3 Steps to Get Ready for Your Best Christmas

 

Christmas is a magical time of year, but it can also be overwhelming and stressful if you wait until the last minute to get ready. That’s why I’ve always advised friends and colleagues to get an early start! By getting a head start, you can enjoy a more relaxed and enjoyable holiday season. Here are three practical things you can do early to ensure that you enjoy your best Christmas!

1. Plan Your Holiday Budget

You can reduce holiday stress by planning your budget in advance. Start by listing all potential expenses, including gifts, decorations, holiday meals, and travel. This will help you set a realistic budget and avoid overspending.

• Create a Gift List: Write down everyone you plan to give gifts to and set a spending limit for each person. This will help you keep track of your expenses and avoid last-minute splurges.
• Track Your Spending: Use budgeting apps or a simple spreadsheet to monitor your expenses as you go. This can help you stay within your budget and make adjustments as needed. I have a free Holiday Spending Worksheet to share if you leave your request in the comments!

2. Start Gift Shopping Now

Gift shopping can be one of the most time-consuming aspects of Christmas preparation, so getting an early start can make a huge difference. As an added bonus, you’ll escape the crowds shopping in December. If you shop online, shopping early ensures gifts arriving in plenty of time. No more IOU’s for Christmas!

• Make a List: Outline what you plan to buy for each person. Consider their interests and hobbies to find thoughtful gifts.
• Shop Sales and Discounts: Take advantage of early holiday sales and special promotions to find great deals. Many retailers offer discounts well before the holiday season, so keep watch for them!

Starting your gift shopping early not only helps you avoid the last-minute rush but also allows you to find more meaningful and budget-friendly presents.

3. Prepare Your Home for the Festivities

Getting your home ready for Christmas early can make the season more enjoyable and less stressful. This includes decorating, organizing, and planning your holiday gatherings.

• Decorate Early: Put up your Christmas decorations in early December (or the day after Thanksgiving) to fully enjoy them throughout the season. I had a friend who had multiple trees for her house; she started decorating the beginning of November to avoid decorating burnout in December!
• Organize Holiday Supplies: Gather and check your holiday supplies, such as wrapping paper, ribbons, and greeting cards. This will prevent last-minute trips to the store and ensure you're fully prepared. In the coming year, consider shopping clearance sales after the holidays to stock up on your supplies!
• Plan Your Menu: If you're hosting holiday meals or taking dishes to other events, start planning your menu and creating a shopping list. This gives you ample time to try new recipes or adjust your plans based on dietary needs.

Starting your Christmas preparations early can transform the holiday season from a stressful time into a joyful one. By planning your budget, shopping for gifts, and getting your home ready, you’ll set the stage for a relaxing and festive Christmas. So, take a deep breath, get organized, and enjoy your best Christmas!

Good News Is Coming!

I was about to make a premature announcement! Luckily a friend of mine stopped me from getting ahead of myself. So stay tuned! Pre-Christmas news coming later this week! Yay!
 

Christmas Is Coming! How Do You Feel?

 For many years as a single parent, my answer was B. I was crazy for Christmas, loved every bit of it, but I wore myself out trying to do and see it all and make it magical for my kids. It took a lot of research and experimentation before I figured out how to have the best Christmas every year. Now I live by my Covert Christmas method of advance planning! Be looking for more info on that coming soon! 

A Surprise for General Gingerbread... and Me!

I'm pleased to report that I entered one of my short, children's Christmas stories in a contest and won an honorable mention blog badge and a $5 Amazon e-gift card, plus a personal message. The judges enjoyed my story very much, and it would have been a finalist, I'm told, if I'd followed the guidelines more closely.

The story was to be about a treat. My story features a main character who IS a treat, but there were no edible treats within my storyline. It was my way of distinguishing my story from scores of others that were entered in the contest.

Sometimes thinking outside the box pays off, but this time it kept me from a bigger payoff. However, I'm happy with what I received, especially the feedback. Feedback is not often given these days, as some writers tend to react negatively to even constructive criticism, but it's so valuable! Accept or reject it, but appreciate the offer, that's my advice to you.

I hope you've enjoyed the Christmas season and are ready to embrace the New Year. 2020, here we come!

Christmas with Babies

Some people say Christmas is for kids. I would argue that it's for all ages. After all, Jesus came to be the Savior of the world, and that's not a story just for children! 

At the same time, kids add an extra sparkle, and I know this from experience since last Christmas was my first as a grandma!

 Have you ever seen such a big smile on a baby?

