The Six Days of Christmas Preparation

No one wants to be making 11 o’clock trips to the post office or 24-hour drugstore. Save yourself the trouble and make a note to stock up on pantry staples, which include:

• Postage Stamps
• Wrapping Paper
• Ribbon
• Batteries
• Tape

If you are planning on traveling over the holidays, don’t forget to refill your prescriptions and make sure your cosmetic case is filled with travel-friendly sizes of your favorite products. (Visit the TSA website for the latest 411 on travel-friendly).

Start brainstorming for clever (and cheap) presents. If your recipes are always getting rave reviews, visit Blurb.com to create a unique personalized cookbook filled with your favorite recipes. The free software allows you to customize your book with illustrations, backgrounds, photos and colors.

If you are photography savvy, you may want to surprise friends and family with great photo gifts. We suggest going to moo.com and snapfish.com for creative photo gift ideas! 

Mail out your Christmas cards.

It seems simple, but hauling yourself to a mailbox seems to always be a difficult task. If you would rather save on the postage, customize a great video with your own video or audio message on outshouts.com.

Simply find a video you like, add your own personal audio or video and press send.

Gather a few friends for a marathon baking session. Ask invited bakers to bring enough ingredients to make two batches of cookies and set up a Christmas Cookie assembly line: One to mix, another to roll the dough, the next to tend the oven, another to decorate and so on.

This way, the cookies will get made at elf-like speed. It’s plenty of cookies to satisfy you before the stressful season begins. If you would rather not bake on site, turn your dining room into a cookie bazaar and do a simple six dozen swap.

Between the parties, the traveling, the dinners, and not to mention the in-laws, the holidays can wreak havoc on your health. Don’t let seasonal stressers take their toll.

Instead, make sure to you’re getting your daily dose of all the essential vitamins and minerals. For those days when you need an extra boost, try Sprayology, a line of homeopathic vitamins in formulas like Party Relief, StressLess and DietPower. 

Schedule some “down” time. With the seemingly endless list of things to do, it’s easy to loose sight of what is truly important: You. At the end of each day, make it a priority to reflect on the day and the holiday season. Whether it’s sitting in front of a crackling fire with your family, or snuggling up with a good book, the holidays come but once a year…so enjoy.