The Elf Blog

Christmas Countdown -- Two Weeks

Two weeks from tonight is Christmas Eve.  We're in the home stretch:

• Finish shipping your presents and mailing any cards.
• Finish your shopping. You don't want to be one of the frenzied shoppers on tv on Christmas Eve.
• Update your Christmas card address list as cards come in.
• Begin wrapping the presents you have bought.  (They add to the decorations!)
• Decide on your menus for Christmas Eve and Christmas.  Pick up the non-perishables next time you're at the grocery store. You'll also want to lay in refreshments for the folks who may stop by to pay a Christmas visit.
• Finalize your New Year's Eve plans.

Strategies for Getting It Done

Today is a great time to take stock of where you are in your preparations.  If you aren't on track, here are some strategies to help:

• Make a list of everything you need to accomplish.  Cross off the non-essentials.  Simplify.  Do only those things that are personally meaningful -- the want-tos, not the shoulds.
• Look at ways to cooperate with friends in the same boat.  Doing a lot of one thing is often faster than doing many different things (it's the basic principle of the assembly line).  In Christmas practice, maybe you work with friends so you each make a lot of one kind of cookie and trade.  Everyone gets a nice mix of cookies with less effort.  Or you can trade off baking or decorating or shopping or gift-wrapping.
• Combine events.  Make your Christmas party a decorating party or a baking party.  Use family night to finish off the cards or to pack gifts for shipping.
• Outsource.  Often, time and money are a tradeoff.  You can buy some refeshments for a party -- perhaps a premade appetizer platter or something from a favorite restaurant.  Over the weekend, I picked up some traditional baked goods that will save me time in the kitchen.  Lots of stores offer gift-wrapping.  My local mall has a gift-wrapping service sponsored by the high school.  You can walk out of the mall with gifts ready to put under the tree.  You can also have an office store do your packing and shipping.

Keep your focus on the things that have meaning to you.  Let the rest of it go.

A Big Weekend

In many ways, this is your last weekend for heavy lifting in your Christmas planning.  By next weekend, Christmas parties and community events will be in full swing.  You don't want to miss them because you have too much to do.

Focus on the big tasks like shopping, post office runs, and outdoor decorations.  Also keep in mind that, if you put up your indoor decorations, you'll have longer to enjoy them.  Also, if you haven't pulled out the recipes you plan to use, you need to make that decision now.

Put off things that can be done in small stages, like gift wrapping, or that can be done closer to Christmas, like baking.  When possible, stage these tasks by gathering baking supplies (you can even mix and freeze some doughs) or putting all your wrapping supplies in a single place.

Your goal by the end of the weekend is to feel like the tasks you have left are do-able in a way that will allow you to enjoy the holiday.

If you aren't there come Monday morning, we'll talk about strategies.

Christmas Countdown - 3 Weeks

Christmas Eve is only 3 weeks away.  Here are this week's tasks:

• 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 so you can get them in the mail by December 12th. 
• Continue shopping.  To avoid rush shipping charges or unexpected back orders, complete all online shopping.
• If you want a quiet evening, especially if the weather is bad, 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).

Black Friday Shopping

If you are planning to go out shopping on Black Friday, here are your Elf shopping tips:

• Most important, if a crowd makes you feel uncomfortable or unsafe, get out.  No 99 cent mp3 player is worth an injury.  (The emergency room co-pay will completely obliterate your svaings.)
• Make sure you get a newspaper on Thursday.  Go through the ads and decide where you will shop.  You are likely to have more success if you know what you are seeking and you have a targeted attack.
• I just tear the ads out of the cuirculars (writing the store name on the ad.)  That way, I know exactly what make and model is on sale and if there are only limited quantities available.  If I can't find something, I can just show the ad to the store staff and they know where to send me.
• Hands-free.  It's not just for cell phones anymore!  I know they are unfashionable, but wearing a fanny pack can be great on Black Friday.  Your cash and keys are close to your body and you don't waste a hand on a purse.
• Wear layers.  Crowded stores get very hot.  If you won't have to wait outside, consider leaving your coat in the car.  It will make for easier movement and less chance of overheating.
• If you can't get home between stops, lock all of your packages in the trunk.  No one is fooled by the blanket in the back seat approach. Also, keep your receipts separate from your merchandise.  If your car is broken into, you'll be able to tell the police and the insurance company exactly what was stolen.
• Remember, nothing is a good deal if it isn't something you need.  Inexpensive trash is still trash!

