Let’s Look: How I Prep for the Holidays

In this month’s LET’S LOOK, I am sharing how I prep for the upcoming holiday season.

To refresh your memory, in July I gave you a look at the TV Shows & Podcasts I Binge. In August, Let’s Look was about What’s In Our Pantry. And then in September, I gave you a look at our Easy Weeknight Dinners.

Prepping for the holidays is a whole new level of beast. It overwhelms me when I look at the whole picture, thinking about what needs to be accomplished from today to Christmas day. It is a lot. 

So many people express how stressful the holidays are, and I think a lot of that has to do with the lack of planning. So I am hopeful that after reading, you will feel inspired to come up with a plan to tackle holiday tasks, so you can better enjoy the reason for the season- being grateful for God’s blessings in your life and celebrating the birth of Jesus. I’ll just say it- Jesus and God’s blessings are the two greatest things in my life. So let’s get a plan, execute it, and gear up for 🎶THE MOST WONDERFUL TIME OF THE YEAR!!🎶

RUNNING LIST OF GIFT IDEAS

I started my list a few weeks ago, on my notes app. I have everyone’s name on my note with bullet points of gift ideas that pop up. If we are walking through Dicks or Scheels, I listen very intently at what everyone likes. I then just pretend I am texting someone as I type up golden gift ideas. I don’t buy any gifts until late November/December. But when it gets to buying time, I am not short on ideas. In my opinion, coming up with ideas is the hardest part.

DECORATE EARLY

Taking down normal home decor and then putting up Christmas decor is A LOT OF WORK. I like to put up Christmas stuff early, it is usually a 2-3 day process. I think jamming decorating, gift buying, wrapping, church events, etc. all into December is too much. I feel so happy when my house is all twinkly, I can switch into holiday vibes much quicker when my house looks the part. 

Just a disclaimer, I usually decorate for Christmas the weekend after Halloween (give a week sometimes).

PERSONAL DAY/ SHOPPING DAY

During the holidays, we tend to save all our personal days for family time, which is great. However, I usually take a personal day for a ONE FOR ALL SHOPPING DAY. The kids are at school, my lists are ready and categorized by stores. I drop the kids off and then go ShOpPiNg! I try my best to knock out all the “store” shopping in one day. Daytime hours leads to less people shopping, less road traffic. I usually stop at Starbucks on my way out, turn on the Christmas tunes, and just enjoy buying things for the people I love the most.

I even come home and wrap these presents before kids get home. The kids FREAK when they see all the gifts appear!

BUY ONLINE

Anytime you can buy something with free shipping, do it! This can be dangerous because my kids can tear into packages without asking… So maybe consider getting them shipped to someone else’s address if your kids are like mine.

Be careful- I sometimes can loose track of gifts when I buy them on Amazon. I can sometimes order something willy nilly. Remember to stick to the list!

UNDERSCHEDULE YOUR CALENDAR

I don’t think this is a word, so let me explain. When you start making your plans and marking your calendars for November/December. Say NO- to a lot of things. It’s okay. Only do what you HAVE to do and what you really WANT to do. Anything that falls HAVE to and WANT to should be a no. Don’t stretch yourself too thin. 

ELF ON THE SHELF

The dang elf. I love our Elf of the Shelf, don’t get me wrong. However, our elf is lazy and not very creative, so I have a FOOL PROOF plan that makes our life so much easier. 

A few years ago, my mom gifted us with a book called “STAR FROM AFAR” and it comes with a wooden manger scene. Basically this book teaches about the Christmas story, biblically. The wisemen followed the star. The star lead them to baby Jesus. So everynight, the PARENT (not magic elves) moves the wooden star to a new place in the house. Then the kids are all assigned a wisemen wooden figure. They take their wiseman and move him to wherever mom or dad moved the star to. If the star didn’t get moved, then mom/dad can tell the kids to close their eyes while they go hide it. It is incredible!

But like I said earlier, we also have an Elf (named Blitzen). Our elf is lazy… and he sometimes forget to move. This frustrated the kids so much that we shared the Christmas story with the Elf and he decided to follow Jesus (and the star!). So if the star moves, Blitzen will find the star too! If the star forgets to move, then Blitzen still goes to the North Pole while we are sleeping, but he will go back to his same spot. 

Do you see what I’m saying? Are you picking up what I am laying down? It has been life changing.

 

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I think I am going to stop here. I am sure there are other things you can do to prep, but these are the biggest things I do to simplify and prep for the holidays!