The most important entertaining you will do this year, and especially during the Christmas season, will be in your own home with family.
—EMILIE BARNES
Christmas Is Coming
Since I became a professional organizer, my motto has been: “If you do anything more than once in life, organize it and simplify it.” That means looking for ways to improve anything that you’re sure you’ll be doing again. When that happens, you’ll feel more confident the next time you approach the situation, and better results are assured.
The holiday season definitely gives us an opportunity for improvement because it comes every November and December, right on schedule. I’ve long felt, however, that Thanksgiving and Christmas can bring us great joy, and with good planning, they won’t be a big hassle at all.
My Story
While growing up, I should have watched more closely how the women in my family handled the holidays. Looking back, I can see how they were quite capable and actually quite impressive.
My mother was the queen of hosting overnight relatives, and I remember the time when we had twenty-five guests over the Christmas holidays. My twin aunts were always so far ahead of schedule that they leisurely enjoyed an annual holiday luncheon at the Marshall Field’s department store while shoppers scurried around them. My mother-in-law was an outstanding cook and always had a delightful Norwegian smorgasbord ready for guests. And my sisters-in-law were to be envied for selecting and mailing their gifts before the post-office lines stretched outside the door. Each relative had a strength I admired, and they all handled the holidays so well.
I never placed myself in the same category as the other women in my family. I found myself struggling to decide what Christmas gifts to buy in mid-December, usually fighting the crowds with my children in tow. Living in Chicago at the time, it seemed that my shopping adventures coincided with icy roads and prevailing snowstorms.
I confess to staying up late on Christmas Eve wrapping presents and putting the final touches on my Christmas Day table settings. I don’t even like to think about how I handled thank-you notes back then; with three children it was impossible to keep straight which presents came from whom.
I remember wondering, Why can’t I remember to start earlier each year? Isn’t there an easier way to handle the holidays?
Getting It Together
Personally, as I watched the capable women in my family, I realized they each had developed their own successful systems that took the stress out of the holidays. I, too, wanted to bring joy to other people and decided the holidays were as much a matter of organization as they were a matter of the heart. The two work together. Organization during the holidays is an expression of the heart.
And while I had the heart, it took me longer to find the systems. But I did, and you can, too! Let’s look at several practical tools to simplify the most complex time of the year.
Christmas Came Early This Year
My turning point came when I stumbled onto a very valuable insight. Every year, one particular event occurs eight weeks before Christmas. Do you know what that is? It is Halloween. That event is important to note because you can use those eight weeks from October 31 to December 25 as a structure to annually simplify and strategize your preparations.
Many people, myself included, have used Thanksgiving to trigger serious action steps for Christmas. It just didn’t seem right to commercialize Christmas by purchasing gifts before Thanksgiving. But that’s the problem. Waiting until after Thanksgiving does commercialize the holidays and puts us smack-dab in the middle of a mall with throngs of shoppers.
I also discovered that Thanksgiving is a “floating holiday.” Some years it falls four and a half weeks before Christmas, and other years it comes as early as three and a half weeks. That is why you hear people say, “It seems like Christmas came early this year.” Sometimes it does.
So check your calendar. If you are one of those people who relies on Thanksgiving to trigger your holiday energy, you should consider getting poised with your shopping list the day after Halloween—November 1.
Think of the Possibilities
Think of the possibilities if you kept all your holiday ideas in one place, divided up your tasks over eight weeks, and then followed your plan. You could be organized and less stressed for the holidays! This could be more of a reality if you would keep records from previous years and allow a time cushion for unexpected opportunities—or glitches.
Your Eight-Week Holiday Calendar
Notice the sample eight-week holiday calendar (on the following page) that can be used year after year. You can easily divide anything you need to do into this calendar.
Step 1: Fill in strategic dates to shape this year’s structure, such as Halloween, November 1, Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day (which are exactly the same two days of the week as Christmas Eve and Christmas Day). If you celebrate Advent, mark those Sundays as well.
Step 2: Write in all the holiday celebrations you plan to participate in. Of course, you will receive invitations during the holiday season for various Christmas parties, but for now, write down events that seem to happen year after year. For instance, perhaps your church has the annual Christmas pageant the Sunday night before Christmas Day. Mark that down. Maybe your parents host the annual family Christmas Eve celebration. Write that in. You might want to mark those events with a special symbol, such as a wreath or Christmas tree so they stand out as part of your seasonal celebrations.
Eight-Week Holiday Calendar
Step 3: Highlight all the vacation days you will have with the kids or grandkids when they are home from school. Do you know your husband’s work schedule? Does his office or factory shut down every year between Christmas and New Year’s? Will you have any relatives staying with you? What about your own vacation plans?
