How to make NEXT Christmas EASIER Thread. Suggestions Please:

[Puffy2]

This year has been....too overwhelming. Anyone with suggestions on how to give the kids a nice holiday and have family gatherings without it being exhausting?

The cooking, the cleaning, the gifting, etc.... was just a little too much.

 

[Aidensmom]

I cut way back on doing things this year because Christmas usually stresses me out. Cookies were made with the new Nestle Shapes precut cookie dough that we decorated, Christmas Eve dinner was scaled back (we didn't miss the amount of food), and I did most of my shopping online.

 

[Disney1fan2002]

Well, one advice i am going to give, I just figured it out today, so I will be putting it into action next year.

The kids got WAY too much. Next year, they are going to get the one thing the absolutely want, and then a few gifts her and there. I have piles of toys that have not been touched, because they have been playing with the one and only "must have" gift they got. Train table, Baby Annabelle, and Nintendo DS are the toys of honor today. I could of saved a whole bunch of money of I just stopped there.

 

[jazstar87]

just go to disney world or land your choice!

 

[SunFloridaDisney]

We usually go out to eat on Christmas Eve, making for less cooking.

'Santa' comes to our house on Christmas Eve, so the gifts are opened then, and we sleep in the next morning (my kids are all older now, youngest is 11) but we've always done it this way. Christmas day we visit my parents and my siblings, the day after we celebrate with DH's side. Not too much running from place to place.

 

[pfishgirl]

We made less food this year.. less leftovers and less wasted food..
Shopped early and picked up sale items 6 months prior to the holidays..

 

[Deb & Bill]

Do a little less cleaning and cooking.

Actually, my son finished baking the cookies last night (I made the dough early on Sat morning). It's nice having someone to help who likes to bake. I rolled out some of the dough, but he cut them out and baked them. Then he even rolled out some of the dough himself.

We had Hickory Farms sausage and cheese with crackers, plus a little Con Queso with Scoops for dinner last night after we got home from Mass.

I haven't sent out Christmas cards in years.

I started the dinner about 11AM and we ate about 2PM.

We don't go to relatives homes for Christmas. Only did that once in the last twelve years. We established our own holiday at our house. They always call and invite us, but we always decline. We usually don't take off from work around Christmas unless we are headed to WDW (we leave on Friday after work for NYE).

 

[crazelion]

This what I did this year what help alot was have ham, frozen beans with canned potatoes, and mac and cheese. The rolls was already done from the store. I made a simple menu and work out perfectly. For dessert I baked one cake that was it. I was buy a cake from Wal-Mart but they was sold out cakes.

It was most amazing theingIi ever seen in my life they was sold out coke products.

 

[LoveWDW]

I don't send Christmas cards.

I had the big Christmas dinner at my place. I cooked almost half of the meal yesterday- dessert, prepared the baked mashed potatoes for baking today, cooked the turkey and removed the meat from the bones and cooked up the bones for the broth, cut up the fresh vegetables and the onions and celery for the stuffing. Today I baked the ham, the potatoes, the green bean casserole, used the broth from yesterday- having chilled and removed the fat- for the stuffing, used store made rolls. Next year I am going to make the ham the day before also. The ham slicing, even using a spiral sliced ham, took time at the last second and wasn't worth it- next year a regular ham, maybe boneless.

For the children- as you say, cut back on the toys, maybe a donation to college fund would be nice.

If there are other adults there, ask one of them to be in charge of washing up the dishes and pots as they appear. I kept washing as a pot was emptied, and there was still a lot of washing up. If I'd had somebody helping out it would have made that easier.

 

[Marseeya]

I'd like to shop earlier. We did 99% of our shopping on Friday and Saturday. Couldn't be helped this year, but next year I'd like to get it all done in the fall.

 

[MUFFYCAT]

Went to friends last night an moms today. So cooking never stresses us out!
I love the shopping starting on Black Friday all the way to Christmas Eve.

I always takee a day off from work and wrap while the kids are at school.
That helps alot.

 

[DisMN]

I don't buy much and have NO expectations that others must buy for ME.

I don't clean much nor do I invite company over to "celebrate".....much too fussy, much too much stress so I just don't do it.

I refuse most offers to go to other people's homes as well.

In other words, I don't do much at all.....I don't do anything I don't WANT to do. Period.

For years I've recieved evil looks aka The Hairy Eyeball because of my "bad attitude" but truthfully I think they're all just envious that I've been able to follow my heart and not do too much for ME.

Christmas shouldn't be the painful event so many people make it out to be. It's a joyous holiday.........so find ways to enjoy even if that means cutting back, WAY back......

 

[clh2]

We've done something now for the past 2 years. It was so much fun last year that we did it again this year. We don't see family on 12/24 or 12/25. Christmas with both sides of the family happens on other days - just depends who is hosting.

We went to church at 3pm on 12/24. Then we stopped by a Chinese place, and put in an order for take out. Then we went to Blockbuster to pick out some movies. Then we went back to pick up the Chinese, and went home.

We opened the "family"presents last night after dinner, and then watched 2 movies. We politely advised our DD11 to get to bed about 10, she balked, until it was pointed out that Santa is circling and may want to stop. DH and I were in bed by 10:15. DD fell asleep about 11 (she was going to read for awhile).

Today, we opened Santa presents, had pancakes for breakfast, leftover Chinese for lunch, and chicken for dinner.