Of course, once there is a baby in the family, everyone wants their turn with the child to enjoy holiday festivities. So, you have to make plans in advance. Last year I got the whole family for Thanksgiving dinner, so Christmas Day went to the other side of the family. We celebrated Christmas 2 days early and then drove together  to enjoy a holiday lights display on Christmas Eve.

This year I won't have just one grandchild, I'll have two! My son's wife is expecting their 2nd daughter on my son's December birthday. Won't that be exciting?

Juggle our usual holiday fun and volunteer work, such as helping at Breakfast with Santa (here she is as an elf with Santa), with family visits with the babies and hopefully teaching my elder granddaughter how to make a Christmas craft, my daughter and I are sure to declare this the best Christmas yet.

So much fun is in my future! Making plans in advance (all year round) always helps make the occasion merry and bright.

Will you be doing any advance planning this year? Have you started (or finished) your gift shopping yet? Remember, planning is what prevents Christmas chaos. You want to relax and enjoy the season. So if you haven't yet, get started now. You'll be glad you did!

Confession: I'm a Past Member of the Christmas Peekers Club

Years ago as I browsed the racks at a thrift store, I found a red sweatshirt that proclaimed the wearer as a member of the Christmas Peekers Club. I laughed out loud...and bought it. (I still have it!) You see, as a child I could find hidden gifts without even trying. As a young adult, I could accurately guess what was in a wrapped gift by the size, shape, and weight of the box. And as a mom, I stumbled over gifts that I didn’t mean to see before young hands eagerly held them out to me. Peeking, whether intentional or not, seems to be my superpower.

So, the burning question is How do you thwart a present peeker? As an expert peeker, I can tell you not to leave your list lying around...in a drawer, jewelry chest, or purse, where a snoop might find it. (I found Mom’s list in her jewelry box one day when my only plan was to admire her brooches and rings. See? Superpower!)

1. Disguise gifts by putting them inside different containers. For example, once during my teen years, Mom put all my gifts inside puzzle boxes and gift-wrapped them. I knew they were puzzles by the shape of the boxes and the sound of puzzle pieces rattling around when I shook those boxes. Let me tell you, I was not a happy camper, and when I started opening them on Christmas Eve (as was my family’s tradition) and found used puzzles, I was doubly upset and confused. That’s when Mom told me to take the lids off to see what was inside, and that’s when I found my real presents! Mom got me good that year! You might pack gifts into tins and include a jingle bell or marble to rattle around and confuse the recipient.
2. Wrapped gifts are harder to peek into than gifts tucked into gift bags. Wrapped gifts that are tagged with a number instead of a name prevent the snooper from figuring out which gifts are his or hers.
3. Keep gifts in a secure area. That may be a locked file cabinet, the trunk of your car (if your kids are too young to snoop there), or inside a box labeled as something boring—think “90s Tax Papers” kind of boring. Gifts hidden in a closet, a dresser drawer, or under a quilt in the shower may be found (those are places I found Christmas gifts)! My secure area is a metal filing cabinet in my home office, a room where I spend much of my day. The best secure areas are those that you can easily monitor. Attics and basements aren’t the best choices if you are rarely in those locations yourself. Peekers love having privacy while they are snooping. My favorite time to hunt for hidden presents was while my mom was cooking, because I could search the master bedroom without fear of getting caught! 

A long time ago I learned that peeking at presents presented problems. First, I lost the thrill of surprise. Knowing in advance what my gifts were, made opening them less fun. Then, I gained the stress of needing to act the right level of surprised so that no one realized I had peeked. There was also the stress of not letting my discoveries slip before Christmas. I forgot myself one year as I helped Mom wrap my brother’s presents and said something about another of his gifts that she had not yet brought to the table. How did I know about that other gift? My red-faced, stammered lie, that I was just guessing, didn’t fool Mom.

So, while it’s fun to pretend to be a detective and hunt for hidden presents, it’s not fun to get caught—or to worry about getting caught after the fact—and it’s not fun to face the holiday with no surprises. It’s also not fun to disappoint loved ones who wanted their gifts to be a surprise. Do your best to thwart the peekers in your house. If you’re the peeker, withdraw your membership to the Christmas Peekers Club. Join me on the Surprise Side and enjoy the holidays!

Extending the thankfulness of Thanksgiving through the Holiday Season

As we share what we’re thankful for on this Thanksgiving, let’s extend that thankfulness through the Christmas season. If you have children, discuss what each of you is thankful for each day. Bring up the idea of thank you notes. If you haven’t taught them yet to send thank you notes for their gifts, make this the year you do!

