Stress Free Holidays - Big Y® World Class Market™

12 Easy Plan-Ahead Steps for a Stress-Free Holiday

While it’s true that food is among the most important aspects of holiday celebrations, there are other things that make the season festive, too. Planning ahead for the holidays also includes thinking about your decorations and your shopping. When it comes to entertaining, make sure to polish your silver and wash your china and formal stemware. When you’ve gotten your food situation under control, here are some suggestions of what you can do to help keep ahead of the holiday game:

1. Stock up on extra gifts. Your daughter’s troop leader? Forgot about that one...Hostess gift for an unexpected party? Oops...Those last-minute, small gifts have a way of sneaking up on you. Solve that gift-giving dilemma by stashing away a stockpile of inexpensive but attractive gifts that are appropriate for just about everyone. Suggestions: gourmet olive oils, scented candles, decorative coasters, high-end chocolates.

2. Set a shopping deadline. Tell yourself that you’ll have all of your gift shopping done by a certain date — say, December 1. Then stick to your deadline! The holidays are significantly less fun when you’re stuck with the rest of the last-minute shopping crowd trying to find those last few gifts.

3. If you do holiday cards, try to get them finished by mid-November. These can take up a lot of time. Double-check your mailing list and fill in any missing addresses. If you do photo cards, photography studios can book up well ahead of time. The earlier you book your photo session the earlier you can send out your cards. Another timesaver: Order your postage stamps online (visit www.usps.gov for details) and have them delivered to your house. One less time-consuming errand!

4. Consider a season-spanning decorative display. Use decorations that will carry you through from Thanksgiving to the New Year. Centerpieces or mantel arrangements using items such as eucalyptus leaves, juniper, lemons, baby artichokes, whole walnuts, along with pillar candles in rich jewel tones or all in white, will create a striking display that you can leave up all through the season.

5. Stash cleaning supplies and stain removers in handy places so they’re at hand when you need them. Stock your bathrooms and kitchen with disinfecting wipes, so you can give those all-important surfaces a quick cleansing swipe at a moment’s notice. Have stain removing wipes on hand for those “oops” moments when a stray hand knocks over someone’s red wine or a messy hors d’oeuvre ends up on the rug.

6. Wrap presents as you purchase them. It’s a lot easier to wrap them one or two at a time than wrapping dozens of presents the night before in a marathon session. To help keep gifts straight, stick a post-it on each one detailing what’s inside. Just don’t forget to remove the note before giving your gift!

7. Wrap presents as you purchase them. It’s a lot easier to wrap them one or two at a time than wrapping dozens of presents the night before in a marathon session. To help keep gifts straight, stick a post-it on each one detailing what’s inside. Just don’t forget to remove the note before giving your gift!

8. You’ll probably have to attend at least one party straight from work, so plan your wardrobe accordingly. With the right shoes and accessories, just about anything can go from office to evening. Pack your party shoes, fancy handbag and fun costume jewelry in a tote bag and toss in the trunk of your car, and you’ll be ready to go at a moment’s notice. Don’t forget
to include a spare pair of panty hose.

9. Take stock of your linens. Arrange like items together so they’re easier to find when you need them: oval tablecloths in one pile, square in another; napkins in sets of 6, 8 or 12. If you don’t have enough of one color of napkin, don’t fret — use complimentary colors and tie them together with a floral centerpiece that draws everything in.

10. Expecting guests? For many of us, our guest rooms are the ones that collect all of our extra junk when they’re not in use — which is probably most of the time. Get your guest rooms ready a few weeks ahead of time — clear out the extraneous stuff, change the linens, set aside some towels. Then just before your guests arrive, give the rooms a quick once-over and set out a vase of fresh flowers for a truly warm welcome.

11. Take out and test your Christmas lights before you start putting them on the tree. You can count on needing at least a couple of strands, and it’s better to know in advance than to be running out to the store in the middle of decorating your tree. While you’re replenishing your light supply, pick up a box of ornament hangers. You’ll need those to replace the ones that have disappeared since last year, and for the ornaments you’ll almost certainly receive as gifts this year.

12. Plan ahead to pamper yourself. Schedule your holiday hair and nail appointments well ahead of time — it’s the busiest time of year for salons, too, and they book up in advance.

It’s surprisingly simple to build these plan-ahead steps into your holiday preparations. You’ll be amazed at how much time these savvy solutions will save you