Holiday Time Savers

For some women, the holiday season equals six to eight weeks of stress. In an effort to help you streamline your season and actually (gasp) enjoy the holidays, we’ve compiled a list of tips that will help you make the most of your time. Put just one or all of these into practice in the coming weeks and you’ll have less stress and more fun.

1.      Pick your strengths

Sure, it would be great to cook the Christmas dinner from scratch AND make personalized wrapping paper and holiday cards. But very few of us can get all of those things done at once. Pick and choose what you are good at and what you really enjoy and then use time saving techniques on the rest of your preparations. Do you love to cook and dread shopping at the mall? Plan an elegant holiday feast and do all of you Christmas shopping online in the evenings. Are you excellent at gift wrapping but not so great when it comes to making cookies? Purchase plain sugar cookies from the bakery to decorate with your kids to leave you more time to create your signature bows. When you choose what you’ll do and make plans for the rest, you’ll enjoy yourself more and not feel so overwhelmed.

2.      Plan ahead

Start by writing down a list of what needs to be done during the holiday season as early as possible. Then you can knock out tasks ahead of time at a slower pace. Stock up on baking supplies in mid-November. Start looking for gifts while you’re doing your regular shopping and watch the sales flyers as the holidays approach. If you know what you should be looking for, you’ll be able to take advantage of great sales and spread the costs of gift buying across several weeks.

3.      Save time in the kitchen

There are a lot of short cuts you can take to get your holiday baking and other food preparation done in time. In addition to buying supplies early when you can, you can also take short cuts. For example, a lot of people give cookies to acquaintances and service people, like the mailman. Instead of doing a lot of baking in the weeks before Christmas, prepare your dough after Thanksgiving and then freeze it in a rolled log. When you’re ready to make your cookies, just cut off the amount that you need and bake fresh cookies. You can also save time by preparing some casseroles and other quick meals to freeze. These make perfect dinners for those rushed days that always pop up around the holidays.

Whether you begin planning your holiday season right after Halloween or wait until the first week of December, you can take advantage of any or all of these tips. Remember, it’s always better to have an enjoyable, simple holiday season rather than a hectic, over packed one. When in doubt, reduce your responsibilities or delegate them so you can take in all that the season has to offer.