Each year, numerous people around the world get caught unprepared when the holidays arrive. Between work and day-to-day life, it just seems to sneak up quicker than expected and can feel as though it comes faster and faster every year.
If this sounds like a predicament you’ve faced once or countless times, you’ve found the right article. With a bit of planning, you can get ahead of the holiday season nice and early.
Start Around Halloween
Once those festive and popular vampires, witches, and goblins start popping up, you should begin your preparations. If you don’t, the “main” holidays could sneak up on you once again.
First, start with a budget. How much will you spend on new decorations? What will you earmark for gifts? Will there be any traveling expenses?
Once you know what you’re willing and able to spend, you need to make a list of the friends, family, coworkers, and neighbors that you are considering purchasing presents for, as well as any charities you may donate to.
Now, if you’d like, you can even break down an estimate of what you want to spend on each individual. Chances are, you don’t want to spend the same amount on your carpool partners as you do on your mom or dad. Starting with priority gifts and working your way down is a great idea as well.
You don’t necessarily have to start buying gifts or ugly Christmas sweaters at this point, but as you’ll see throughout this article, there are indeed a few things you may want to purchase early this year.
The Tree
As you may or may not have heard, there are supply chain issues across the country this year. While you’ll be able to get your Christmas flowers delivered on time, you might have issues getting your hands on an artificial tree if you wait too long.
Since many people are known to put up the tree right around the time they prep the turkey for Thanksgiving, you should consider ordering one at least a couple of weeks before this year.
Christmas Cards
If you’ve found that purchasing Christmas cards tends to be one of those things you keep putting off, get a jump on them early this year. Otherwise, you’ll be forced to grab a box of generic ones at the last minute that may not be as impressive.
Around the same timeframe mentioned for ordering an artificial tree, get the family together and take a great photo. This way, you’ll be able to create a custom Christmas card and have them ready to send nice and early.
Gift Purchases
If you plan on taking advantage of Black Friday, you should start planning your shopping a couple of weeks before Thanksgiving. Monitoring individual retail websites, signing up for their newsletter, and visiting Black Friday sites are all great tips to get a jump on those items on your list.
However, you may want to scan the internet and a few news articles for any sign that an item you want is having shortage or distribution issues. If so, you may want to order those items a bit earlier.
Get Yourself in the Holiday Spirit
Put up the tree, decorate for the season, grab some pumpkin-scented candles (or a pumpkin alternative if that’s not your thing), and start turning on the holiday music to help set the mood.
The holiday season doesn’t have to be hectic, or at least not entirely. While this article won’t eliminate every possible hurdle throughout the season, using these tips to plan will definitely negate some of them.
