekend of concession-stand chaos and the first holiday commercial playing way too early on TV.
Holiday Burnout Starts Quietly
Burnout doesn’t crash into your life like a falling Christmas tree.
It builds itself quietly in all the little spaces:
In the extra trip to the store because you forgot the cinnamon.
In the chores waiting for you after a 200-mile round trip.
In the guilt over wanting to do everything “right” for your kids even though your tank is empty.
In the pressure to match everyone else’s highlight reel.
In the mental load of making the season “magical” when you barely have the energy to make dinner.
Most moms don’t even realize they’re burning out until the weight of it all finally hits.
That’s why I’m writing this series — because behind all the twinkly lights and cozy Pinterest boards, there are so many of us running on fumes, whispering:
“Why does this feel so hard?”
This Is Just the Beginning
This is Part One: the creeping overwhelm, the early-season exhaustion, the burnout that begins before the turkey even goes in the oven.
Part Two dives into the breaking point nobody talks about — the moment when the holiday magic turns into holiday mayhem and the mental load finally catches up with you.
And then Part Three…
That’s where I’ll share the big shift I’m planning for 2025 — including something I’ve been dreaming about for years:
starting a weekly podcast so we can have deeper, real, soul-level conversations that don’t fit inside a single post.
For now?
Deep breath.
Fresh cup of coffee.
And permission to admit that the holidays can be… a lot.
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