As an adult, I still write thank you notes for Christmas gifts given from long distance, although I’ll confess to the rare occasion of putting it off so long that I’ve forgotten who gave me what. The lesson there is this: Don’t procrastinate! 

Anyway, Mom always thanks me for writing a thank you letter. I write them because I was taught and trained to write them as a child. I taught my children as well. I know my adult daughter still writes them each Christmas and birthday.

Giving thanks for what you’ve received is common (or maybe uncommon) courtesy. And in these modern times, an e-mail or private message can stand in for a handwritten (or typed) note sent by snail mail. But one way you could make saying thanks fun is to create thank you postcards! Walgreens is just one company you can create and order photo postcards from. You could also print out 4x6 photos and create the postcard effect on the back and mail them that way. Kids like postcards (especially the teeny-tiny writing space)! 

Thanksgiving doesn’t have to end at the close of Thanksgiving Day. By being intentional, you can carry the spirit of Thanksgiving through New Year’s Day and beyond.

The Fruits of Advance Planning: My Christmas in Pictures

Look at me! I’m a big kid at Christmas! (Dollywood)

Happy New Year! Did you have a good Christmas or, like many people on Facebook, did you insist on not beginning your Christmas preparations until after Thanksgiving, then spent the month of December moaning about the stress of cleaning, cooking, shopping, decorating, and how you didn’t have time to do everything that you wanted to do? The purpose of this blog is to encourage you to plan ahead so you can enjoy Christmas and all the season has to offer! I hope you see the value in planning a little each month. It’s worth it! (And really, how much time preparing for Thanksgiving does one need? Certainly not an entire month! You can give thanks and finalize plans for Christmas at the same time!)

I enjoyed Thanksgiving with my Illinois family, and I had a great December, even if I was late typing up my newsletter and getting the cards in the mail. Extenuating circumstances aside, suffice it to say that the month came close to meeting my expectations. I had made time to cook, decorate, volunteer for several charitable activities, attend parties, watch Christmas movies, see light displays, and even visited Dollywood for extra holiday cheer! (And in case you are wondering, I managed to do my paywork throughout the month as well!)

To demonstrate how advance planning frees up time for fun, I’m going to list my holiday activities in the order they occurred. Honestly, this was the best December yet!

1. Christmas Gift Plate Painting Party

2. Dickens of a Christmas street event

3. Angel Tree group activity: dinner and shopping (no photo)

4. Gingerbread House Decorating Party
(in my case, it was a Rice Krispie house)

5. Christmas Craft Volunteers at Children’s Event

6. Watched a Christmas parade from a chilly street corner on an otherwise sunny Sunday

7. Dressed in red for a writers group Christmas party

8. Enjoyed a Christmas Dinner Show by these performers

9. Christmas Party with Fun Photos

10. Christmas Drop-in followed by fun photos in the nearby decorated park

11. Participated in a retirement center’s Christmas program (no photo)

12. Enjoyed Christmas lights display with friends

13. Enjoyed Bethlehem Revisited (a walk-through nativity, no photo)

14. Cookie Exchange Party

15. Christmas in Dollywood! (shown in the 50s section of the park)

16. Strolled through a Festival of Trees display

17. Christmas Eve service at church with my daughter and son

18. Christmas Morning, fun photo time!

It’s me as the Elf on the Shelf!

Family Christmas Day Chili Dinner

A note about Christmas meals: in the past, I have made monkeybread for breakfast and a feast for dinner. I have spent more time in the kitchen than I liked. If you miss out on Christmas fun and relaxation with your family because you are cooking for an army, find ways to reduce your workload. You might ask everyone who is coming to dinner to bring a dish. You might switch to slow cooker meals. You might choose to start a new traditional breakfast or dinner.

For me, I discovered frozen monkeybread at the grocery store a few years ago. Two minutes in the microwave, and it’s ready to eat! I no longer make my own monkeybread. Now I have time to open stockings and watch the Disney Christmas program with the kids.

I used to try to replicate the feasts of my childhood: turkey, ham, green bean casserole, potatoes, cranberry salad, rolls, and desserts. Sometimes other things like deviled eggs or mac 'n cheese made it to the table as well. After all that work (combined with a late night gift-wrapping session), I was ready to sleep the rest of the day away! Now I wrap gifts earlier, often as soon as I have them, to avoid staying up late on Christmas Eve. And to make sure I spend as much time with my young adult kids as possible on Christmas, I gave up the feast. This year I made slow cooker Christmas chili served with shredded cheese on top. It’s a family favorite, and it’s easy. For dessert, we had cookies from the cookie exchange, plus the fudge and holly leaf candy I had made earlier. Maybe everything wasn’t perfect this season (sorry if your card arrived after Christmas!), but perfection is overrated anyway. 

