Christmas is a wonderful time of year. Families gathering, kids laughing, terrible crackers jokes, and good food. However, it’s also one of the year’s most expensive and stressful times.
Crammed shopping centres, hot weather, irate and inconsiderate shoppers, and the struggle to find a car park all make Christmas a time of year that represents joy and stress in equal measure.
Yet there is one massive advantage that we have against the Christmas rush, it’s at the end of the year. This means that if we plan right and take advantage of the right strategies, there’s no reason why Christmas can’t go smoothly. So, without further ado here are seven reasons to let the Christmas spirit grab you all year round, plan early, and get ahead of the rush.
1 – Always Helps to be Organised
To plan your Christmas early doesn’t mean dusting off the wholesale Christmas decorations from Australia in January, but it does mean not waiting until December to do it. Usually, people have their Christmas stuff in boxes, ready and waiting for the Christmas season.
Still, a lot of Christmas stress comes from not knowing where anything is. In the months approaching December, it may be a good idea to scour your house for your Christmas supplies and decorations. After all, there is soon to come, weeks of fervent wrapping, decorating, and maybe even house rearrangement.
Get the boxes of decorations out and make sure that any particularly special and beloved objet d’art is present and accounted for. Make sure you’re well stocked with Christmas wrap, cards, and tape, and that any gifts you’ve bought thus far are easily located. Which brings us to our second point;
2 – Shopping Through the Year
Getting to Christmas specials is a point of importance for many shoppers. After all, the deals are insane, and it makes sense to get something for as cheap as possible, especially when a lot of shopping is being done.
However, is going to the shops at Christmas time the smartest move? After all, physical shopping is an investment in more than what you spend on presents. It’s an investment in your time, physical and mental energy, fuel budget, and anything you might spend on food while at the shops.
Buying for Christmas throughout the year saves time, energy, stress, and money. There are always sales all through the year.
Easter, end of the financial year, closing sales, Mother’s and Father’s Day sales. Just because it doesn’t say “Christmas” doesn’t mean you can’t buy it for Christmas. Leverage these sales, browse them, shop online for unique discounts, get the gifts early, and then put them in a box somewhere safe for the end of the year.
When it comes time to wrap, bring out the present box and you’ll be done in a day or two.
3 – Planning Early Helps the Host
A lot of people celebrate Christmas with a family get-together. We share food, laugh, drink, read the bad jokes out of the Christmas crackers, wear silly hats, swap gifts, and generally celebrate a time of love with family and friends we might not see much.
The problem is that someone needs to host this event. After all, it’s got to take place somewhere, right?
Hosting is a difficult job and it’s not one that anyone wants to do. After all, it’s a lot of work. Hosting can bring people a lot of joy but it does mean that the host’s workload has at least tripled compared to everyone else’s.
They have to arrange their home so everyone will fit, make sure the house is clean, and have places to put the food and the gifts that will be arriving, they have to organise plates, cups, and cutlery for everyone.
Make a list of which family members have the houses that will allow everyone to come together, then agree early on in the year who will be the host and establish a rotation that works for everyone. This way, holiday prep can be done throughout the year, rather than a mad rush in a week or two before Christmas, saving time, stress, and energy.
4 – Alternatively…
If no one has a property big enough for everyone, or just if no one wants to host the get-together, designate somebody as the organiser and let them set up a get-together outside the house, at a restaurant, BBQ park, or other public gathering place.
Again, the earlier that this responsibility is delegated, the better it will be for the person organising the event. Good times come as a result of good planning, and good planning only happens when there is enough time to do so.
5 – It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year
If you ever had trouble with deadlines in school you likely heard the phrase “Why put off until tomorrow what you can do today?” Although the line is somewhat of a cliche and dismisses a whole gamut of physical and mental illnesses, in the case of planning for Christmas it kind of works.
After all, Christmas is supposed to be a time of joy, but if you’re run off your feet organising this and that in a panic, you’re not going to be free to enjoy much of the season and take care of things in a slow trickle throughout the year rather than in a mad dash when the season hits will ensure as little stress as possible when Christmas rolls around.
6 – More Reliability
How many times have you planned the perfect gift just to get to the store and see that they’re out of stock? Christmas sales can be just as much a hindrance as a help, as the issue is that it’s a first-come-first-served world, and the supply of anything and everything is limited.
However, shopping through the year means you have the time to look for the projected item, shop around and do some intensive price comparison, and buy it while it’s going to be in stock. No more impromptu back-up gift buying!
7 – Contingency Planning
The earlier you see a pothole in the road, the easier it is to avoid it. Accidents happen when speed is of the essence and time is at a premium. The earlier you start your Christmas planning, the more time you have to adjust those plans when something inevitably goes wrong.
If you’ve made bookings you can cancel them without fear of losing deposits, if presents are lost or missing you have more time to plan up/buy a backup.
We’ve given you seven reasons why you should plan Christmas early. We’re yet to find a single reason as to why you shouldn’t. Getting an early start on anything means that you’re already at an advantage, why should Christmas be any different?
