The holidays bring heaps of invisible labor, but we can do less—or do it better.
We’ve reached the season of lights and merriment. Which also means we’ve reached the season of invisible labor.
Every year we hear about the huge outlays of money on holiday gifts as a boost to the economy. But what about the huge outlays of time and energy?
I’m not the first to notice the irony of our singing about Santa Claus’s “making a list and checking it twice.” We celebrate Santa’s list-making, but the actual, endless Christmas admin is done by zillions of parents and other givers—many of them women—without recognition or thanks.