So how was your Christmas? What did you enjoy, and what would you like to change for Christmas 2015? Have you shopped the clearance racks? I already have my cards for 2015 and a two-tier Christmas tray for the coming holiday’s candies!

Christmas Is the Perfect Time for ... a Mystery Party!

I’m a lifelong lover of mysteries, having fallen in love with them as a child when I discovered the Trixie Belden mystery series. I read Nancy Drew as well, but I preferred Trixie’s family, friends, and frequent horseback riding. My grownup tastes lean heavily toward humorous murder mysteries and cozies.

Once I grew up and moved to the South, I discovered Agatha’s A Taste of Mystery, a comedy murder mystery dinner theater in Atlanta. I enjoyed three different interactive murder mystery dinners there. One was hippy-themed, and my then-husband (whose birthday we were celebrating) was given a part and turned out to be one of a pair of killers called Gemini! Now, that was some tie-dyed fun!

I went on to host several murder-mystery dinner parties in our home, and then two Christmases ago I hosted a Christmas-themed mystery dinner where the mystery was not a whodunit murder but rather a who-stole-it mystery. The eight of us had a rollicking good time (although that particular mystery was an unsolvable letdown; I didn’t know this in advance of purchase, but this particular mystery package required the hostess to leave the room, pretend to receive a phone call, and then return to the party to explain away the mystery; the game offered no clues to lead up to the surprise ending.)

Your mystery dinner party or tea party guests may surprise you by diving into their parts with gusto. Even quiet people get caught up in the fun and play their parts with fun and determination!

Back in the old days (the 1980s–90s), mystery parties came in a box kit that included a character booklet for each guest with clues to share and clues to hide unless asked directly, invitations, dinner-theme plans, and more. Now you can go online and download most mysteries after payment. Everything you need for your party will be included—including recipe ideas. Some mysteries offer a script for the characters to read, while others just provide clues doled out to each guest/character, allowing guests to converse as they would like. Most parties are for mixed groups, but you can find some written especially for women’s groups. And while many call for 6-8 characters, some party kits include more characters. Decide what kind of party and how many people you want, and go from there!

The theme of many of the Christmas dinner party mysteries is “Who Killed Santa Claus?” HO-hum. You have to look carefully to find something different! And soon there may be one more non-Santa mystery option, as I am creating my own Christmas mystery party. In fact, I plan to test it on several groups this December! I’m so excited!!! So enjoy what’s available but check back here for news of a new Christmas-themed mystery party coming soon!

One website that sells a variety of mystery party kits and includes ideas for decorations, food, and games is Merri Mysteries. Check them out if you’re still not sure a mystery is the best Christmas party you could plan this year.

To-Do List for July

q Shop the Independence Day clearance sales for items suitable for Christmas use: red plates (paper or plastic), napkins, tablecloths, star-shaped ornaments, star garland, candles, patriotic items that can decorate a Christmas tree, and stocking stuffers such as flag or star pencils, etc.

q Experiment with a new recipe that you may want to serve during the holiday season or to give as a gift. I found a recipe for microwaveable divinity candy a few years ago. I plan to test it to see if it is as good as my mother used to make.

q Plan your Christmas newsletter. We’ve passed the halfway mark of the year. Make note of memorable happenings so that you’re ready when it’s time to type up your newsletter to add to Christmas cards.

q Plan your Christmas photo, if you plan to include a family photo in your Christmas cards or as a gift for family members—or even as part of a calendar.

Photo Gift Tip: My daughter makes personalized calendars for her grandma, father, and me each year. She carries her camera in her purse and snaps pictures throughout the year so that she has some good shots to represent each month on the calendar; most are family shots, but some are nature scenes with quotes or verses added. The calendars become keepsake items. Plus, you can add birthdays to help scatterbrained people remember them! You can use computer software to design a calendar, but you can also upload photos to a site that has calendar templates to help you create a calendar. Any store that prints photos probably offers templates online. We’ve used Walgreens and Walmart, as well as a local printer.

This list offers you one activity per week, if you intend to do all four. All are doable, as none require a lot of time. If you choose to do less, that’s fine too. Just do something! Don’t let our favorite holiday catch you unprepared!