Step 4: Number the weeks in the margin of your eight-week calendar and your monthly calendar like a countdown to Christmas week—3, 2, 1, and enjoy! Since most holiday get-togethers and events fall on weekends between Thanksgiving and Christmas, your chart will demonstrate the importance of doing your holiday shopping before Thanksgiving. Here’s a sample schedule to accomplish your tasks in three phases over the eight weeks:
WHEN YOU HAVE OVERNIGHT GUESTS
Remember two key rules of successfully hosting family and guests during the holidays:
1. Keep them fed.
2. Keep them moving.
Phase 1: Gift Shopping and Wrapping
Eight weeks before: Shop and wrap one-third of your gifts.
Seven weeks before: Shop and wrap two-thirds of your gifts.
Six weeks before: Finish shopping and wrapping gifts.
Five weeks before: Start planning for Thanksgiving and vacation.
Phase 2: Decorations, Cards, and Mailings (between Thanksgiving and Christmas)
Four weeks before: Put up outdoor decorations and write Christmas cards.
Three weeks before: Set up the Christmas tree and decorate indoors. Mail gifts and cards.
Phase 3: Celebrations, Cooking, and Cleaning
Two weeks before: Attend and host parties. Bake and clean.
One week before: Grocery shop for Christmas meals and make final preparations for the big day.
Christmas Week: Celebrate Christmas and Enjoy!
You deserve a little down time, so take advantage of it.
New Year’s Day
Take down decorations, write thank-you notes, and start the New Year fresh.
Organize Your Gift Giving
One of the biggest aspects relating to the holiday is gift giving. Create a Christmas list template to use from year to year. The more organized your records, the less trouble you will have thinking of new gifts to purchase.
Begin by making a chart with five columns and list the following:
• Each person you plan to get gifts for
• Ideas of what you want to give
• The dollar amount you plan to spend
• What you actually give
• What you spend
Check off the last column with a flourish in red pen when your gift is all wrapped and ready to give!
 COMPLETED |
NUMBER AND NAME | IDEAS | ACTUAL GIFT ($ Spent) |
NEXT YEAR |
| 1. _____________ | ||||
| 2. Spouse | ||||
| 3. Child | ||||
| 4. Mom | ||||
| 5. Dad | ||||
| 6. Sibling | ||||
| Etc |
Gift-Wrapping Center Solutions
Not only is it important to shop early, you need to wrap your gifts in a timely manner, as well. Creating a gift-wrapping center will solve many of those late-night wrapping dilemmas. Stock a storage box with all of the gift-wrapping supplies you need.
Simplify your holiday wrapping-paper selection to two or three color schemes and stretch it by having large-print, small-print, and solid-colored wrapping paper. Warehouse clubs often sell wrapping paper in bulk with these styles. Consistently choose either folded squares or rolled paper to simplify storage. Fresh white tissue paper perks up any gift or wrapping to make any box more special.
Complete your package wrapping with a matching bow for packages you hand-deliver and ribbons for packages that need to be mailed. Don’t forget to purchase matching gift tags with room to write a sentence of warmth and love for the person you’re giving it to.
Keep a special pen, scissors, and tape in the gift-wrapping center, and don’t take those items to use elsewhere in the house. You don’t want to be hunting for a pen and Scotch tape at the last minute.
GIFT-WRAPPING CENTER
Simplify your wrapping time with a gift-wrapping center in a storage box you can store under your bed or in a nearby closet. Be sure to coordinate the colors of the gift-wrapping items to minimize wrapping clutter.
1. Wrapping paper
2. Bows and ribbons
3. Tissue paper
4. Gift tags
5. Scotch tape
6. Scissors
7. A special marking pen
The pen, scissors, and tape should never move from your gift-wrapping center.
Tips to Start Wrapping Early
To get yourself wrapping gifts early—before Thanksgiving—so that you can actually have time to enjoy the holidays, try these tips:
1. Turn on Christmas music to get yourself in the holiday mood for wrapping, even if it’s an Indian summer day outside.
2. Time how long it takes to wrap a package and multiply that figure by the number of gifts. Then you’ll have a rough estimate of how much time it’s going to take.
3. Wrap and label your gifts within a day or two of purchasing them. Picture yourself waking up rested for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.
4. Reward yourself when all your gifts are wrapped. Go out for coffee with a friend or shop for something for yourself. This can be a great motivator to get it all done!
Christmas Eve Surprise
Joan had always struggled with getting ready in time for Christmas, but she got excited about the idea of shopping early after I described it to her. She made some of her gifts in the fall, purchased others on sale, and ordered from catalogs before Halloween to simplify her shopping marathon. She told me that she was going to be prepared for this holiday season.
But when Christmas Eve arrived, she pulled her husband aside and whispered frantically, “Where are they?”
Looking confused he asked, “Where are what?”
