I don’t want to stress you out, but Christmas is coming. This week is Thanksgiving!
My goal every year is to have a less stressful Christmas season without giving up anything. I realized that in order to do that, I have to start early, divide my tasks and delegate where possible. One thing I’m doing to streamline the Christmas season is by freezing cookie dough in advance. You can read about my first two cookies here and here.
The past two weeks, I’ve been giving you some helpful hints to try and help you get ready for Christmas without pulling out your hair. There is no behind, so if you want to catch up with me, please read part 1 and part 2 of this series.
Week 5 To-Do list
1) Hopefully you’ve given some thought to your Christmas cards by now. If you’re going to mail them and if you intend to order photo cards, it really is time to get that done. Mailing and printing time will begin to increase as the holidays get closer and it takes time to address, stuff and mail the cards. If your cards are on their way, consider doing other things to get your cards going. Verify addresses, write up your lables in word document, order address labels, buy stamps, etc.
2) How’s that gift spread sheet coming? I’ve already started to shop. I have more to buy, but my gift ideas are cementing and I’ve begun ordering and buying. I don’t want to be in the stores buying gifts at ALL the week prior ot Christmas, so getting this done early is important. If you need to mail gifts, it’s doubly important that you make sure you have the turn around time you need.
3) As you buy gifts, wrap them. That means if you don’t have wrapping paper, ribbon, gift tags, bows and tape, it’s time to buy that too. Santa doesn’t put gift tags on presents at our house. He wraps each girl’s gifts in different paper. My point? Don’t forget your santa paper. Last year I had a mountain of presents to wrap. I won’t do that again this year. I don’t find wrapping marathons to be fun at all!
4)If you do advent calendars with your kids, make sure you’ve got what you need. THe first is coming up quick! I’ll be sharing my 2010 advent activities with you tomorrow.
5) Pencil in those Christmas activities so you don’t miss out on anything you’d like ot do
6) Consider getting your outdoor decorations up while the weather is still mild and before it gets too cold.
7) Schedule any services you need to have finished before the holidays. I’ll be calling the carpet cleaner. Do you need to kennel your dog? Do you have any reservations to make? Special orders? It’s time. Stress free. Call now.
8) THis week, I’ll be deep cleaning the little girls room and the hall bathroom. We have some hardware to hang, some windows to clean, some dusting to do and some baseboards to vacuum.
Big Daddy and me plus our three little chicks. I'm a slightly obsessed, slightly scattered, homemaker crafting and cooking my way through busy days with our trio and grabbing at all of my loose ends. I hope to inspire struggling homemakers to embrace their inner crafty beast, to find some organization and rhythm and to tie all of their loose ends into pretty (though sometimes messy) bows.