Okay, Okay, I'm Doing It ... And I Made a Fascinating Discovery!

It’s the beginning of March, and I—I’m taking down my Christmas decorations. Oh yes, I know it’s late for that. You don’t have to remind me that Christmas was 70 days ago and is only 295 days away!

Taking decorations down is not nearly as fun as putting them up. While unpacking them, you are getting reacquainted with forgotten friends. Setting them out, you’re anticipating the hopefully happy holiday ahead. After Christmas, when most people take down and pack away their decorations, there is nothing to look forward to but a few months of winter weather and bare trees. Blah.

Injured thumb,
mostly healed

I like to declare that I’m going to leave my decorations up till it snows! Some years, we don’t get snow at all, so I make the claim mostly in jest. But if it does snow while my trees are still up, I turn the tree lights on and enjoy a little extra Christmas magic. This year, we got a little snow late in January, and then we got a really good snow the second week in February. I had fully intended to undecorate during that second snow, but an awful thing happened as the first of the snowfall appeared: my daughter tripped while carrying glassware, which hit the ground and shattered only seconds before she herself hit the ground and cut her hand. Tears streaming down my face, we raced to the ER, where my brave young adult daughter received a tetanus shot, stitches, and packing and bandaging of the hole where her thumbprint used to be.

That was the end of my plans. I spent the rest of the week fetching and carrying, doing all the cooking, and pampering my poor pitiful princess with facials, pedicures, and back rubs. I also had to spend time working in my home office, and housework piled up. I’m happy to report that her thumb has healed nicely, and her physical therapist is pleased with her progress. So now maybe things will get back to normal around here. She helped me take down the living room trees (three of them, none very large at all) over the weekend.

Inside the stable—look, a camel left a “present.”
Just kidding!  I don’t know what that is.

As I was packing up my beloved nativity, passed down to me from my mother, I noticed something startling. On the back wall of the nativity stable is a postcard-sized picture of the traveling wisemen, which I had seen many times before. However, I recently came into possession of that same artwork, in larger, framed form, that used to hang on my paternal grandmother’s wall! It’s been hanging in the living room for three months now. I had no idea that they were the same! What a fun discovery!

Anyway, by waiting till March (accidentally, I assure you), I’m able to replace the Christmas decor with spring decor. It’s time for the floral arrangements to make their appearance. Now we are anticipating spring and noticing the early blooms around town. We haven’t quite bid the cold weather adieu, but it won’t be long now. Warm sunny weather has already given us a taste of the season to come. So really, March seems quite the right time to pack away Christmas and unpack spring, don’t you agree?

Quick Tip for Christmas Gifts

Never seem to have enough money for gifts when the holidays roll around? Wish you could buy gifts all year long but have nowhere to stash them? Like the idea of gift cards but feel they are too impersonal to give to your loved ones? 

You know I’m all about preparing in advance. I have a gift cabinet where I stash the gifts I find throughout the year. That helps me avoid a Christmas that’s a blur of stressful shopping. I know not everyone has storage space available, and some may have curious children who  invariably find gifts while snooping through drawers and closets! (And some kids find gifts while helping a parent, like a friend who, as a boy, was sent to retrieve something from the trunk of the family car, where his mother had hidden one of his gifts.)  I want you to be able to avoid stressful shopping too, whether the stress comes from lack of cash or deciding where to shop!

Try this: set aside Christmas cash each month by buying a gift card or two. Choose something general like a Visa gift card, or choose cards for stores that appeal to the various people on your gift list. Keep them in a lock box or other safe place. Then, you may give them as gifts if you like (making sure they don’t expire soon), or instead of giving the intended recipients a gift card at Christmastime, use the cards to buy each recipient a gift closer to the holiday. It’s like a Christmas club bank account, except by choosing the gift cards in advance, you’ve chosen where to shop for the gifts, saving yourself some time when you’re ready to do your Christmas shopping! 

By the way, you can stack cards to shop with, meaning you might buy a $25 gift card for the same store each month, and then use them all together for your gift shopping spree in November ... because you want to avoid the December shopping crowds, right? *wink*

Vintage Christmas

I’ve been organizing my photos. For close to ten years, they have been taken with a digital camera, but I’ve come into possession of some vintage prints that I’ve been scanning and organizing as well.

TIP: Keep your photos scanned, sorted, saved, etc. Friends have lost years’ worth of family photos to computer crashes and errors. That’s heartrending! Don’t put off till tomorrow what you can do in today’s snowstorm.

