It seems like stores break out the Christmas decorations earlier every year. December can be stressful enough with all the holiday hoopla, and who's ready to start dealing with that before Halloween? Here are a few things that can be done in November to make things easier for Christmas, and none of them involve breaking out the tinsel.
5 things you can do in November to prepare for the holiday season
1.
Deep Clean Your Home - December is full of holiday
parties, relatives coming to visit, and friends stopping by. Even if your home
isn’t a holiday hotspot this year, there are still decorations to be hung and
activities going on at home. You don’t want to spend your precious time in
December scrubbing and vacuuming when you could be enjoying yourself, but you also don’t want to hang your garland on a dusty banister (trust me, I did this one
year in a fit of laziness– it wasn’t pretty). Do a deep clean now! Scrub the kitchen floors, vacuum all the spots you usually ignore (or is that just me?) and declare war on the dust bunnies. Then once the holidays hit, you’ll just have to touch up here and
there and can spend more time
stuffing your face with cookies enjoying yourself.
2.
Plan Where You're Putting the Tree - This may be a no brainer for
some, but if you’ve recently moved to a new place or just want to
change things up a bit this year, this little detail may save some headaches
later. Pick a spot, rearrange furniture, or figure out what you need to move to get the tree inside. The last
thing you want is to be maneuvering a giant, shedding conifer over your nice
couch because you didn’t realize that it was too big to fit in the corner. (
Or that it would eat your living room.)
3.
Plan Out Your Gifting List and Start Looking - If you’re really on top of
things you probably already have a list of people to buy gifts for, and
have been looking for the perfect present all year. For the rest of us, start
thinking about this now so you can score the best deals at all the after
Thanksgiving and holiday sales. Create a budget and plan out how much you can spend so you
don’t go into debt!
4.
Start Making Those Homemade Gifts - this goes along with the previous point.
Once you have your gift list, think about any homemade gifts you plan on
making. Then start creating them! If you have a lot to make, or the gifts take a
long time, start now and make sure you give yourself plenty of time to finish.
Nothing’s worse than missing holiday festivities because you’re stuck in your
room working. So start
brewing/carving/crocheting/sewing/whatever early!
*The one exception to
this is baking. In that case you should probably wait until it gets a little closer to
the holidays, unless your recipe freezes well.
5.
Block Off Days on the Calendar - December fills up so fast,
so for your own sanity block off a few days and whatever you do, DON’T schedule
anything on them. Use these days to relax, make cookies, finish up shopping,
get a massage, sleep – do anything that will help you calm down and keep you
from getting sick from stress and exhaustion. Days like this make the holiday season even more enjoyable, so do yourself a favor and make sure you schedule at least one!
