The 3 Big Holiday Stressors - and Solutions
Holiday Planning: Christmas Gifts,
Christmas Cards, and Decorating
by Marcia Ramsland, author of
Simplify Your Life: Get Organized and Stay that Way!
What is your biggest holiday
stress?
Lots of things might come to mind, but let's look at the most common
sources of holiday stress and how to overcome them.
1- Gifts: Organize Your Gift Giving
This is probably the first area to
tackle because so much of the holiday celebrations revolve around
opening gifts at Christmas. So gift giving is one of the biggest
stressors of the season.
Create a regular form to write down the people that you plan to give a
gift to, and then use it 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:
1 - Name: each person you plan to get gifts
for
2 - Gift Ideas: ideas of what you want to give
3 - Budget: the dollar amount you plan to
spend
4 - Bought: what you actually get
5 - Wrapped: wrap early and write where you
hide it.
Check off the last column with a flourish in red pen when your gift is
all wrapped
and ready to give!
2- Cards: Send a Holiday Greeting
In a poll of over 2500 people on how they send Holiday Greetings:
57% of people still hand-sign and hand address Christmas cards
19% computer address the cards and hand-sign them
19% Send a card plus a holiday letter
3% do a Holiday letter only
2 % send an e-mail greeting
(Source: www.organizedchristmas.com)
The key is to look at "THE 4 Week Plan" and figure out when and how you
are going to purchase, address, and send them. Write it on your calendar
now.
3- Decorations: Set-Up Early
Check "The 4 Week PLAN" in the
Holiday Notebook and decide when you are going to put up
your Christmas tree AND when you are going to take it down! Usually it
is best to put it up on one of the first two weekends in December. Enjoy
it early and all month… but not much longer than December.
As one lady put it, “For the Holidays it’s always too early to start…
until it’s too late to begin!” Decide when you will do the above three
Challenges. You can easily get them done if you note what day of the
week works best for each activity at your house and how long they take.
That makes the following years so much easier!
FEATURED CLIENT STORY of the Week:
One lady just told my girlfriend she
“…just finished all her Christmas shopping” – and it was the last week
in October. My girlfriend said, “How did you do it?”
“Simple, I just followed all the tips in
Marcia’s chapter on “Simplify the Holidays” in her book. It gave me a
step by step plan I followed. Now I can leisurely wrap the gifts and
enjoy the season.”
This is the Holiday Notebook I
talk about in my book, Simplify Your Life: Get Organized and Stay
that Way! This is a customized plan you can follow year after
year to make the holidays easier. I have included:
- THE PLAN – The Key
to the system with 8-Week, 4-Week, and 1-Week Charts to show you how
to get everything finished.
- DEVOTIONALS –
December 1-25 Devotionals to help you focus on the REAL meaning of
Christmas AND write your To Do’s for that day.
- GIFTS & CARDS –
These two items are the Biggest Stressors we can overcome with a
plan and time frame that put your heart into your giving.
- THANKSGIVING – The
four day holiday is not just about Turkey dinner, but also a
jumpstart into the holidays. But there is a turkey menu to die for!
- NEXT YEAR – Jot
down your notes, see next year’s chart, and be confident you will be
much better prepared next year.
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