The Elf Blog

Christmas Countdown -- 8 months

Christmas is 8 months from today! Here are some things you can do now to help you be better prepared in December.

Rememeber, our goal is that you have a low-stress December so that you are able to enjoy the holidays. Ideally, by Christmas Eve, you spend the day playing in the snow before coming inside to watch a Christmas movie while drinking hot cocoa and eating Christmas cookies.

•As you travel, think about picking up small unique gifts from local shops. I've bought some of my best presents at little boutiques I stopped by on my way to a meeting.

•If you like to make gifts, now is a great time to start thinking about what you'll make and to gather supplies. You can even begin your crafting.

•Spring is a time for graduations and weddings and moves. Make sure you update your Christmas card list.

•A rainy spring day is a great time to plow through your holiday recipe file, highlighting the keepers and discarding the ones you don't like. Youi can even spend some time looking for healthier versions of family favorites!

What else can you do now to prepare?

Last Weekend Before Spring

Spring starts next week, so this is technically the last week of winter. Of course, here in DC it's been almost 80 all week, so it's hard to think of that as winter. But that means now is a good time to get last minute deals on clearance sales of winter items like fireplace tools, heavy blankets, winter garb, and winter sports gear, as well as winter services like chimney cleaning and furnace servicing. But you should also start thinking about things you may need to address for spring, like yard work and air conditioning unit inspection. it's a good time to start remembering where things like the grill and the lawn furniture are stored so that you can get them out and clean them. You don't have to actually start addressing these things quite yet, but you do need to start making plans. Easter is only 3 weeks away!

Incentives

It’s amazing how small an incentive can change behavior. As of January 1st, my county imposed a 5 cent tax for every bag you get from a grocery store, a department store, etc.

Now, 5 cents isn’t a lot of money. Even if you are doing a huge grocery shop, it’s not going to be even an additional dollar added to your bill.

But I went grocery shopping Friday evening. Within 2 weeks of the tax going into effect, well over half the people I saw in the store either had reusable bags with them or had brought plastic or paper bags from home to reuse.

It seems that 5 cents a bag was enough to get people to change their behavior. And for those who forget or who don’t change their behavior, the money collected goes to clean up the extra trash generated by all those bags.

It’s amazing how little of an incentive it takes to create a behavior change. What other behaviors might it be worth trying to change?

A Big Weekend

This is the last full weekend before Christmas so, for most people, it's the last large block of non-work time to prepare. Unfortunately, that means that stores (department, grocery,big-box, boutique, etc.) will be packed this weekend. Unless you can get to a store at an off hour (like grocery shopping at 6 a.m.), I recommend avoiding stores this weekend.

If you haven't finished your shopping yet, many online retailers are offering free shipping or shipping upgrades through midnight tonight. Give yourself a break and finish your shopping online.

Even better, use this weekend to make Christmas preparations at home:

• Finish your decorating. Wrap everything you have purchased.
• If you still have gifts to ship, pack them for shipment (but avoid the post office lines on Saturday!)
• Prepare cookie doughs that can be refrgerated or frozen as logs. Then you just slice and bake your homemade Christmas cookies.
• Finish your cards (if you haven't already!)
• Do a quick tidying and decluttering of the house so you are ready for guests.

And if you are finished? Sit back and enjoy the season.

As for me, I'll be hosting the Elf Extravaganza. If you're in the neighborhood, stop by!

Christmas Countdown - (Less Than) 3 Weeks

It figures, I go away for a week and the blog gets a ton of visitors!

But better late than never.

Here’s your Christmas Countdown list for this week:

• Any gifts that need to be shipped have to go this week. If they are going outside the US, you're already pushing it.

• Finish up your cards and get them in the mail.

• Continue shopping. To avoid rush shipping charges or unexpected back orders, complete all online shopping.

• You might want to begin wrapping the presents you've bought.

• If you are hosting a party, confirm attendance and shop, cook, and bake.

• Decorations should be up this week (unless you keep to the German tradition of putting up the tree on Christmas Eve). You don’t have to do everything all at once. In fact, it can be very pleasant to do a little bit each day and slowly watch the house come alive with the spirit of Christmas.

• Decide what you will wear for your Christmas party, for Christmas Day, and for New Year's Eve. Drop off any necessary dry cleaning. Make necessary purchases. Even plan your accessories. It's not a bad idea to put the accessories in plastic bags and attach it to the clothing hanger with a clothespin (this hint is especially helpful if you have small children).

• Make final decisions on Christmas baking and on your major holiday meals so that you can begin purchasing the non-perishable ingredients.

Christmas Countdown: (Less than) 4 Weeks!

 

We are now under 4 weeks until Christmas!  It’s time to pick up the pace.

