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Dig It with Jo Whiley and Zoe Ball
Dig It with Jo Whiley and Zoe Ball

44: Early Onset Festive Frazzle

December 10, 2025 • 36m

Summary

⏱️ 10 min read

Overview

Zoe Ball and Jo Whiley discuss the overwhelming nature of December, sharing personal stories about family milestones, health challenges, and navigating changing family dynamics during the holiday season. They cover Cass's graduation, Lando Norris's F1 win, their emotional connection to Strictly Come Dancing, and the bittersweet nature of Christmas when dealing with grief and aging parents. The episode balances heavier emotional content with lighter moments including a potato Christmas wreath tutorial and music recommendations.

Hitting the December Wall and Festive Frenzy

Zoe opens up about feeling completely overwhelmed by the relentless pace of December, describing the constant cycle of organizing, driving, and managing endless tasks. She shares a humorous disaster about discovering that mice have eaten their beloved family advent calendar, Mr. Snowman, which has been a tradition for 33 years. The conversation captures the exhaustion many feel at this time of year when everyone is running on empty but Christmas still feels weeks away.

  • Zoe describes hitting a wall with no time left in her life between driving, visiting, working, and organizing
  • The family's 33-year-old fabric advent calendar 'Mr. Snowman' was destroyed by mice in storage
  • Zoe feels like a failed mother for not securing the storage box properly
  • The general sentiment that Christmas should be now because everyone's exhausted, but it's still weeks away
" I feel like there is not a second of my life when I am not driving, visiting, working, sending emails, sending texts, organizing stuff. I feel like there is no time left to do anything at all. And I'm just exhausted. I've properly hit a wall. "
" It's the frenzy of December. "

Cass's Master's Graduation and Parental Pride

Zoe shares the emotional experience of attending her son Cass's master's graduation at the Royal Festival Hall. Despite thinking she wouldn't cry since it was 'only' his master's degree after already attending his undergraduate graduation, she was overcome with emotion watching the young graduates full of hope and potential. The ceremony featured performances from music students and a special appearance by Jarvis Cocker, who had taught at the institution.

  • Cass graduated with his master's from BIMM (British and Irish Modern Music Institute) in music production
  • The entire family attended including siblings Jude, Coco, and India, plus Steve
  • Jarvis Cocker attended and presented at the graduation, as he was connected to one of the lecturers
  • Cass can now call himself 'the master' while his brother Jude is doing a PhD to become 'the doctor'
" As soon as you walk in and you see your child with that mortarboard on their head, you're gone, floodgates opened. "
" You've just got these gorgeous children because they're still children they might be 21 or 24 in Cassie's case but they're still young people who have so their whole lives ahead of them and they're so excited and they're giddy and they're so full of life and hope and it's unbelievably moving. "

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