I thought I’d share a couple of vintage Christmas shots. I love to look at the details and see what decorations (and people) used to look like.

My First Christmas - back in the 1960s

Real Fire, Real Tree - Christmas 1981

My mom has always had a star like that one as a tree topper. I've had stars, angels, bows, and a Santa hat. I love to change things up now and then! But my mom is content with her star. The one she has now was bought for her by my brother, she says. She might still have the tree I gave her more than 20 years ago!

The lone stocking in the picture is one I bought for my brother. We didn’t “do” stockings in my childhood. I tried to start a new tradition. I had bought one as part of my gift to my brother (filling it with candy and goofy toys), and I made myself one out of an old sheet that I decorated with magic marker drawings. I completely understand why that one is not hanging by the fire.

I’m watching it snow from the corner of my eye. Snow is an exciting occurrence in this part of the USA. I hope it blankets everything in white. I left my outside Christmas lights up, hoping for a chance to get a photo of my house with snow and lights as if it was a snowy Christmas. (Just a little eccentricity of mine)

The snow is so light it almost looks like rain. I’m going to make some hot cocoa and watch the snow before time passes and it’s too late.

What do you do when you see snow?

Word for 2014 ... Intentional

Last year I chose Joy as my word for the year, and 2013 did its best to squash the joy out of me! So after giving more careful thought for 2014, I’ve chosen Intentional as my word for the year. 

I’ve always had good intentions, so I hope nothing catastrophic happens this year! But I don’t want to live each day merely with good intentions. I want to make intentional use of my time. Why wait for good things to happen when you can make good things happen? 

A Christmas-related business project that I started last year, but then set aside, has been tackled again. I’m tickled with how much I’ve completed in a short amount of intentionally-used time. I hope to tell you more about it in the coming months. 

For now, I’ll just wish you all a happy New Year and ask what you are doing intentionally with your time?

Christmas Confession: I'm Having a Blue Christmas

Another Blue Christmas

I have a short list of things to accomplish in the next 24 hours: polish my nails, finish decorating the two trees downstairs (the main floor trees were done weeks ago, lest you wonder why I waited till the last minute), make a gingerbread train from a kit (won’t take long), experiment with microwave divinity, go to the Christmas Eve service at my church, and visit a Christmas tree display in a nearby town. It’s a doable list, so I am not hyperventilating tonight. If I don’t get to the divinity, I won’t be upset. My mom sends divinity every year, and I’ve been enjoying this year’s batch since last week! Even so, I am having a blue Christmas.

Confession time: while I love Christmas, it’s the whole season and not the day that puts joy in my heart. The day itself is kind of depressing because the anticipated feast is consumed and gifts are revealed, bringing the celebration to a sudden end—especially if the people in your family turn their attention to their electronic gadgets and cease to participate in your festivities. On the next day, no holiday music will be played in stores or on the radio. Christmas lights lose their magic. There’s nothing left to anticipate ... unless you have more family to visit. Around December 22, I start to dread the looming end of the Christmas season!

When the children were young, I could make Christmas Day last all day long. When the children were young, we also traveled long distances to be part of big, happy family gatherings. Nowadays, it’s just me and my two grown children. Traveling is too costly and risky considering the ice and snow in the mountains that separate us from our Midwestern relatives. These days, no one is interested in singing Christmas songs or reading the story of Christ’s birth. Only one is interested in watching the Christmas parade on TV. Watching anything else on TV together won’t likely occur. Neither will group participation in games. Blah. Who are these people and why are they raining on my Christmas parade?

Why can’t Christmas last all year long? Or at least all winter long. January is so cold and lifeless without the colorful lights and decorations and music. Christmas should last until Easter in the Northern Hemisphere. Once the flowers start blooming, I’d be willing to pack away all my Christmas things and replace them with bouquets and pink and purple ribbons.

Part of the blue mood is because I was unable to host a party this season. I wanted to, desperately. My party friend and I tested all kinds of appetizers for our second annual Christmas mystery dinner party, but then summer arrived and circumstances changed for both of us. This has been a difficult year in so many ways! I joined a social group to have more Christmas party opportunities, and would you believe I was prevented from attending the two I signed up for? And an annual party by my former writers’ group didn’t happen this year after the hostess moved to another state and a popular member of the group passed away. My church didn’t have its usual Jingle Jazz event either. A lot of good folks are struggling physically and/or financially.

(I’m considering a January party if I can enlist some help rearranging my dining room and office. Throwing a mystery party on short notice can be done with the help of downloadable mystery kits and online sites that allow guests to RSVP and sign up for food to bring. I’ll share what I have found in a later blog.)

