10 Holiday Planning Tips

It’s never too early to start planning for the upcoming holidays!

There is so much to get ready for and remember…

Cards, making sure you have all your addresses, figuring out what you will buy for the kids and everyone else on your list, figuring out your budget, deciding what house you will be at and what foods will be made.  I’m already tired just typing all that out!

For my own sanity, and hopefully yours too, here is a list of planning tips I like to follow:

1. Figure out your budget – This really needs to be first on your list.  It will be difficult for you to successfully accomplish the rest of this list if you don’t even know what you are allowing yourself to spend on everything.
2. If you will be ordering cards, now is the time!  The closer you get to the holidays, the more stressed you will be and you will have to rush to get them out, not to mention maybe not order the ones you really want.  I just discovered Storkie Christmas Cards and there are some super cute ones on their site!                                                          Here’s a cute one I found!
3. Start listening to things that are on your family’s wish list.  It’s only 3 months away, folks!  If you hear someone say something about a product they would like, go buy it!
4. If you will be making some of your own gifts, now is the time to get those ideas finalized and get working on them.
5. Get your card list made and/or updated.  If you need addresses, send out address requests on Facebook or make some calls to get those addresses.
6. Who’s hosting Thanksgiving and Christmas this year?  Do you have a party for New Year’s?  First things first, what house will you be at for all of those holidays?
7. Now that you know what house you will be celebrating, you can figure out what you all will be eating.
8. If you do an advent calendar with your kids, you can start thinking about what that will involve.  December will get here faster than you think and you need to be ready!
9. Will you be traveling for the holidays?  Go ahead and start making your list of what you need to pack.  There is so much to remember around the holidays, the least you can do is try to make packing stress free!
10. Don’t forget about YOU!  What do you want for Christmas?  Start dropping those hints!  Or… just flat out tell your loved ones what you want.  They will appreciate not having to figure it out and knowing that what they give you is something you actually want!

I truly hope these tips help to make your holidays a little bit less stressful! 

Oh, and here’s my #11: BREATHE!!!!  Have fun!  Love your family!  Those are the most important ones.

Anything I forgot?

~Nicole~

I wrote this blog post while participating in the Storkie holiday blogging program. I received compensation for my participation. All opinions are 100% mine.