5 Tips for the Holidays: How to Prepare for the Season
This season from September through December is my absolute favorite time of year. It’s filled with several holidays, family get-togethers, traditions, and so many fun activities! Because there’s so much going on and so much available to do, this season also can get very stressful, especially if you don’t have a plan or specific goals in place for what you want out of it. Today, I wanted to share my best tips for the holidays as well as my own process I use to prepare for the holidays.
These tips for the holidays work best when you do each one in order; they are almost more like a checklist where each step builds on each other. The end result will be a manageable calendar that aligns with your seasonal goals!
1. Plan your intentions.
Start by making a list of everything you’d like to do or you have a vague idea you’d like to do. Basically, just brain dump everything onto a piece of paper. Don’t worry about order or the amount of realistic time you have to do everything; we will get to that later! I make a bucket seasonally too (for fall, Christmas, winter, spring, and summer). You can download my Fall Bucket List here! I find that it helps me organize my thoughts and fill in my intentions.
Take a look at your calendar and fill in all your appointments, family obligations, parties, and other commitments you need to fill. Whatever your calendar method (digital, on paper, bullet journal, etc.), make sure these commitments are noted, because this will be important for the next step.
Take a look at your bucket list from step 2 and start filling in your calendar. This is where you will start prioritizing what items fit your seasonal intentions and removing what is too much. For me, that is doing something more than once or twice a week. If this is overwhelming to do all in one step, take a step back, revisit your intentions, and remove items from the list first; then add them to your calendar.
5. Make gift lists.
Even though it’s still October, it’s definitely not too early to start planning for Christmas gifts (or even other gifts for next year!). Start by writing out a list of everyone you want to give a gift to, then go back and fill in ideas. Add a couple check boxes to mark when you’ve purchased a gift and when you’ve wrapped or mailed it. If you’d like a ready-made checklist, click here to download my Yearly Gift Planner freebie! It also includes space for “decide once” gifts, address lists, as well as a calendar of major holiday dates for the next couple years!
Reminders
I hope these tips for the holidays have been helpful for you! REMEMBER: The following is NOT required for prepping for the holidays:
- Doing anything you don’t want to do. Don’t like baking? Don’t do it.
- Cleaning or decluttering (unless that’s your jam cuing the start to a new season). Obviously, you want to maintain a livable space, but just remember that you don’t have to have a perfect home to invite people over.
- Needing to do ALL THE THINGS. The purpose of the bucket list brain dump isn’t to overwhelm you with everything going on this season and how you can’t fit it all in. Or maybe it is. You really CAN’T do all the things. BUT you can do what you want to do intentionally, and part of that is dumping it all out and paring down to what aligns with your goals. You’ll feel good about what you don’t do, and even better about what you DO do. You CAN slow down. You CAN do things intentionally while still doing fun things.
Overwhelmed? Grab my Yearly Gift Planner!
If you are looking to get organized and intentional with your gift giving next year, snag a copy of my Yearly Gift Planner! Complete with major federal and Christian yearly holidays, a tracker for birthdays and anniversaries, and a blank calendar to bring it all together, this printable and editable PDF is able to be reused year after year and will help you stay on track so you never miss a date!
