Prepare for a Stress-Free Holiday Season

As the holiday season draws nigh, it is difficult to avoid feelings of stress and anxiety at the prospect of shucking out some major cash flow, preparing feasts, taking off work and traveling, and keeping up with the gift giving and decorating trends. NOW is the time to begin your preparations for a stress-free holiday season!

1. Make a holiday binder. I like the Holiday Control Journal, which can be downloaded for free at www.flylady.net (which is not only a great resource for a stress-free holiday season, but for a stress-free life!). Of course, you will have to customize it for your own needs depending on whether you are hosting meals and holiday celebrations, traveling, etc. Regardless, however, this is the key step in getting organized for a stress-free holiday season.

You may want to include the following components in your holiday binder (or spiral-bound notebook):

Blank calendar pages for November and December on which you can write your baby step tasks that need to be accomplished each day (deadlines for purchases, placing orders, mailing cards and gifts, doing housework projects, decorating, office/school/church Christmas parties and events, etc.)

Your holiday budget for food, decorations, gifts, travel, and other expenses

A list of people to shop for, how much you plan to spend on each one, and ideas of what to purchase or make

A list of cooking and baking projects, recipes, and grocery lists (be sure to make a notation of which ones can be made ahead of time and frozen)

2. Start preparing your house now. If you need to do some decluttering or deep cleaning, don't punish yourself by waiting and then staying up until 3:00 a.m. the night before guests arrive (don't ask me how I know this!). That will not be smooth-sailing into a stress-free holiday season! Write down baby steps on your calendar and do a little each day. Adopt simple housekeeping maintenance routines that will keep your house clean after you've worked so hard to get it into shape. Reward yourself with a stress-free holiday season.

3. Do all that you can do ahead of time. Go ahead and address the Christmas card envelopes, pull out everyone's holiday clothing from storage, do some baking and freezing, and wrap Christmas gifts as you purchase them. Don't let all the work pile up on you and rob you of a stress-free holiday season. Write these tasks on your calendar and do one or two each day.

4. Set up a gift wrap station. Get a tote, box, or duffel bag and prepare it now with gift wrap, tissue paper, tape, scissors, gift tags, bows, and anything you will need to wrap gifts. Keep everything together and store in a convenient location such as under the bed or on the closet shelf. Wrapping gifts ahead of time, as you purchase them, greatly contributes to a stress-free holiday season.

5. Be creative in money-making endeavors. One of the biggest stresses for all of us during the holiday season is debt and extra expenses. Many of us are still paying for last year's Christmas! Try to avoid swiping that plastic and pick up some extra holiday cash instead. Put your talents to work and peddle your baked goods or handmade items to others to use as Christmas gifts. If you can teach art or music lessons, place a classified ad encouraging others to provide this gift that keeps on giving to their children. My husband has spent the past few holiday seasons assembling pool tables and other large items that people purchase as Christmas gifts. Be willing to set aside a few hours to invest in a stress-free holiday season rather than putting yourself in bondage to the credit card companies for innumerable hours of your future.

6. Get a head start on next year. Budget a portion of your holiday spending toward a stress-free 2008 holiday season. Take advantage of those after-Christmas sales and buy gifts at half the price. Open a Christmas Club account at your local bank. Shop around; I recently found a bank that pays 4.5% on these, which I didn't think was too bad for an account with no minimum deposit requirements. Pack your decorations, wrapping supplies, and holiday binder carefully so that they will be easily accessible next year. You can easily supply yourself with the tools for a stress-free holiday season!