“You know . . . the bags of Christmas toys that I bought last summer for the kids. I hid them in the garage, and now they aren’t there!”
“I don’t know,” he said. “They weren’t in those brown garbage bags that we sent off to Salvation Army last fall, were they?”
Suddenly the light dimmed in Joan’s sparkling eyes.
A Holiday Notebook to Ease Stress
In that painful moment Joan learned the very reason to get organized for the holidays: You just can’t remember everything. Even the best intentions can turn sour.
To avoid this scenario, create a holiday notebook to centralize all your lists and ideas. Find a simple but memorable (so you can find it) three-ring notebook, or you can use a section in your personal planner. Keep all your holiday organizing and plans in one place so everything is centralized and not floating around on scraps of paper. Keep your notebook next to your calendar at home and carry it with you when you go shopping. This will be a resource you can use year after year, too.
What should be in the holiday notebook?
• A list of people you plan to give presents to, what has been purchased, whether it is wrapped, and where it is stored (downstairs closet, under the stairway, or in what box in the garage). Don’t forget that bags are temporary and often moved during the year while labeled boxes are more permanent.
• Eight-week calendars from past years with your comments about what worked and didn’t work.
• Your holiday party menu and party plans. Include things you do annually so you don’t have to start from scratch.
Fortunately for Joan, the stores were still open on Christmas Eve, so she hopped in her car for some last-second shopping. Joan chose not to let what happened ruin her Christmas. But on December 26, she purchased a lovely angel-blue notebook so that she could record all her hopes and dreams (and gift-hiding places) for the next year. She started making notes right away.
Christmas was meant to be enjoyed, and by planning ahead, it’s easy!
—EMILIE BARNES, Christmas Is Coming
Final Steps for Simplifying Your Holidays
Three last areas must be looked at to see if they are complicating your holiday planning:
• Decorations
• Menus
• Meaningful traditions—or the lack of them
Simplifying Your Decorating
If your decorations cause you more anxiety than enjoyment, it is time to simplify. This is especially true if you seem to leave more of them packed away each year because you can’t be bothered.
• As you come across pictures of good decorating arrangements in magazines, clip them out and keep them in your holiday notebook to simplify your decorating time next year.
• Simplify your decorations by getting them up early in December. What you don’t put on display, give away to charity or a newlywed couple quickly so others can use them this year.
• Display decorations that bring you joy and warm your heart. This can be a creative manger scene, doll-like impressions of English carolers from the nineteenth century, or your favorite Christmas ornaments that mean something special to you. Decorating your home should be something you enjoy.
• When it comes time to decorate your tree, enlist the help of your children, or if they are too young, invite a girlfriend over to chat and hang ornaments with you. The task goes a lot faster with pleasant conversations.
• If you’re looking for motivation, plan a neighborhood gathering or invite everyone from work to come over for your annual Christmas party. Opening up your home works as a good motivator to get everything in place!
• Simplify your boxes by labeling them clearly. Limit the amount of storage space they will absorb for the other eleven months of the year.
Decorating early in December will get you and your family ready and excited for the holidays. But when the holidays are over, they’re over, so don’t dally putting the decorations away.
Simplifying Your Menu Planning
The easiest way to simplify holiday meals is to write down what was well-received in the past in your holiday notebook. You can record what type of meats and side dishes were big hits with the family. Included here is a traditional dinner that will save you time and stress at Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s.
The important thing is to be organized and give yourself every chance to succeed in the kitchen.
• You can purchase some of the basic ingredients for baking and cooking early in November so you don’t strain the food budget in December. This is a particularly effective strategy if you see something on sale.
• Cut down the amount of time you spend baking by hosting or attending a cookie exchange with your friends.
• Jot down how long it takes to make your favorite krumkake or batches of holiday cookies so that you know if you’ll have time to get everything baked when you have free time.
• Snap a picture of your family and friends enjoying their holiday meal. This pleasant memory will remind you how you decorated your table and what you served that evening.
