Christmas vs Summer: How To Navigate the Holiday Seasons
For Virtual Assistants, the calendar isn’t just marked by client deadlines - it’s shaped by the ebb and flow of the holiday seasons. During our recent team call, we dug into how summer and Christmas holidays impact our workload, what challenges we face, and the strategies we’ve found to keep things balanced.
What became clear is that while both seasons bring a natural “pause” in business activity, the way they unfold for VAs is completely different. Summer is a slow trickle, Christmas is a full stop. And managing each requires a different mindset.
Summer vs Christmas: Why They Feel Different
Jess opened with the obvious question: “Why is it that in summer we want the work, but at Christmas we don’t?”
The team agreed the difference lies in timing and energy. Summer holidays are scattered across six to eight weeks. One client may take two weeks in July, another in August, and others may stagger shorter breaks. It creates a rolling quiet patch, but not a complete shutdown. Work still trickles in, and clients are often dipping in and out themselves.
Christmas, however, is a collective pause. As Laura put it:
“Everyone has Christmas Day on the 25th of December. It’s a more concentrated period of time that everyone is partaking in.”
This makes Christmas feel like a universal reset button. People switch into “family mode,” inboxes fall silent, and businesses essentially shut down. Hadassah noted that the shared downtime actually makes things simpler:
“In the winter it almost mutual - we’re not working, and all together at the same time. Whereas in the summer, one of us is away and the other is still trying to get something done.”
It’s not just about workload - it’s about collective mindset. Christmas feels like a cultural full stop; summer feels like patchy slow motion.
Which Is Trickier to Manage?
For many VAs, both seasons have their challenges, but for different reasons. Jess admitted that the festive period often brings more financial stress:
“I typically find Christmas harder financially. I’m already thinking there’s two weeks I won’t be earning, but still need to cover presents and parties.”
At Christmas, there’s less opportunity to “catch up” with other clients - because everyone is off. Summer, while quieter, can still offer that trickle of projects across different clients. The challenge there is mismatched availability: a VA might be working while the client is on a beach somewhere, or vice versa. That can lead to misaligned expectations or missed opportunities.
Hadassah summed it up neatly: “Christmas is aligned absence, summer is misaligned absence. And misalignment often creates more day-to-day friction.”
Preparing for the Christmas Shutdown
Preparation is everything when it comes to the Christmas lull. The team agreed that conversations should start early - ideally by October.
Laura suggested a gentle approach:
“Even if it’s not directly related to work, just ask ‘What are your plans for Christmas?’ It helps you figure out how long clients might be away.”
These casual questions create a picture of the client’s availability - whether they’ll be out of the country for three weeks or just offline for Christmas Day. From there, VAs can plan workload and income around the gaps.
Hadassah emphasised that clients often don’t often understand the financial implications for VAs:
“If I don’t have two weeks of work, I’m going to get half my income this month. Clients often don’t realise that.”
This highlighted a bigger truth: many clients forget VAs are business owners too. Educating them about how holiday lulls affect income not only builds respect but helps create an early awareness helping set boundaries for December.
The January Rush
If December is the full stop, January is the explosion. Clients return with “big project energy,” full of fresh ideas and new year ambitions. For VAs, that can feel overwhelming.
Jess summed it up:
“January can be hell. Every client wants everything from you all at the same time.”
To avoid being blindsided, Hadassah suggested getting ahead of the rush:
“Book a meeting for January before the break. Use it to prioritise, pin projects to realistic timelines, and if needed, raise whether hours need to increase.”
This approach not only helps manage workload but also puts VAs in control of the conversation. Instead of clients unloading everything at once, the VA guides them into a structured plan, spreading projects across weeks rather than days.
Laura added that this only works if the meeting is locked in before Christmas:
“Otherwise you’ll get to January and they all want that meeting on the first day back.”
The key message? January doesn’t need to feel like chaos if conversations happen early. We can channel the excitement into a plan, rather than mass overload.
Do Clients Expect Us to Work Over Christmas?
One of the most challenging discussions was around client expectations. Some clients assume VAs will “hold the fort” while they take time off. But that often clashes with a VA’s own need to step away.
Jess voiced the dilemma:
“I want to do a good job, and I am aware that clients rely on our support, but if I work throughout Christmas just to make clients happy, I’ll sacrifice my own time off, make myself really unhappy and feel resentful when January comes.”
Laura shared a middle-ground strategy:
“I will always try and compromise, I sometimes say I’ll check emails every few days and keep things ticking along. Clients are usually happy with that middle ground.”
The takeaway was clear: there’s no universal rule. Boundaries must be agreed on a client-by-client basis. The only non-negotiable? Those conversations must happen early, not on Christmas Eve.
Making the Most of Summer
While Christmas is about protecting downtime, summer is about making the most of the quieter weeks. With fewer client demands, VAs can use the space to tackle “back-burner” projects - think systems upgrades, marketing refreshes, or process improvements.
Jess mentioned nudging clients towards prep work for later in the year, though she admitted it isn’t always easy:
“It’s not always easy getting clients to think that far ahead.”
Still, positioning summer as a strategic window for background projects not only helps VAs stay busy but adds value for clients who might otherwise let the time drift by.
The “Perfect” Christmas Break
To wrap up, we asked: If you could design your perfect Christmas as a VA, what would it look like?
The consensus was:
Advance client conversations in October/November.
Clear agreements on what’s covered during the break - and what isn’t.
A structured January plan, so projects are staggered rather than dumped.
True downtime where VAs can fully disconnect without guilt.
Because ultimately, the holidays are about balance: delivering for clients while also protecting our own time, income, and energy.
Final thought: Whether it’s the “quiet demand” of summer or the “full stop” of Christmas, holidays are never just downtime for VAs. They’re periods that test boundaries, planning, and communication. The trick is to align expectations early - so both VA and client start the new year refreshed rather than frazzled.
