Organize Your Holidays For A Stress-Free Season

Alright, it’s crunch time people, in a few short weeks (ahhh 20ish days!) the holidays will have arrived! For many of us, we’re working professionals, moms, wives, PTA members, dance-recital-helpers, office-party-planners, elf-on-the-shelf-movers, etc. While the holidays are a cherished time, they can be stressful! With so many festivities and events, it can be overwhelming trying to make sure everything goes as planned and still enjoy and remember the reason for the season.

How To Create A Stress-Free Season

No need to fear, with plenty (sort of) time left before the  frenzy begins, Hapari has you covered! We’ve researched helpful tips to get you organized and ready for the holidays so it's a stress-free season!

Holiday Shopping Printables

That’s right, there are wonderful people in the world who create holiday shopping printables for free, for all to use. These shopping guides help you remember who to buy for and keep you within your budget. They also help you remember whether the gift has been ordered, shipped, wrapped, and where the item was purchased. These are a lifesaver, or a memory saver. Either way, we’re definitely using these this year!

You can find holiday shopping guides on many blogs but we suggest using this one from It’s Always Autumn.

Select Holiday Traditions

As much as we want to do it all, we simply can’t. There’s not enough time to attend holiday parties, go sledding, ice skate downtown, see the lights, build a snowman, shop, cook elaborate meals, and maintain a work/home balance. Whew. I’m tired just thinking about all of that. Instead, why not focus on a few of your favorite activities and just do those? We like to pick three events our family can do before Christmas. For us, it’s help host a family holiday party, drive around to see Christmas lights with eggnog and hot chocolate and volunteer at a local homeless shelter. That’s it! We focus on three things, and then everything else can wait until things slow down. Try it!

Holiday Meal Plan

If ever there was a month when you need to meal plan, December is it! Towards the beginning of the month, we suggest sitting down with a calendar and writing down the various events and festivities you have planned. Then, decide what meal you want to eat for dinner on each night. Try planning meals with groceries in mind. Plan meals accordingly so that produce, meats, and leftovers are used together before they expire. This also helps with grocery shopping. If you can buy an entire week (or even two) of food, you’ll save time and money. With a planned out meal for the entire month, you won’t have to worry about what to prepare for dinner each night. Viola!

We hope these simple tips and tricks for organizing your holiday season help you be a little more stress-free this year. Enjoy!

For more posts like this, check out the Hapari blog! We’re like your favorite lifestyle blog but better — mostly because we follow the Hapari code of great quality and content. See you there!