Ultimate Christmas Countdown Checklist

Here's a great article from Real Simple that gives you a way to stay organized yet prepared for the upcoming holidays.  I just realized that we are about to begin May!  That is almost 1/2 of the year gone by already.  Don't wait until the last minute.  Try to get an early start this year and see if you can't enjoy the holidays more!

Another great place to get help organizing for the holidays is here.  You can get a wonderful start with planning and keeping track of your progress using this Christmas Countdown method.  Please check it out.

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Getting organized is the best way to ensure you’ll have more holiday cheer, less holiday stress. This timeline will help you keep track of the big tasks.

Three to Six Months Before (Before Mid-October)

• Make a family plan. Are you heading to your in-laws’ house? Hosting everyone at yours? Sit down with family members and decide where you’ll be spending the holidays.
• Buy plane tickets. If you’ll be flying somewhere, get your plane tickets as soon as possible.

Two Months Before (Mid-October)

• Put activities on a calendar. As you find out when parties and school pageants are scheduled, write them on a master calendar. Keep it next to the phone, so if someone calls to ask if you’re free for an event, you’ll know the answer immediately.
• Start baking things you can freeze. Un-iced cookies, bars, and nut breads are good bets to make ahead. All will keep in the freezer if they are well wrapped, and you can have a few extra things on hand for the friend who stops by unexpectedly with a gift. Related: Make-Ahead Holiday Cookies
  
• Update your holiday card list. Determine how many cards you need, and make sure you have updated addresses.
• Shop for cards and wrapping paper. Some stores put holiday goods out by Halloween. You’ll get the best selection if you start early. And if you’re ordering cards online, you’ll want to have plenty of time for them to arrive.
• Make plans for overnight guests. Think about who will be showing up and spending the night. Do you need to replace some old sheets? Buy more towels? Now’s the time to get your house in shape for visitors.

Six Weeks Before (Beginning of November)

• Make a master gift list. You may not have every detail filled in, but at least make sure you list everyone you’ll need to buy for, and think about what they’d like. That way you can pick up things as you see them, rather than running to the mall at the last minute. Have your children give you their wish lists.
• Make a budget. Set a ballpark figure for how much you can spend on gifts—it will help you stay grounded when the shopping gets frenzied. Related: 4-Week Holiday Savings Plan
  
• Start shopping in earnest. Yes, you may already be picking things up here and there, but the more you buy ahead, the better—especially if you’ll be mailing gifts. If you have big-ticket items (like electronics) that go on sale the day after Thanksgiving, you may want to brave the crowds on Black Friday—you could save substantially.

One Month Before (Directly After Thanksgiving)

• Do any online shopping. Order gifts now so you have lots of time to wrap them once they arrive.
• Wrap gifts as you buy them. Not only will this keep little eyes from finding out what Santa is bringing, it will save you time on Christmas Eve.
• Take stock of your decorations. Get out your lights, ornaments, wreaths, and lawn ornaments. See if anything is broken and needs to be replaced.
• Take stock of dishes and glasses. Make sure you have the serving platters and wineglasses you’ll need for parties or special meals, in time to buy more, if necessary.
• Start addressing holiday cards. It can take a while, depending on how long your list is.

Three Weeks Before (First Week of December)

• Mail cards. If you’re too busy to get them addressed and mailed during the first week of December, consider putting them off until after the holiday rush. People generally enjoy getting a card a few days late, when things have slowed down and they actually notice the mail.
• Buy a live tree. This is a good time to get your tree, if you want it to stay fresh and retain its needles through Christmas. Same goes for fresh greenery or garlands. Related: How to Choose a Christmas Tree
  
• Decorate! You may be one who decks the halls as soon as the Thanksgiving turkey carcass has been tossed. That’s fine, too, but by the first week of December, it’s time to get the house looking festive.
• Finalize menus. If you’ll be serving the holiday meal make sure you know what you’ll be cooking and what family members will be bringing. Start a master grocery list.
• Order a turkey or ham. Or whatever else is the centerpeice of your holiday meal—you don’t want to get caught short.

Two Weeks Before (Second Week of December)

• Make sure out-of-town presents are mailed. Try to have gifts in the mail by December 10. Related: How to Ship Gifts of All Shapes and Sizes
  
• Shop for nonperishable items. Buy alcohol and any canned goods or pantry staples you’ll need.

One Week Before

• Deep clean your house. You’ll enjoy those decorations even more if the floors are clean and the kitchen is organized. One important task: Clear out your refrigerator. Toss old leftovers to make room for big dishes and ingredients that’ll be piling up closer to the holiday.
• Buy batteries for children’s toys. If you haven’t stocked up while shopping, make sure you have all the accoutrements necessary for that handheld video game or remote-controlled car.

