I hate it when a store plays Christmas music before Thanksgiving.
I rarely buy a single gift before Black Friday.
I never put up a tree until we have some leftover turkey in the fridge.
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| Check out the nose on our Cajun St. Nick! |
But I start planning for the holidays early!
The truth is that if I want to enjoy the holidays, from the cooking of the Thanksgiving turkey to the ringing in of the New Year and all the eggnog lattes that accompany that happy season, I have to start now.
There's just too much to do to wait.
If you haven't started planning for the holidays, there are some steps you should take right away to make the season less stressful.
NOTE: None of these require you to step inside of a toy store or put up a tree!
*Create a Holiday Project
The classic Giftie post about holiday projects gives you all the information that you need to plan a great holiday season.
You can create a holiday project in a holiday binder or right there in the project section of your planner.
*Pull Last Year's Holiday Lists
Use those pages to make this year's lists.
*Make Wish Lists
Don't limit yourself to a list for you. Make lists for kids and your spouse.
*Request Holiday Vacation Time
Make your request now so you beat the rest of the office.
*Plan Your Holiday Travel
Book your flights now.
Make your packing lists.
*Make Party Plans
Go ahead and send out invites now!
Start making lists of decorations and food that you will serve.
I know it's early, but all of these things either need to be done now or started in your planner.
Etcetera.
11 comments:
Thanks for sharing this with us at the 100 Happy Days linkup! I need to start preparing now. Thanks for the tips and suggestions!
I'm a planner too! So important to do it early!
To save money, time, and sanity, try to come up with 1 gift idea for multiple people. My husband and I buy for my parents, brother, grandma, and his parents. The rest of the family and friends get some mass produced (but not in China) food thing. Our first Christmas, I made Puppy Chow and filled that quart size mason jars with it. Boom, gift w/ reusable packaging. Last year, we did emergency s'mores kits. These took a little more time to price, gather, and put together, but they were a hit. I still haven't decided on this year's, and I need to get on it.
Holiday travel plans and parties are really important to get scheduled in early, just because there's usually so much going on during that season!
I don't like Christmas decorations or music until after Thanksgiving either. I try to wait until the Monday after Thanksgiving to really appreciate the Thanksgiving holidays. :) But planning for it is a different thing. I like to try to have the basic plan in place before Thanksgiving. That way, I have a general idea of what needs to be done and the time to accomplish those things.
It is scary to think how close the holiday season is! Thanks for giving us a heads up and some ideas at #AnythingGoes.
Being Canadian, we've already celebrated Thanksgiving in October and don't have that along with Christmas to plan for now. I don't know you in the US do it - my hat's off to you! On the other hand, you certainly really do have more of a holiday SEASON than we do with Thanksgiving being in there. Best wishes on all your planning!
Good list! Another one I do around this time each year is schedule our family holiday photo, which we use on our holiday cards. I can't believe it's coming up already! Thanks for sharing this post at the Manic Mondays blog hop!
Thanks for the great advice! I agree that some things need to happen early (even if I do hate the Christmas music at Halloween!). I'm going to take out my holiday planner this weekend and begin thinking through our plans. Thanks for sharing at My Flagstaff Home!
Jennifer
Good advice! Thanks for linking up to Home Matters Party. #HomeMattersParty http://cu-rio.net/home-matters-linky-party-62/
What a great reminder of all the things we need to plan for before it gets busy! I keep a list all year of gift ideas and try to buy a few ahead of time. Thanks for sharing on the Country Fair Blog Party, so maybe I can be a little more organized this year.
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