 

[Gupsmom]

We go out to dinner on Christmas Eve (this year we went to Shogun's Japanese Steakhouse..they cook right at the table and the kids love it). On Christmas we do a deli buffet.....sandwich meats, rolls, green salad, tuna salad, egg salad, chips/salsa/hummus, and cheese/peperoni/crackers/olives etc. We discovered a few years back that nobody cares about a big fancy meal that required hours to prepare, was barely touched by over-excited kids and took an hour to clean up. We are all much happier with our simple buffet....my son (8 yrs old) even wrote about it in his 'Christmas Traditions' paper at school...LOL

Right in line with this...I overheard a lady in the market say that for the past few years they've ordered Chinese food on Christmas day. She stated all the same reasons that we have and said her family couldn't be happier about the change toward a simple meal.

Jess

 

[disneymom3]

I decided yesterday after DH had worked 8 million hours the last few weeks, that I needed to destress and cut back. He and DD left for church around noon--they were both performing--and our typical Christmas eve dinner of homemade pizza and homemade cake for Jesus' birthday quickly became Walmart take and bake pizza and a cake from the deli. I also decided I wasn't going to clean the house even though the inlaws were coming after church for dinner. Hey, I have been married to DH for 13 years and if they don't love me by now, they are never going to! I also decided that the traditional Christmas potica I usually make is now officially my New Year's Potica. No one does anything next weekend--I can make a 3 hour bread then.

It made my day sooo much better and considering I was very close to tears on Friday that was a good thing. (Actually I did cry on Friday after reading the very sweet responses to my whining thread on the Family board!)

And I have to say that pizza and cake were darn good and well worth the $13 I spent!!

For me, it was just a matter of letting go of some expectations that really I was putting on myself, no one else was. MIL and FIL had a great time sharing Christmas eve with the kids, the kids loved the confetti that was a surprise in the cake and I was a happy mommy with a hot chocolate and butterschnapps by 10:30.

 

[disykat]

Just do what you want and eat what you want and skip the stuff that seems like work. We keep gifts pretty simple, send cards to loved ones, spend lots of time at church, We don't do "thank you" gifts, a variety of holiday baking or fancy food.

My friends just left. We had super nachos and brownie mint pie on paper plates - and had a great time. The kids enjoy the informal gathering much more than they would another big dinner - we do that at Thanksgiving and Easter. I was afraid my friends would think I was nuts, but both families were enthusiastic about the menu.

 

[Nicolepa]

This year I went to one of those Month of Meals type places and got a prime rib and mashed potatoes for Christmas eve dinner. All I had to do was pop the PR in before church, heat the potoatoes in the microwave, steam broccoli and I was done. I also made a cherry pie for dh. I pull it out of the oven and he says "You do love me!". That was the only "special" thing I did for dinner.

We had brunch today and I had all stuff from Costco & the month of meals place. Instead of making the cinnamon rolls I bought the Rhodes rolls. Not quite as good but everyone still enjoyed them. I hosted 2 faboulous meals and did virtually no cooking!

I try to do all my shopping in late October/Early November so I can wrap and ship early (and take my time). This year I cut way back on what I bought, and next year I think I could cut back even more. They would have been happy with just the pound puppies from Santa!

We let them open presents thruout the day so that they can enjoy them. We open presents w/Grandpa on Christmas eve. In the morning we do stockings/Santa. They play with that for an hour or so. Then we do presents from out of town (G'ma & G'pa). Call and thank them, play etc. Then my mom comes over and we open the rest.

 

[ksjayhawks]

Several of our friends do the "three gifts" per child. One biggie that they really, really want and two others. Then they parcel out the other items on their lists to grandparents.

We like to do stockings and actually seem to have more fun with them than some of the other gifts!

I used to do a lot of baking, candy making, etc., but it was too much. Now I do a lot of mix-in-the-jar for gifts, one or two types of cookies. I pick up small gifts for the gift drawer all year.

I try to keep meals simple--we do big breakfast of pancakes, sausages, bacon, eggs and dinner this year was a spiral ham--pre cooked, baked potatoes, and green bean casseroles.

 

[Michie]

I don't buy much and have NO expectations that others must buy for ME.

I don't clean much nor do I invite company over to "celebrate".....much too fussy, much too much stress so I just don't do it.

I refuse most offers to go to other people's homes as well.

In other words, I don't do much at all.....I don't do anything I don't WANT to do. Period.

For years I've recieved evil looks aka The Hairy Eyeball because of my "bad attitude" but truthfully I think they're all just envious that I've been able to follow my heart and not do too much for ME.

Christmas shouldn't be the painful event so many people make it out to be. It's a joyous holiday.........so find ways to enjoy even if that means cutting back, WAY back......

We keep things real simple.I refuse to send out cards, have not in years. I don't buy what I call "token" gifts. Most people I know have too much anyway, escepiallly kids, mine namely. I ask people not to buy things for us. I slept all day!! I don't understand why people allow themselves to be bullied by family regarding being such and such place. Just say NO!

 

[kadaten]

Less family emergencies would really help me out next year!

But because of them, I learned that the "Boar's Head turkey breast dinner" purchased from Publix is EXCELLENT (went with the red skin mashed potatoes and candied rice pilaf for sides....also included cranberry relish but DH forgot to get it!.....added own crescent rolls and veggies) and we may buy our dinner every year from now on! It was WAY too easy and WAY too good not to do it again next year! I never thought it would be as good, but I am here to tell you, it was wonderful!!!

Other than that, I'm reading for more tips! (My other one would be not to move that year )