How to get a Jumpstart on Fall and Winter Holidays and Any Other Crazy Periods in your Life
The other day my sister Amber, the other half of The Summers Collective, tagged me in a Williams Sonoma post featuring pumpkins. She was laughing about candy corn already being on the shelves. What I didn’t have the guts to tell her was I had already bought a 3lb bag of candy corn. In July. And bags of Halloween candy in the last week of August.
Fall and winter are crazy busy periods at our house. Fall is a travel season for my youngest daughter’s lacrosse team. My oldest plays golf on her high school team and her season runs mid August until mid October. There will be Halloween events at school and with my youngest’s girl scout troop. We will likely travel for Thanksgiving. Don’t even get me started on our holiday schedule. I am sure it doesn’t look that much different from your late fall and early winter schedule. This is why I have started buying candy corn in July and beginning my winter holiday shopping in October. I am not super organized. I am not a crazy holiday person. I decorate and I host events and parties but probably not much more than other people. But every year I get swept up in the mayhem of it all and I really don’t feel like I get to savor it. So starting a few years ago I began trying to prep each season three months out that way when each holiday got here, I could be fully present. Here are some ideas for how you can get a jump on things too – it might inspire you to get that holiday shopping knocked out long before you are carving pumpkins!
PUT EVERYTHING ON YOUR CALENDAR
Maybe you always host a holiday open house or a Halloween bonfire. Open your calendar a few months out and look at some dates. Get it scheduled. Then make a list of what you will need. Having a pumpkin carving? Make a list of food and supplies you will need then schedule the date that you will go shopping. Put it in ink on your calendar. Get it done. Also make a list of things you will need to do a week out, a few days out and the day of. It will already make you feel more in control. Yes the few days leading up to the event might still be hectic but less than if you waited until the very end to plan. If you really look hard at your list you will probably see things on it you can order now. Yes it might be weird to order pumpkin carving kits on Amazon in July but get it done. When it comes in the mail put it away with your Halloween decor and forget about it until October. It’s off your list.
I usually host a holiday party for my husband’s work team in the beginning of December. Each year once school starts and I have a bit more time on my hands I take inventory of things I will need for his party like checking my supply of tablecloths and candles and those type things and make sure I have everything I need. I can order plain white candles in September and it will be one less thing I am scurrying to find in December. Get it off your list as early as you can. I make a list of food I want to make and even go so far as ordering desserts or anything else I want catered a few months out. Then I put a note on my calendar to confirm a week out – I would have to confirm anyway, might as well get the ordering part done early. I get power washing and window washing scheduled in August for October. All done long before the holiday party comes in December. I will have enough to do just putting up a tree!
SHOP NOW FOR EASY THINGS TO KNOCK OF YOUR LIST
I was never one of those organized moms of young kids with a gift closet with tons of cute kid party birthday gifts waiting to be wrapped on a moment’s notice. But I have tried to start shopping for the holiday season early in the fall for a lot of things that I can easily order or buy early like gifts for coaches, teachers and bus drivers. When the kids bring home fundraisers with Girl Scouts nuts and candy sales, I buy a few for the kids’ bus drivers. If a wrapping paper fundraiser comes out, yes I buy some. It might not be all of the paper I need, but at least I know I have some basics on hand every year and if I get a random afternoon to wrap I am ready to go. Gift cards for teachers and college aged kids are always sweet to give. Buy them in October. You will be glad you did in December.
APPLY THESE PREPLANNING IDEAS ALL YEAR ROUND
Keep a space in a guest room for gifts so you can find what you bought in April for your Aunt in December. Keep a running list on your phone for birthday and holiday gifts. Hear you daughter say she wants a fun pair of red converse? Make a note in your phone. You can be building your list months in advance.
Apply these strategies year round. Shopping at the drug store in January and spot Valentines Day candy? Roll your eyes then put it in your cart. Tuck it away in your pantry and when Valentines Day rolls around, boom! You are ready. The first time the catalog comes from LL Bean with back to school back packs in June? Yes your kids will groan but buy it in June and tuck it away. Less panic. Less scurrying around. And when the holidays / back to school / birthdays roll around and you realize you were prepped weeks or months in advance? You will be your own hero!
OTHER IDEAS
- WRAPPING SUPPLIES: Keep yourself stocked up on gender neutral birthday wrapping paper, pink wrapping paper and plenty of solid color gift bags. You will be set for last minute birthday and shower present wrapping. I also stick to a basic color palate of bright green, bright red and turquoise for holiday wrapping. While I buy actual Christmas paper and bags each year, I also keep plain red, white, green, and turquoise ribbons and paper on hand to coordinate year round since any of these colors can also be used throughout the year for Valentines Day, birthdays and other celebrations. No need to wait to buy Christmas type wrapping supplies in December.
- HOLIDAY CARDS: Keep a folder of possible holiday card photos on your phone. Order them in October. Put a note on your calendar to order holiday stamps online in October. Anytime someone gives you an address change during the year, revise your holiday card list immediately. Then you won’t be scrambling to edit addresses in the middle of December.
- GIFT IDEAS: Keep a running list of gift ideas for your friends and family and keep it in your phone. Sometimes for me half of the gift giving stress comes from not having a good gift idea. I also make note of interesting hostess gifts I get that way I can remember them throughout the year when I am looking for the perfect hostess gift.
- STOCK UP ON BASICS: If you know there’s a particularly busy time of the year coming up (tax season if you’re an accountant or back to school if you’re a teacher), spend a day stocking up on household items like laundry and cleaning supplies, paper products and non perishables a month ahead of time that way you’re not running out of toilet paper or needing to run to a 24 hour Walmart for laundry detergent during a particularly busy time
- PET PREP: Put a note on your calendar for one month before when pet vaccinations are due and the month they are due so you do not have to scramble for a vet appointment right before you board your pets to go on vacation
Got any other fun plan ahead tips for us to share? Let us know!!