 

• Work on finishing up your Christmas cards.  You want them in the mail no later than December 15.
• Start your shopping in earnest. Decide how you shop best: a marathon or a bit at a time and schedule the time you need. Ideally, you should have at least half of your gifts bought before December 7^th.
• Mail gifts that have a distance to travel (anything outside the US).
• If you have some time, wrap the presents you’ve already bought.
• You may wish to start your decorating.  You may find it easier to do a little decorating each day.  It breaks up the work and you get the joy of watching your house be filled with Christmas.
• Begin finalizing your menus for Christmas entertaining as well as Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.
• Make your New Year’s reservations.

Christmas Countdown - 6 Weeks

Six weeks from today is Christmas! (Deep breaths. It will be ok!)

From this point on, our preparations will intensify (with a bit of a break next week for Thanksgiving preparations and celebration.)

So here’s your task list for this week:

· If you are making gifts or decorations, keep working. Ideally, you will be finished by the end of November.

· On your master calendar for the season, schedule your major preparation tasks: parties, decorating, baking, wrapping, etc. Also, take the opportunity now to block out a few days to just relax at home with your loved ones, drinking cocoa and watching movies.

· Plan what you will do to decorate. If you need to purchase anything, you should do it now.

· If you haven’t already done so, start working on your cards. By the end of this month, you’ll want your cards to be purchased (duh) and addressed.

· Begin shopping. Any gift that needs to be shipped should be purchased by the end of the week. You do not want to pay shipping fees greater in value than the gift.

· Finalize any plans for entertaining during the holiday season – through New Year’s. If you are hosting, decide what the event will be, when it will be, who you will invite, and what you’ll need to prepare. If you want to go somewhere on New Year’s Eve, make reservations now.

· Decide what varieties of cookies you will bake. Make sure you have the proper pans, utensils, and ingredients, as well as an appropriate stock of parchment paper and storage containers.

· Check your stock of stamps, shipping materials, address labels, and wrapping supplies. Purchase anything you need. You do not want to be standing in line at the Post Office and have to go to the back of the line because your package doesn’t have the right tape.

I know this seems like a lot, bit much of it is just thinking through planning or taking little steps to accomplish tasks. Believe me, when you are not going insane the week of December 17^th, you’ll thank me.

Why Holiday Planning Scares Us -- Part 2

In today’s installment of why holiday planning is stressful, I want to look at the stress surrounding gift-giving. While crowded malls and credit card statements can cause stress, the root of the problem is far more basic.

Put simply, we are far too used to buying what we want when we want it.

I cannot tell you the numberof people who have said to me, “I don’t want anything for Christmas. When I want something, I just buy it for myself.” Then, when people do want to give you a gift, they typically fall back on gift cards or generic gifts that are unstaisfying and often wasted.

If we didn’t focus on our own immediate gratification, people would know what to get us. "Jill loves
Kelly Clarkson. I’ll get her Kelly’s new album." " Brad needs a new saute pan. I’ll get him one at that cute little gourmet shop."

Too bad. Brad and Jill already bought what they wanted.

So give people a break. Stop buying everything you want when you want it. You’ll save money and you’ll make everyone’s preparations easier.

I’ll get off my soapbox now. (It was a very thoughtful gift from Santa. Good thing I hadn’t bought one myself.)

Christmas Countdown - 7 Weeks

Christmas Eve is seven weeks from today! That means it's time to increase the intensity of our preparations:

• Start addressing and writing your Christmas cards. If you do a few each day, it will be a far easier and more pleasant task.
• Make a list of all the people you need to purchase gifts for and note the gifts you have already bought.
• Begin placing online orders for gifts in case there's a back order situation.
• If you need to ship gifts, buy them as soon as possible.  You'll want to leave plenty of time for shipping.  Why pay premium prices for overnight shipping because you didn't plan ahead?
• If you plan to craft any gifts, you need to allot significant time for the crafting.  You don't want to be hot gluing at 2 am on Christmas Eve.
• Take stock of your wrapping, lights, and other decorations so you'll know what you need to purchase.

 

Columbus Day Weekend

For many people, Columbus Day weekend is a long weekend.  So let's plan to use it well.

On the East Coast, the weather is supposed to be lovely.  That makes it a great time to get outside and be active:

• Work to prepare your yard for the winter.
• Go apple or pumpkin picking.
• Take a hike or a bike ride to enjoy the early fall leave.

This is also a good weekend to decorate for Halloween, to start Christmas shopping, and to spend some time making soups and stews to stock the freezer.  If the weather where you are is bad, it's a good weekend to do some fall cleaning, to switch out winter for summer clothes, or to organize a closet or two in advance of holiday entertaining.

As for me, I'll be taking my own advice -- Christmas shopping, hiking, and horseback riding.