Simplify your Schedule
It starts with keeping a good calendar. In this season there is so much going on and it’s ridiculously easy to find yourself double booked, or overbooked, so an accurate calendar can save you a lot of frustration, anytime, but especially now. Make sure that anyone who’s old enough to be making their own plans has access to your calendar and can write in their commitments too so that there in one place in the house where people can look to see what’s happening when -- think of it as one hub of information to keep things under control and guard your family time.
Cheryl made a gorgeous calendar/organizer that one lucky lady went home with.
Simplify your Spending
In a nutshell: spend less on gifts. It’s really that simple.
It seems like for many of us finances are tighter and we’re being more careful with our purchasing this year. It’s so important to figure out early in your planning what you can spend this year and stick to it. We know that the “sticking to it” is the hard part.
Simplifying and sticking to it starts with a great list. Lists are your friends. If you haven’t already done it, make your gift list now. Write down everyone that you would normally give a gift to, from immediate family to teachers to special friends and neighbours, anyone who would receive even the littlest token from you at Christmas.
Next, take a good look at those names and separate them two lists. The first is the list of those who you feel you must buy a gift for. Beside each name write a dollar amount of how much you can spend on each individual.
The second list would be the names of those who you would like to extend some gesture of thanks or friendship towards, but you have room to get creative about WHAT exactly that will be. These are people who would appreciate the gesture of a gift, but really don’t need a thing. As you consider the first list, those who you really feel you need to give something to, our next simplifying suggestion is to Give Gift Cards wherever possible. I know the argument can be made against giftcards, because they don’t require as much thought, but I know I’d rather my recipient ended up with what they really wanted, so if I’m not 100 % sure about that, a giftcard is possibly the most thoughtful thing I could give. And if you’re not sure which store they would enjoy shopping at the most, you can buy Orchard Park gift certificates that work everywhere in the mall—just visit the customer service kiosk by the Sears Home Store. It’s the ultimate one stop shopping.
Giving gift cards will help you simply Christmas by
• Helping you stick to your spending plan because you choose the amount you’ll spend.
• save you a ton of time wondering the stores and decision making, you just march up to the counter, ask for the gift certificate, and get out of there.
• create nearly zero waste with wrapping paper.
• You can avoid the post office for gifts you need to mail
You can even shop for giftcards online… it’s getting tight, but doable… especially for far away friends and family. If you have a store in mind, check their website… so many stores will let you order giftcards from their website and you can have them sent to you or to the recipient. So gift cards are a BIG ONE, if you’re looking to Simplifying you Spending.
Now, about that second list -- the people you want to acknowledge in some way at Christmas, or maybe people who really don’t need a thing? How about making a donation to a worthy cause rather than giving them a gift. You can easily give those people a Christmas card with a note that says, “In celebration of our friendship this year, we’ve made a donation to Habitat for Humanity” or any one of the endless great causes that you can be a part of.
You can even find gifts that fit with your friend in mind. World vision, for instance has an amazing catalogue, and you can access it on-line too http://https//catalogue.worldvision.ca/gifts/Forms/Home.aspx?mc=3221603&lang=en , that show you all kinds of options for donations.
For the last few years I’ve gone together with a couple of other parents in my kids classes and our teachers have been thrilled to know that a gift of school supplies were given to a teacher in Kenya. Lots of options to do with food, shelter, animals, education programs… and with World Vision you can print off a little certificate to explain the area the donation went towards.
One other idea along the same lines… is to become part of the “the Advent Conspiracy”? We want to encourage you to take a minute to check it out… there’s an amazing video explaining the concept at adventconspiracy.org. The Advent Conspiracy is a movement that is all about what we’re talking about… spend less, love more. Their big focus is solving the world water problem.
Our family is really excited about this and so what we’re doing this year for the people on our “second list”… is giving this water bottle with a message explaining that in celebration of our friendship we’ve made a donation to a water program.
If you like designing things on your computer like I do, you could do some labels for the water bottles, or you could wrap a piece of Christmassy paper around it and attach a simple tag with an explaination. This little token is just a fun way to let them know about the alternative gifts you’ve given, that they haven’t been forgotten, just celebrated in a different way.
GET THE HOUSE READY NOW
If you’re planning on doing any entertaining or having houseguests, and you like the place spic and span, do a deep clean of your home in the next week or two and keep on top of it by doing 10-15 minutes of maintanence cleaning each day. And if you’ll be needing your guestroom over the holidays, get it all ready to go now so you don’t have to think about it again. Make sure you get your family involved in the cleaning to. My motto is “one woman and two adolescent boys working together can clean as much in 20 minutes as one woman working along can clean in 25 minutes”, but hey, I’ll take that 5 minutes. Actually, my guys are pretty great little cleaners, and I’m not above using bribery and/or threats if necessary. If you do one really good cleaning now, you really can keep it that way by doing a little bit each day.