Turkey Dinner Worksheet
Date/Occasion: Thanksgiving/Christmas Time: eat at 5:00
Number of Guests: 8 adults, 3 teenagers
| MENU | SERVING PIECE | GROCERY LIST |
| Turkey | good china platter | 20 lb. turkey |
| 28 slices of white bread | ||
| Stuffing | oblong bowl | onion-1C, 1/2C |
| celery-4C | ||
| Mashed Potatoes | big round bowl | eggs-3, 3 |
| poultry seasoning | ||
| Gravy | gravy boat | 4 1/2 lb. potatoes |
| butter-1/2 C | ||
| Green Beans | smaller round bowl | 12 oz. cream cheese |
| 3/4 C sour cream | ||
| Orange Jell-O Salad | dinner plate | etc. |
| Jellied Cranberry | small sauce dish | Extras: |
| soda milk | ||
| Rolls | basket | coffee |
| coffee cream | ||
| Apple Pie | ceramic pie plate | napkins |
| plastic wrap | ||
| Ice Cream | small dessert bowls | aluminum foil |
| COOKING TIMES | turkey 5-6 hours 325° oven | beans 10 min. |
| potatoes 45 min. 350° oven | rolls 5 min. | |
| TO DO TODAY: | make stuffing and put turkey in at 10:30 A.M. |
|
| potatoes in at 4:00 P.M. | make ice | |
| thaw rolls | dust | |
| clean bathroom |
Favorite Holiday Traditions
One of my favorite holiday traditions happens between Christmas dinner and dessert. In our family, we lower the lights and take turns lighting an individual candle and sharing two blessings from the past year. This draws out the heart of the person in the warm glow of candlelight before dessert is served. When all the candles are lit, we sing “Joy to the World.” At Thanksgiving you can use kernels of Indian corn to accomplish the same kind of reflection.
Another meaningful tradition is having the oldest (or youngest) family member read the Christmas story from Luke 2 before opening Christmas presents. To extend the special closeness as a family, continue reading a special devotional as a family by Christmas tree light during each night of vacation.
Celebrate the Reason for the Season
I wonder what would happen if we each put “Jesus” at the top of our Christmas gift list? You can, you know. Ask God to show you how to give back to Him. He might show you a down-and-out family in need of groceries, or prompt you to help out with the church Christmas pageant or give financially to worthy charities. When I give something of worth back to God, I find He multiplies that gift and organizes my time to get everything important done. That’s because we have put Him first.
Countdown till Christmas
Perhaps you’re reading this book during the holiday season and you’re feeling overwhelmed because Christmas is just a week away. If that’s the case, here’s what you can do with the time you have left:
Five days before:
• Make out a remaining gift list and shop.
• Confirm any invitations and acceptances for Christmas dinner.
Four days before:
• Decorate and cleanup the house.
• Make a list of menus and a grocery list.
Three days before:
• Shop for groceries.
• Get laundry out of the way.
Two days before:
• Vacuum and clean up any piles.
One day before:
• Set the table.
• Run final errands.
Christmas Eve and Christmas Day:
• Set aside time to focus on the real meaning of Christmas.
• Keep ahead of the dishes and meals to keep things organized and peaceful.
• Enjoy the day and decide this will be the best Christmas ever!
STRESS-REDUCING TIPS FOR THE HOLIDAYS
1. Brighten up your calendar—and your outlook—with holiday stickers or a red pen marking holiday events.
2. Buy gifts in one major category this year—sweaters for everyone, appropriate CDs or books for mailed gifts, or personalized restaurant gift certificates.
3. Mark your calendar with two-hour appointments for Christmas preparations, such as Thursday, bake; Friday, decorate; Saturday, shop and clean.
4. Enlist a holiday buddy to help you plan, especially one who is better in an area you are weak in.
5. When you’re doing the family Christmas cards, get an assembly line going. After you have addressed the envelopes, line up envelopes to stuff and stamps to lick.
6. Shop for convenience, whether it be online or at one mall to simplify the abundance of choices.
7. Call or e-mail the person that you just can’t find that special gift for. Ask her what she would really like to get this year.
8. Stretch your limited social time by attending a Christmas event and getting together with friends for dinner beforehand or dessert afterward.
9. Purchase a holiday devotional book or novel to curl up with each night to get you through the season.
10. Savor one event or daily conversation by jotting it down in a Christmas journal. Title it “The Best Things That Happened to Me This Christmas.”
Every holiday turns out different in some way—someone moves, someone marries, little children grow up, and older relatives have fewer years ahead of them than behind them. Whatever the situation, I’m confident you can simplify your plans and handle whatever comes.
Rediscover the joy of the season. Happy Thanksgiving, Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year to you and yours—one holiday at a time!
Personal Reflection
1. What do I like most about the holidays?
____ Exchanging gifts with family and friends
____ Decorating the house inside and out
____ Sending Christmas cards and a family letter
____ Contributing time or money to charities
____ Attending special holiday events
____ Baking cookies and specialty food
____ Enjoying the extra time with family at home
____ Spending the vacation doing something memorable
2. If I could only do one thing better this Christmas, I would really like to
____________________________________.
3. If I could change one thing about the holidays, I would
____________________________________.
4. One way to make this a great holiday for myself and others would be to
____________________________________.
5. One new way I plan to honor God and celebrate the real reason for the season is by
____________________________________.
A Simple Prayer for the Holidays
Dear God, You are the giver of all good gifts, so I ask for Your help with my plans to bless the people around me. Give me the vision and creativity to make this Christmas special. You understand . . . after all, You created the first Christmas. Amen.
I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord.
—LUKE 2:10–11