Holiday Prep For Next Year (11.5 Months and Counting)

This post almost makes me cringe because my family just took down the Christmas tree last weekend and our outdoor festive lights are still a glowing. Yet, the non-procrastinator in me feels compelled to write about my pro-active holiday habits. Sure, they come a full year in advance, but they are still hopefully helpful.

Storage

Storing holiday decor is the worst. However, it is a necessity if you have little ones in the house that refuse to adhere to the “less is more” mantra. I love getting my living room back to normal after the New Year, yet I am also thinking ahead to the next Christmas. When my husband dismantles our artificial tree, I will not let him zip up the green sack that contains fake pine needles until all of our festive shirts, ugly sweaters, and Santa Claus pajamas are also tucked away inside of it. This way my crew’s holiday fashion gets packed away in a safe place that will most definitely be found next year when we bust out our family tree just after Thanksgiving.

My husband has this plaid herringbone cap that only gets worn during the month of December. Every season it gets stored in our huge artificial tree bag. My household knows that it is Christmastime once their dad gets his favorite holiday hat back for the month.

Clearance

I take huge advantage of Christmas clearance items after December 25th. I am not talking about lights or ornaments. It is straight to holiday clothing, wrapping paper, and stationary for me. Snowmen sweaters and red tops with sayings from “National Lampoon’s Christmas” will always be in style.

The wrapping paper is usually pretty picked over, but who cares? People are literally going to rip it to shreds the very next year. Plus it is funny to get the “ugly stepsister” of gift-wrap. This season I wrapped presents with paper that had “My Little Ponies” wearing stocking hats and Elena of Avalor hanging mistletoe. My kids and adult brothers loved the look!

These purchases of gift-wrap and clothing gear get stored in the artificial Christmas tree bag too! (As I read over these paragraphs, I am beginning to think my artificial tree bag is a lot like Mary Poppins’s suitcase. It can hold anything and everything!)

Seasons Greetings

Christmas cards are probably my biggest clearance victory post holidays. I always buy nice cards with envelopes that come in bulk to use the next year. Even at 90% off, I can find some beautiful ones to be my annual Seasons Greetings. I purchase them in January and then completely forget about them for almost an entire year. Eleven months later, I dig the cards out from the tree bag, sign our names, and insert a photo. This saves so much time. November and December are hectic, so already having my cards bought rescues me from designing them online on my own.

I can usually find a good recent photo of my family, or in 2018’s case I lined them up with the two dogs and took about twenty quick photo clicks. Then I just prayed for a keeper. It is very hard to get four children and two dogs to look happy in the same photo. Especially while their mom flares her nostrils and yells at them to “look happy and smile”. I mean, does it not just sound like the best time ever?

Making Things Easier

I have also recently scaled back on my Christmas card mailings. This year, I only sent a card to a household that had already sent me one. *I did mail cards to people that gave birth to my husband or shared a house with him through childhood. (You are welcome in-laws, I love you!) But really other than that a person had to give to receive from me in this postal instance. I know, I am lame. But it kept me better organized. During year’s past I was always afraid that I forgot to send one out and then acquaintances end up with multiple greetings. It is like that recurring dream where you forget to go to a class for the entire semester and panic. Only for me, it is that I forgot to mail a Christmas card and am now perceived as rude for all eternity.

Next Christmas is about 350 days away, but seriously it will be here quicker than anyone realizes. I hope my tips help. Or at the very least, they allow a person to squeeze in some more time on the back-end when it comes to Hallmark movies and hot chocolate with loved ones.