When everything seems to be going wrong, it can be difficult to focus on what’s right. Tonight I went to a church’s community event called “Bethlehem Revisited.” It was a good reminder of God’s love for us. Christmas decorations and gifts and sweets are fun, but it’s a good idea to think about the humble town of Bethlehem and the people who were going about their daily business, struggling to make ends meet and pay harsh taxes, living in simple homes without the benefit of central heat and air, whose feet were the surest form of transportation. Wants were simpler back then, but the needs were the same. We’re all in need of a Savior. We all need hope. According to the Bible, “hope deferred makes the heart sick.” That night long ago, Hope came down from heaven, bringing love and light to a dark world.

May you focus on what’s right in your life and enjoy the best that this season has to offer. Merry Christmas!

Why are Christmas Items Displayed for Sale so Early?

For some reason, the sight of Christmas decorations lining store shelves in August brings out the Scrooge in some people. While those of us with OCD (Obsessive Christmas Disorder) skip down the aisles, squealing with delight at the sparkly holiday displays, others show signs of annoyance, saying, “Let me enjoy summer! Let me enjoy autumn! Let me enjoy Labor Day, Columbus Day, and Veterans Day! I don’t want to see Christmas stuff till after the stuffed turkey is served!” These complaints run through the month of October, as if December 1 is much farther than just five-six weeks away!

Let’s imagine for a moment that no sign of the coming holiday was evident until December 1. (It couldn’t happen much sooner due to Thanksgiving and preparations for Black Friday weekend.) Now the normal chaos of the season is ratcheted to a higher level as businesses and charitable organizations must scramble to get out and buy decorations and supplies for their various Christmas events, most of which occur in the first two weeks of December. Budgets are strained because of the inability to check prices early. Lines are even longer, and tempers are shorter because of the increased number of shoppers and the disappearance of desired items from shelves. Crafters are in tears because they were unable to purchase holiday-themed supplies early for the decorations and gifts they planned to make and don’t have the time necessary to make everything! Oh the humanity!


Here’s the bottom line: if you aren’t in the mood for Christmas shopping, then assume the displays aren’t meant for you. They exist for others: those who need to browse early, plan early, and purchase early. Don’t begrudge those Christmas-minded others their early shopping opportunities. Life’s too short to be a Scrooge who, as you know, changed his attitude by the end of his story and lived a much happier life because of it. As Charles Dickens wrote in A Christmas Carol, “There is nothing in the world so irresistibly contagious as laughter and good humour.”

5 Steps to Declutter Christmas!

5 Steps to Declutter Christmas! is an excellent blog post from Action Plan Ministries and authors of the book Declutter Now! You know I’m all about advance planning, and these good folks have the right idea. Click the bold red link and get some great tips.

Newsletters: Try a Template

I love Christmas newsletters. I’ve lived far away from family my entire adult life, and reading those newsletters allows me to catch up on the lives of my loved ones. A well-done newsletter will share the good, the bad, and the funny highlights of the year. You might want to keep one from each year for yourself as a sort of brief diary of your family’s life and growth.

After I had been married a few years, I began including a newsletter in our Christmas cards, patterning it after the one my aunt and uncle sent out: newspaper column format with short, newsy items following a different theme each year. It’s fun, it’s quirky, and it’s creative! The year I didn’t send one out, I got notes telling me how much my newsletter was missed.

I created my own template more than twenty years ago. I change it up a bit each year to keep things interesting, but if Christmas chaos gets the best of me, that template enables me to pull my family news together quickly and in time to get my Christmas cards in the recipients’ mailboxes before Dec. 25. If I had not created it in a now-defunct desktop publishing program, I could share it with you but, alas, I still use PageMaker while the rest of the world has moved on to InDesign. No problem, you can find templates for Word, and probably Mac too (but you’ll have to do your own research if you need a Mac template). There are sites that sell templates, but you can find free ones available that will suit your purposes.

Here is a Microsoft Family Christmas Newsletter template that will help you place photos and text in place as it offers ideas for news to include.

This Holiday Family Newsletter template from Microsoft has Christmas graphics instead of photos. It’s six pages, which is awfully long, but can be folded over and mailed in place of a card. This one would probably be most useful to send to a few close but long-distance relatives who would be pleased to read all about your year’s adventures; your children could add poetry or short stories to it to add some extra holiday cheer. Or, this template could work as a holiday template for a business newsletter.