HOSPITALITY GIFTS
If you don’t want to arrive empty handed when you are invited to someone’s home, do up a handful of ready to go gifts that you can grab on your way out the door. We love to give edibles, and you can get great, inexpensive items like Chai Tea concentrate, cute tins of cookies, boxes of individually wrapped Biscotti...and just make up a little bundle of treats. Cheryl likes to grab a handful of $10 Starbucks cards to have on hand just in-case… you could always pair up a coffee card with a little bundle of biscotti, or a nice but inexpensive chocolate bar… So, you can see it’s really easy to put together a few inexpensive little gift for when you’re going to need them. The key is to do a few ahead of time so to same money and avoid last minute.
WRAP GREEN
While we’re looking at a Christmas with new eyes, think green. Rather than using wrapping paper, dress up a shopping bag with a bit of ribbon, or if you’re crafty you can go to town. These are beautiful and practical and not expensive. Have fun with stuff like this, be creative and earth-friendly in your wrapping and decorating. Cheryl made a couple of cute resusable bags as give-aways.
SIMPLIFY YOUR SWEETS
I’ll bet that most of us in this room appreciate a little Christmas baking, but we’re really trying to avoid the fuss, the expense and the calories that come along with it. If you’re going to bake, consider making less of a production out of it… do 2 or 3 types instead of 5. And if you’re at all entertaining a baking exchange, maybe consider just asking one or two friends to do a small scale exchange so that you don’t have to crank out 12 dozen of anything.
SIMPLE ENTERTAINING
If you’re hosting any get togethers, make it easy on yourself and take short-cuts. Have appy parties instead of dinner parties. If it’s a large group, take people up on their offer to bring something. You also might want to be armed with a few key ingredients for some very quick, no-fail appetizers, just incase someone comes by last minute or you haven’t had time to make anything ahead. I’m sure you have lots of great ideas for this kind of thing, and again, we’d love to hear from you, so feel free to post your ideas in the comments section of this blog. We showed the ladies our two favourites… everyone loves these and they are ridiculously easy and fast to make.
The first is a hot crab and artichoke dip. You can keep all these ingredients on hand at all times, there’s nothing unusual here that will go bad if you don’t use it right away. All you need is…
a. A can of crab meat
b. A block of cream cheese
c. About half a cup of sourcream
d. Half a jar of artichokes, chopped
e. Some garlic, lemon, pepper and dill
f. And if you have parmeasan or asiago around, you can throw that in too.
You don’t have to measure, you just drain and rinse the crab, chop up the artichokes, throw it all together, use a hand mixer and bake it for about 15 minutes. You can do crackers or tortilla chips… you can not mess this up and it’s so yummy. I made this this earlier in the week and had my kids time me and from cupboard to oven it was 6 minutes and 40 seconds. Everyone can pull that dip off.
The other one we is a favourite at Cheryl’s house… she just takes a brie wheel, which she buys in a 6 pack at Costco and freezes until she needs them, top that with chopped sundried tomatoes (the ones stored in olive oil), chopped garlice and a drizzle of olive oil. Throw it under the broiler for 7-10 minutes until it gets melty, pull out and serve with hearty crackers or a baguette. If you bake it in a nice oven-safe dish you can serve it from oven to table and cut down on dishes as well.
And if this isn’t fast enough for you, there’s always M & M! (actually,we think we're faster!)
CHRISTMAS DINNER
Everyone loves Christmas dinner, but who one wants to spend all Christmas day cooking and doing dishes? Look at your menu and pick out any items that can be done a day or two ahead, like mashed potatoes or desserts…. Maybe even plan your Christmas dinner with make ahead dishes in mind, so that Christmas day gives your more time to sit down with your family and a cup of hot chocolate.
SIMPLE SUPPERS
To maximize any days off you have, put some meals in the freezer now over the next couple of weeks. Do a big batch of chilli, make a bunch of meatballs, precook some taco or fajita filling and that will make any meal prep you have to do a lot easier. Ask your girlfriends what their favourite make ahead meals are and swap some ideas… Remember, lists are your friends, so plan your menus and make great lists so you can cut down on trips to the store.
KEEP TRADITIONS MEANINGFUL AND KEEP MEANINGFUL TRADITIONS
Ask your family now what they look forward to each Christmas… and be ok with letting go of some activities that aren’t at the top of the list. And maybe that conversation is a good time to talk about starting new, meaningful traditions. Maybe it’s a family discussion about how you can all work together to give to those in need. You can take this to any level you want. Maybe it’s doing something thoughtful for a neighbour who could use a little extra love. Maybe it’s something bigger, like replacing at SOME of your gift purchases with donations to a worthy cause. Get creative, what ever that looks like for you and your family. Hopefully with the time and money you’ve saved by Simplifing your Christmas, you will feel energized to invest in meaningful traditions, whether they are old favourites or the start of something new.
SIMPLY SAVOR… Don’t aim for the perfect Christmas, just savor the people, the time, the moments, the traditions and the legacies you’re building. We wish you all a very meaningful and simple Christmas!
love,
Dawn and Cheryl
And as a special thank you for referring friends to our site,