Every year, once the turkey and pumpkin pie have been gobbled down and the dishes have been washed and put away, you realize there’s about a month left until Christmas. And then a bit of panic starts to creep in.
There are gifts to buy, cards to address, decorations to hang, and cookies to bake — not to mention a Christmas party to plan.
Here are some good tidings that will bring you comfort and joy, though: You don’t have to wait until the end of November to start your holiday to-dos. In fact, you can tackle many of your tasks now, which, in turn, will make the holiday season more enjoyable.
Check out the following ideas for ideas on what you can do ahead of time:
1. Establish Your Christmas Budget
This item on your holiday to-do list can be done virtually any time during the year, even when you’re sitting poolside in July. Start by setting a firm spending limit and then make a rough holiday gift list that includes everyone you plan on buying for, as well as a guestimate of the maximum amount you can spend for each person.
Then, contact your bank to start making automatic and recurring transfers into a “sinking fund” that will allow you to set aside a nice chunk of holiday cash for your shopping. Next year, start the savings process in January in which you try to set aside 1/12 of your estimated budget each month.
2. Order Your Photo Christmas Cards
There’s no reason to wait until the last minute to plan, order, and address your holiday cards. In fact, you can order your photo Christmas cards at a moment’s notice through Minted, which offers a wide variety of cards from which to choose that you can order from the comfort of home.
Select a photo you took earlier this year — perhaps one from your amazing family vacation to the beach — or get everyone in their winter finery for a fall-time photo shoot. Then, once the photo Christmas cards arrive, you can address, stamp, and mail them by early December.
3. Bake and Freeze Cookie Dough
There’s nothing quite like enjoying a plate of fresh-from-the-oven cookies around the holidays. But with everything else on your to-do list, you may find baking cookies feels more stressful than fun. It doesn’t have to be this way, though. Case in point: You can make a variety of cookie doughs ahead of the holiday season and then place the batches in your freezer, pulling them out when you’re ready to bake.
You can freeze the dough and let it thaw. Or, in the case of the icebox varieties, you can form the cookie dough into a log, slice it into cookie shapes, and then freeze the pieces. On baking day, even your youngest kiddo or grandchild can help place the frozen dough onto cookie sheets.
Finally, a Relaxed Holiday Season Can Be Yours
It’s definitely a relief to realize that many of your holiday chores can be done way ahead of time. By finalizing your budget as early in the year as possible, ordering your photo Christmas cards well ahead of time, and making and freezing batches of cookie dough, the remaining items on your Christmas to-do list won’t feel as overwhelming. Best of all? You’ll go into December feeling on top of things.