I am constantly on the hunt for ways to make my life easier. If it works and it’s easier, I’m doing it!
So, in honor of the season when we moms seem to make things stupid hard on ourselves I’m going to share my top three Stupid Easy Tips to reduce your Holiday To-Do List:
1. Don’t seal the envelopes on your holiday cards.
See what I mean? – stupid easy. As in, you feel kind of stupid doing it but it really makes your life a lot easier. Now this is probably not a valuable tip if the one thing you finally got your husband to handle was the holiday cards – they naturally do things stupid…I mean stupid easy. But if you still handle the holiday cards stop sealing the envelopes.
I came upon this trick doing holiday cards two years ago. I was stuffing cards bleary eyed on Christmas Eve. Because I was determined to get them out before Christmas. After sealing the 3rd envelope around 2am, I said “F*ck it” and put them all in the mailbox unsealed. When I checked, everyone had gotten them. I haven’t looked back since!
2. Use Pillsbury cookie dough.
The women in my family are bakers from way back, but I just don’t have the time. I want to be able to do the whole “cookie baking” thing with my kids, but I just can’t handle the mess that happens when we do it nor can I handle the clean up. There are other times of year when I bake cookies from scratch with the kids. I don’t have as much to do and it’s fun, but around the holidays we use Pillsbury. For a while I felt a little stupid doing it, but now it is just so easy it hangs out on my stupid easy list.
The only thing that matters is the memory the kids have. They baked cookies – check and done!
3. Drink wine while wrapping presents.
My oldest and dearest friend is a brilliant package wrapper. She makes each present look like a work of art. I used to try to do the same. It made wrapping presents torturous.
I now make sure I have a full goblet of wine handy when I wrap. It keeps me from trying too hard at the whole wrapping thing. Granted the presents that happen around the end of glass two look a bit crazy, but hey – when they are being opened I’m already pouring my first eggnog so what do I care?
Instead of using all of your energy this season trying to make your holiday “perfect” aka stupid hard, set some of that energy aside and do a few things stupid easy. You’ll be glad you did!
Bonus Stupid Easy tip for parents of toddlers:
You don’t need to buy a child under the age of two any presents. Wrap the things they already own. This isn’t just stupid easy it is psychologically valid. While I was getting my masters in psych., my first born was a baby. I learned that little ones enjoy what is familiar to them when it is presented in a different way far more than something new altogether. And come on –you’ve seen it – they just like to unwrap crap – they don’t usually pay attention to what is inside!
Save yourself the time and money of buying your babes gifts and just wrap what they already own. You may feel a little stupid at first but you’ll thank me in the morning!
Do you have any stupid easy tips you’d like to share? Share them here in the comments section of the blog! I love tips! I love comments!
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