Three Days Before

• Shop for fresh ingredients. Hit the store for the last-minute vegetables or fruit you need for meals.
• Set the table. So you use those gold-rimmed goblets only once a year? Enjoy them! Go ahead and set the table. Make it even easier on the big day by putting a sticky note on each platter that states what dish you plan to serve on it. (That also allows people to help you without asking 12 times.)

Two Days Before

• Start cooking. You’ve probably socked away some things in the freezer already, but now’s the time to prep main courses and make anything that can sit for a couple of days.
• Buy fresh flowers. Whether they are for a party or a family meal, fresh flowers should always be purchased two days in advance. Blooms have time to open up, and they’ll still be lush and fragrant.

The Day Before

• Recharge the batteries on your camera or video recorder. You don’t want to miss the reaction on a little one’s face because the battery ran out during the school pageant the week before.
• Finish last-minute wrapping. And assemble toys that will be surprises from Santa.
• Finish cooking, and make a timeline for the next day. Decide when you’ll be feasting, then count backward to determine when to put the turkey (or ham or roast beef) in the oven and what else needs to be cooked.
• Sit back and relax. Enjoy your family and friends and relish the traditions you share. 
   
   

Twice as nice: Gifts that benefit nonprofits

Image via CrunchBase

 With all the hoopla about "going green" why not focus your Christmas buying this year on a more PC type of gifting.  Why not give a gift that also gives to a charity or non-profit a portion of the money.  In that way, both you, the buyer, and the recipient will feel good about the gift.

It's a win-win situation all the way around and you will be helping out charities that may be really struggling to make ends meet in this recession.  Merry Christmas!

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BY GLENN GARVIN

ggarvin@MiamHerald.com

It's the central contradiction of the holidays: saving the world vs. looting the malls.
The second half of the equation is powerful even to the most humanitarian-minded of us, which is why you're reading a holiday gift guide right now instead of a book by Gandhi or St. Thomas Aquinas.
But these days it's not necessarily an either-or proposition: There are a growing number of gifts that multi-task, serving avarice and humanity at the same time. As Greyston Bakery's Joanne Jordan says of her company's Do-Goodie Brownies: ``With the purchase of one brownie, you can not only gratify a chocoholic who you love, but help out people who really need it, all for one low price.''

In the case of Do-Goodie Brownies, the price really is low: $2.49, with profits going to a foundation that supports job training, healthcare, housing and childcare for the poor.
If Mr. Scrooge had had options like this, those ghosts could have spent Christmas Eve snug in their coffins.
• The most versatile option is an online marketplace called GoodShop.com, which has partnered with more than 80,000 nonprofits in a program that kicks back a percentage of gift prices to the charity or cause of your choice. Buy a $60 electric football game from Back to Basic Toys and 4 percent of the price goes to your chosen nonprofit.
• Adding a charitable dimension to holiday-gift-giving can be politically tricky. Even if Aunt Agatha secretly wants to projectile-vomit at the sight of a chartreuse sweater you misguidedly gave her, she'll probably just smile and say thanks. But if she's an NRA member and finds out part of the sweater's price went to Handgun Control, your eggnog party could get a little loud. Avoid controversy with a gift card from GlobalGiving.com.
Available in denominations from $10 up to the amount of the Powerball jackpot you hit last night and don't know what to do with, GlobalGiving's card allows the recipient to direct their donation to any of hundreds of causes of every ideological stripe, from relief projects for the victims of Russian intervention in Georgia to the prevention of gender violence in Kenya.
• Another way to avoid controversy is to choose a gift that helps fight a disease -- as politically polarized as America is, almost nobody favors diseases. And it's harder to imagine an illness that everybody wants to get rid of more than cancer. The insurance company AFLAC sells a plush stuffed-toy version of its duck mascot (a small one for $10, large for $15) at Macy's and aflacholidayduck.com; 100 percent of the price goes to pediatric cancer hospitals, including the Miami Children's Hospital.
• Fashion designer and cancer survivor Sheridan Savio has created a line of clips -- hair bands, pony-tail holders, even little pacifier clips bearing a smiling angel -- that sell for $7-$24, with 20 percent of the proceeds going to the American Cancer Society (clips4acure.com).
• The Alzheimer's Foundation of America has a line of sterling silver jewelry -- necklaces, bracelets and stickpins, all for $30 and all including the organization's hands-and-heart logo that honors Alzheimer's caregivers (alzfdn.org).
• The Diabetes Research Institute (diabetesresearch.org) is trying to pun its way to a cure with $10 ``I'm Tired Of Diabetes'' bracelets made from old auto tires.
• For $40, you can adopt an endangered whale from the Oceanic Society, complete with a certificate and photo. If a whale won't fit under your tree, go with a dolphin for the same price (oceanicsociety.org).
• The $20 teddy bears on sale at the Ritz Carlton in Coconut Grove benefit Nuestros Pequenos Hermanos (Our Little Brothers and Sisters), a charity with orphanages in Latin America and the Caribbean.

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