You Can Have A Sress Free Holiday Season
Every year when the holiday is over, you probably say to
yourself "I'm going to be a little better prepared before the
next Holiday Season". You can even if you haven't made any plans
yet. Here are just a few tips that can help:
1. Holiday
time means company or someone popping by unexpectedly, so first
of all have your house in order. Get everything cleaned up and
make an effort each day to keep it that way. This will be a lot
less stressful than just waiting and trying to straighten things
up when you get notice that someone is coming by. And again,
what if they just pop in? Take 15 minutes each morning to put
things back in there place, along with your usual household
chores, just don't let the chores or laundry pile up.
2. Have your kitchen prepared. Company means food, so start now
purchasing a few of the items that you know that you are going
to need for the Holiday baking. It will be a lot less impact on
your budget to do this, than to wait till the week of
Thanksgiving or Christmas and then be faced with all the food
shopping.
3. Plan to make the holidays a time to relax
as well as the special time that I know you all want it to be.
Keep a calendar of events that you plan to attend and don't book
too many things together in the same week. If one of your
friends generally give a party the second week of Dec., politely
ask them if they plan on doing so again this year, and write it
on your calendar. Don't forget the kid's activities. Mark them
on the calendar as soon as you are told about them, and make
their activities blend with the schedule. 4. Christmas means
gift giving time, so start your shopping as early as possible.
Be responsible and don't go over-board. One of the worst
feelings is for Christmas to be over and then the credit card
bills arrive. Make a budget that is within your income level
(without purchasing on the credit cards), and stick to it. Plan
to do a lot of your shopping online. Most of the companies will
have their advertised specials right on their home page, so can
take advantage of any savings.
5. Gift wrapping is time
consuming and can get expensive if you let it. I always hit the
local dollar stores late November and purchase a handful of gift
bags that have the holiday designs. Gift bags are great for odd
size packages and gifts. I keep several spools of curly ribbon
on hand all thru the year and you can just tie some ribbons to
the handles, run the scissors down the edge of the ribbon and it
will make them curl. Kid's gifts especially are targets for gift
bags. Another great idea is to use newspaper. I had an unusually
large gift to wrap for a wedding one time, and I used newspaper
to wrap it. I found some pages from the Sunday paper that had
recipes with pictures and made sure that the recipes were
readable after the package was wrapped. I tied it with silver
ribbons. Everyone made remarks about what a great idea that was.
So, if money is an issue, save some on the gift wraps and use
brown paper bags, newspaper or gift bags. If you wrap kid's
gifts in brown paper bags, try putting stickers all over it with
a big red ribbon.
6. Decorating your home? Make it a
tradition to use decorations year after year and just purchase
one or two new items if you absolutely have to. Some of my most
precious memories are unveiled when I pull out the boxes of
Christmas Decorations. I attend a memorial service on the second
Saturday in Dec., in memory of loved ones that have passed away.
We get a little glass angel each year as a gift at the memorial
service and I put it on the tree. You can find lots of simple
decorations at the dollar store, and especially if you have
little ones, this is a great idea. Let them enjoy the tree and
all the festivities, by making paper decorations or popcorn
strings, things that won't break and that won't matter if they
get pulled off or fall on the floor. Get a coloring book with at
the dollar store, purchase some colored construction paper. Cut
out the outlines from the coloring book and use it as pattern to
cut out figures or designs on the construction paper. Use a hole
punch at the top and thread some ribbon thru, and you've got
homemade decorations that the kids can help make, and it won't
cost an arm and a leg. Keep the decorating simple and let the
kids help. It will make for an enjoyable time.
7. Keep
some of your family traditions or make some new family
traditions. Holiday time is memory making time, so if you have
family traditions or things that your folks did when you were
little, why not introduce the idea to your kids. If you can't
think of any old family traditions, then make some new ones. For
instance we always sang Christmas Carols sitting around the tree
on Christmas Eve. Another thing that you could do is have one
evening as 'open house'. Get together with a sister or family
member and plan a simple menu or let all your guests bring a
dish and have an evening of fun. Sing carols, play a few games
and have door prizes. Our family get-together is always so much
fun. If you think you can't afford a party, here's an idea. Tell
all your guests to bring one gift (set a dollar limit) for a
prize raffle. Tell them ahead of time that the prizes are going
to be raffled to help pay for the cost of the food, etc. You or
the hostess keeps the money for reimbursement for the expense of
the food. Combine this with letting everyone bring a dish, and
you can have a party without much expense. We've done this
several times and it is a big hit. It's a way to get a few last
minute gifts to have on hand if someone comes to see you
unexpectedly.
These are just a few ideas that you can
use to help have a Holiday season without the stress. Bottom
line, put your thinking cap on, and keep it simple.