My Five Favorite Tips to Tame the Holiday Crazy!

The holidays will be here before you know it and instead of getting sucked into the holiday crazy, my goal is to take as much stress as I can out of the season so I can truly enjoy it. If you’ve got the same mindset, these five tips to tame the holiday crazy should help! (post includes some affiliate links – full disclosure statement {here}):

Choose Accessories That Easily Transition From the Fall Through the Holidays

If you decorate your home for each season and the holidays, it can be a whole lot of decorating and redecorating to go from fall to Halloween to Thanksgiving and finally to Christmas decor. To help tame the crazy, choose accessories that transition beautifully from fall through the holidays with just some quick tweaking.

For example,  I have two lantern trios (found {here}) that I put on our front porch in early fall and continue to use throughout the rest of the year. When the seasons or holidays change, I simply do a little tweaking that includes a two-minute ribbon swap along with changing out what they’re filled with. For fall, I tied a black + burlap ribbon on the two large lanterns and filled them with white baby boo pumpkins:

and then for the holidays, I can simply switch out the ribbon to something more festive and replace the pumpkins with ornaments:

It takes less time and money to decorate and you end up with less seasonal “stuff” that you have to find a place to store. Another example of an accessory that can easily transition from fall through the holidays is a magnolia wreath such as {this one} that can be changed up seasonally with a simple ribbon swap:

Pillage Your Own Backyard for Holiday Greenery

Instead of running around all over town buying greenery to deck the halls of your home, save some time and holiday stress by clipping greenery from your yard instead. You don’t have to have anything fancy like magnolia leaves to decorate (although if you do, I’m jealous!) – it can be as simple as some branches from an evergreen tree like I use every year to decorate our front door:

Branches from bushes in your landscaping (like simple boxwood bushes that so many people have) totally work too! I purposely make sure my husband doesn’t trim this one row of bushes in our backyard late in the season so that they have branches long enough for me to clip when the holidays come around:

Use Time-Saving Tricks To Send Your Holiday Cards

I hand addressed, wrote (including personal notes), and mailed traditional Christmas cards for years and while I loved connecting with friends and family that I don’t get to see as often as I’d like, it was crazy time consuming and to be honest, totally stressed me out some years. So while I still do it every few years, I found a less stressful way for the years where it’s just too much. 

So what do I do to lessen the holiday card stress? I use Paperless Post – it’s been a life saver! It’s an e-card system where you choose your card (I always choose one I can upload a family photo to), personalize it, and design everything from the card background to the envelope style and even the pattern lining the envelope (there are some gorgeous options!):

You then add your recipient names and email addresses and your card gets emailed to them. When they open the email, they’ll see an image of an envelope addressed to them and when they click on it, the envelope turns around, opens, and the card pops out (including a personal note if you write one!). What I like best about the way Paperless Post is set up is that there’s an opportunity for the recipient to respond to your card so after my cards get sent out, I always get a bunch of emails from friends and family that I haven’t heard from in forever. I never thought I’d be a Christmas e-card type person but I love it! 

If e-cards aren’t for you, a great option for saving time and stress when sending traditional cards is to take advantage of shops like Minted that offer free recipient addressing. When you order your cards from them, they will print your envelope addresses at no charge (and I love that the design of their envelopes coordinates with the design of the cards!).  You can read more about it {here} and check out Minted’s holiday card options {here}.

Stock Up on Hostess & Thank You Gifts Ahead of Time

While the holidays aren’t going to be filled with the same parties and gatherings as in past years, I know that my thank you gift list will be longer this year than ever! You can totally eliminate the last minute “I need a thank you gift” panic by stocking up ahead of time! Some simple gifts include a favorite bottle of wine, a bottle of gourmet syrup or local honey, or a pretty tea towel paired with chocolates or some other treat: 

My two favorite places to find cute tea towels are on Etsy {here} and Anthropologie {here}. 

A few other ideas include a pretty cutting board (like {these cute gingerbread men}) with some cheese and crackers tied on:

or fill a cute mug such as {these polka dot mugs} with things such as a plant, carmels + a gift card, marshmallows + hot chocolate mix, or a sweet treat:

Wrap as You Go (and Then Use Your Presents to Decorate!)

You’ve probably heard me say it before but I LOVE wrapping presents! For several years now I’ve gotten my wrapping paper early and the wrapped a lot of my presents as I’ve bought them. That way I don’t have the stress of a huge pile of presents that I need to get wrapped right before Christmas and as a bonus, my wrapped presents are a simple, beautiful way to decorate my home for the holidays. Some of my favorite spots for wrapped presents are piled on the corner chair in our dining room,

the ottoman in our living room, and our family room bookshelves: