Get Organized for the Holidays: Planners, Tips, Games, Recipes

For those hosting holiday festivities, preparations most likely are already underway.

Those needing help getting organized for the holidays can find a menu-planning e-book at Food For My Family. Organizing Your Way offers free planners, including menu planners, a guest list, and baking planner, as well as a Master To Do List.

Plan what to make, how much to make (2 servings for person is plenty if you are also serving snacks and desserts), when to make, and assign dishes for others to make, etc., Next, it's time to tackle the cleaning and decorating. Enlist the help of your family for this and assign each person a room to clean or each person a specific duty, such as dusting, vacuuming, sweeping, laundry, decluttering, dishes, etc. Bake pies, cakes, and whatever else you can ahead of time or assign this to a relative or friend outside of the household. Remember, if you want fewer dishes to wash, use Corelle or Pyrex bakeware.

For decorations, the right candles can bring a warm, comforting atmosphere to a room. Walgreens currently has scented Patriot candles in a jar on sale for $4. These come in Vanilla, Peppermint, Wintergreen, and Cranberry.

Another idea is to get a wrought iron or iron-looking basket, fill it with dried cranberries and pinecones with colorful ribbons and put a candle in the middle to get a simple warm country decoration.

Buffet style serving usually goes faster than serving at the table. If you don't have a buffet, use a kitchen island or counter space for this. Place all of your eating utensils, napkins, plates at one end of the buffet. Next arrange the main course(s). Finally, place your glasses and drinks at the end of the buffet. Desserts can go on a counter, buffet, card table, or even on top of the stove.

Organize your buffet by adding a mini serving bar. Get some small coffee cans, and a couple of serving trays. Cover the serving trays with place mats to match your décor. Decorate the coffee cans by spray painting, or gluing fabric or paper on to them. Place the coffee cans on your serving area/buffet with the serving trays on top. Voila! You now have a bi-level buffet to place items. Or, if you prefer purchase a tiered buffet server like the Estate 3-Tiered Buffet Server available at Target for $39.99 and the twig tiered server used in the 'Alice in Wonderland' tea party available at Shopopenskey

To keep the kids busy before and after dinner, organize an area of the house where they can play safely away from adults. Place board games, coloring books, DVD player and movies in this room. Have the kids come up with things for which they are thankful.

Fun games to play include Bingo, Scrabble, Monopoly, Clue, Stock Ticker, Diplomacy, Pow Wow, Balderdash, Charades, Guesstures, Scattergories, Apples to Apples, Uno, Texas Hold 'Em, Cranium, Spoons, Chess and Checkers (for older kids and adults), and Pictionary.

Weather permitting, take the kids outside with the adults and go for a walk and/or play games, such as Frisbee, softball, croquet, build a snowman/snow fort, or if your neighborhood is safe, sled, bike, skateboard, or play basketball.

Sources:

Country Living Magazine

Food For My Family

Organizing Your Way

Walgreens