WordDraw.com has five free templates with a variety of holiday designs for Christmas Newsletters in Microsoft Word. One of them is in letter form rather than a newsletter format if you prefer writing a letter to laying out articles. Another even goes with a template for matching return address labels!

October is a good month to start on a newsletter. You have time to make a list of events and accomplishments to cover; you have time to start planning your layout and choosing any photos you want to include. You may wait until mid-November before you wrap it up, but getting a headstart will ensure that you can finish easily.

Might I make a suggestion? Ideally, newsletters should be limited to one page—two at the most. Don’t waste precious space on news that is the same every year. There’s no need to share that your kids are honor students and that you are so proud year after year after year. People want to know what else they are doing.

For additional tips on writing newsletters, click the “newsletter” link in my word cloud in the righthand margin.

[Note: I ended up using one of the WordDraw templates for my 2013 newsletter. It used a lot of color ink, but it turned out great. I tried something new and liked it! How about you?]

UPDATE: I'm designing my  2020 newsletter in Canva. Yes! Canva has Christmas newsletter templates too! It's wonderful to have so many options for a pretty newsletter, especially in the year 2020 when we all stayed home and had no exciting adventures to share...

Don’t Procrastinate! Here’s Why...

Where was I in July? Why wasn’t I here, reminding you to shop the After-Independence-Day sales for bargains on star decorations and napkins and things that could be used for Christmas decorations? What happened to my Celebrate Christmas in July cheers, encouraging you to plan your holiday gifts, menus, and parties in advance?

My nails were painted
for a party, not a stay at
Club Hospital

I was in the hospital, escaping death. That was my surgeon’s take on it, anyway. If my daughter had not rushed me there in the “dead of night” (pun intended), I might have died. I thought I had a nasty intestinal virus, but the surgeon believes I had a hole in my colon. Fun stuff. Writhing in pain and unable to take it any more, I arrived at the ER hoping for a shot or something on the cheap and quick side, but they knocked me out and sliced me open to see what was what. Nine days later, I was released to come home and shuffle from the guest room (closest to the bathroom) to the living room and back. I truly wondered if I would ever feel normal again. I still wonder as I feel a twinge now and then and imagine the cause. For someone who has never experienced surgery or a hospital stay before, this is all new and frightening. Being told it could be 3-6 months before I’m back to normal—and a year for my insides to be completely healed—is not very comforting. Why is my body procrastinating??? Heal already!!!

I didn’t know that July 2013 would not be mine to enjoy. Nobody knows what tomorrow will bring. So, if you wait until after Thanksgiving to prepare for Christmas and you get hit with the unexpected, what will happen to your favorite holiday? Will you miss out on some yearly fun? Stress yourself out by trying to do too much with too little time? Face disappointed children and beat yourself up mentally?

I lost July, but that’s okay. I already have some gifts stashed away, and the one I intended to purchase in July can be bought in August (it’s just $5 — shhhh). I have new-to-us decorations stored in my holiday closet. I have my Christmas cards that will be ready to mail at the beginning of December. And of course, my good friend Beth and I already spent several months testing new appetizers to serve at our 2nd annual Christmas mystery party, so skipping appetizers in July doesn’t affect our plans.

Because I’ve made Christmas all year long a way of life, losing an Entire Month hasn’t ruined my plans. Even if, heaven forbid, I spent December in the hospital, all would not be lost. My family would still have gifts. I might have to ask a close friend to go to my house and wrap the gifts in my gift cabinet for me, but due to my advance gift purchases, I wouldn’t miss out on the joy of giving. I could direct my daughter to our craft closet, where the cards are stashed, and have her put the labels on them and mail them for me.

Please don’t leave things till the last minute. Don’t procrastinate. Before you know it, November will be here, and time will seem to speed up. If you do what you can now, at a more leisurely pace, you won’t find yourself anxious and stressed later. You will have saved yourself some time that you can spend enjoying your family and friends and the traditions of the holidays. Isn’t that the goal? To create beautiful memories that we can enjoy with our loved ones? Make sure you have the time. If you haven’t started yet, now is the time to make plans, set goals, and look forward to a warm and wonderful holiday season.

What Time Is It?

It’s time to announce that it is:

Of course, that is six months to Christmas DAY. You have less than six months to get ready for the season. Your goal should be to have your parties/activities planned, your decorations up, and your gifts made/bought/wrapped (if possible) before/by December 1. So ideally, if you want a fun-filled holiday month, you have four-five months left to prepare for it.

Merry June 25!