Christmas is hands-down my favorite holiday of the year. I love the twinkling decorations. I love finding the perfect gift. I love the food and cookies. I love the chilly weather. I even love that Elf on the Shelf. All these things make me really happy.
But Christmas can also be really stressful because you want to do all of the decorating and gift buying and cooking and creative Elf placements but there just doesn't seem to be time for all of that and they end up becoming chores looming over your head instead of things that bring you joy. And well, that's just no fun at all.
But you can save yourself from all of that stress by simply planning ahead!
I have figured out that I do the exact same tasks each year for Christmas and I buy gifts for the exact same people so one year I sat down and made a list of everything I do and another list of everyone I buy for. And I set "weeks until Christmas" dates for everything so that I can spread them out in November and December. Things like Christmas cards and party menus and Christmas dresses can be done really early. Decorations and Christmas cookies and gingerbread houses come much close to the big day. I'm sure if you think about what you do for Christmas each year you can come up with your own list of the things you like to get done and come up with a plan for spreading them all out over a couple of months instead of a couple of weeks! Once you have the list you really never have to do this part of the planning again unless you add or remove some festive traditions.
Then each year in August I spend a few hours planning out the details for each task. I look through Christmas cookies I have pinned and pick the ones I want to make and print out the recipes. I pick the Christmas dinner menu. I pick out the Christmas card I want. I figure out any gifts that I might want to make or specific things I know I want to buy. (I happen to do it in August because once school starts and Halloween costumes loom in my mind, I find it more of a burden than a fun activity but you might like to fill in the details of your list a bit later!)
Each week I take a look at the list and tackle the few tasks that are there. It is far less overwhelming then trying to cram them all in the two weeks before Christmas so I really get to enjoy them all. And they are much easier to do if they have already been planned out. Making Christmas cookies is so much easier if I have already figured out which ones I am making and have the shopping list in hand!
So try a little advance planning this year and see how much more you enjoy the holidays!