Christmas Countdown -- Five Weeks

With Thanksgiving only one week away, this week will mostly be about those preparations.  You need to do the shopping, baking, cooking, and table setting -- or you need to travel.

However, you can do a few tasks to keep things moving:

• Keep working on your cards.  Ideally, by the time Thanksgiving weekend is over, you'll have them all addressed and at least a third written.
• Keep working on your crafting.
• Exchange Christmas gift lists with your loved ones.
• If you are hosting a Christmas or New Year's party, you need to get the invitations out so people can get you on the calendar.

Other than that, focus on Thanksgiving and we'll check in again next week.

A Productive Weekend

Basically, we have two weekends before the holiday season begins.  (The weekend before Thanksgiving is really the beginning.)  That means you have two weekends to set the stage.

If you'd like to start some shopping, that's not a bad idea.  There are Veterans' Day sales and the crowds will be less.

It's also good to spend some time doing a serious cleaning.  Do all the laundry, not just what you need to get through the week. Clean the guest room thoroughly.  Vacuum the baseboards and under the cushions and behind furniture.  Clean the fridge and freezer and cabinets, making as much room as possible.

Do whatever it takes to make sure that basic tidying can keep your house guest ready through the holidays.

Holiday Weekend

For some folks, this is a three day weekend.  (I'm making it a 5-day weeekend with a little voyage to New England.)  Use the time well:

• Decorate for Halloween.
• Make Halloween costumes or crafts.
• Get outside and enjoy the autumn air.
• Go apple or pumpkin picking.
• Hit Columbus Day sales to get a jump on your Christmas shopping.
• Bake an apple crisp or make a hearty stew.

Enjoy this fabulous fall weekend.  I'll see you again on Tuesday!

Overstock

Sometimes I think we remember only too well what it was like to dwell in caves, fearing what tomorrow might bring and having our survival depend on stockpiling resources.

For most of us, this is not our reality.  We don't need to spend September and October stockpiling food and fuel to last until April.  The supermarkets will be open all winter and food will remain accessible.  Even if there's snow, we are unlikely to be cut off from resources for more than a week.

So why do we stockpile months' worth of food?  Marketers convince us that we need to take advantage of stock up sales, buying more than we are likely to use in the next several months.  Warehouse stores take it to a whole new level.  Now, clearly larger families can take advantage of such sales because they can easily go through several boxes of cereal and huge bags of frozen vegetables every week.  For those in smaller living units, however, too much is too much.  A carton of oatmeal can last me almost a month since I don't eat it every day.  A pound of coffee lasts even longer.  Yet still, it's tempting to buy two cans of coffee or two cartons of oatmeal since they are on such a great sale.  That way, I'll have it when I need it and I'm shielded against a price increase.

In truth, it may not be that great a deal.  You have to take up space to store it. The longer it's stored, the higher the likelihood that it will go bad before you use it.  There will be another sale.  There always is.  The prices may not be quite as low, but food prices have been relatively stable for years.  If inflation were running 10%, it might be a different story, but that's not the case.

So, what do you do?

• Have a reasonable sense of what your household uses in a month.  As a rule, you don't need to keep more than that on hand.
• Rotate the foods you do have on hand so that you use the oldest food first.
• Before going shopping, take a quick inventory of what you have on hand and plan upcoming meals to use the oldest food.
• If you do buy a lot of something, within 24 hours of bringing it into your house, have a plan for using at least half of it.
• If you want to take advantage of two-for-one discounts but don't really need that much, consider shopping with a friend and splitting the cost.

Labor Day Shopping

I know that lots of people spend at least part of the Labor Day holiday shopping.  And many shopping establishments have special sales this weekend to take advantage of the crods.

You can get some great deals if you look.  Concentrate on things that are ending their season, such as outdoor furniture, picnic supplies, and sporting goods.  If you have the storage space, you can save a lot of money by buying these things now.  No one buys an outdoor gazebo in November, so stores want them off their hands.  You can save by buying it now, even though you will have to store it all winter.

Some stores have huge sales on items just coming into use.  Last year, I got great deal on long underwear at an outlet sale.  If you are making lots of purchases, it helps to do some research about the available sales -- and about the usual prices for things -- to make sure you are finding true deals.

You are likely to be overwhelmed by holiday merchandise (Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas).  Tempting as it is, very few of these items will be on sale.  If you plan to make purchases of these things, make sure you 1) really need the item and 2) know what a good price is.

If you find any great deals, come back and tell us about them.  I don't plan to shop this weekend, so I'll shop vicariously through you!