We are super excited to be featured in the November issue of 1808 magazine! Need help simplifying the holiday season? See our full article below.
Simplify the Season by Amy Buchanan Nov, 30th 2018
If you hear the words Merry Christmas and immediately start running through your to-do list and stressing over all there is to do, just breathe. This article is for you.
With the help of expert holiday decorators, life coaches, professional organizers, formerly stressed-out celebrators and others, we’ve developed a guide for simplifying the holidays this year.
Changing your mindset
The key isn’t working more efficiently so you can get more done, although good prep and planning can be helpful in alleviating holiday stress. It’s about stepping out of that “hustle and bustle” mindset altogether.
Often, people put very high, unrealistic expectations on themselves during the holidays, said Rachel Crawford, a certified life and business coach with Envision Today in Greensboro. “Because of this, people aren’t always able to enjoy the holidays because they are trying to do so much.”
How easily good intentions can cause holiday to-do lists to spiral longer than Santa’s naughty or nice list:
You must make everybody’s favorites, plus all the traditional holiday foods, from scratch because people are expecting it. You must decorate your house, from top to bottom, so people think you’re just like Martha Stewart or Clark Griswold from “Christmas Vacation.”
Gifts must be thoughtfully chosen and perfectly wrapped. But don’t forget to use different wrapping paper for Santa gifts because kids are smart and they might figure it out.
You have to make time for a family photo shoot, with everyone smiling in coordinated outfits, so you can send out handwritten Christmas cards to everyone you know. You don’t want to miss the Greensboro Christmas parade or the Festival of Lights or any of the holiday movies at the Carolina Theatre or any of the fun community seasonal events. You should probably volunteer for the church Christmas cantanta and the live Nativity, too, and you really shouldn’t skip services this month. You also need to shop for the Angel Tree, volunteer at the food bank and take your turn as a bell ringer. You know, you should probably host a Christmas party for friends and invite the neighborhood kids over to decorate cookies.
And don’t forget about homemade food gifts for the neighbors and teacher gifts…
“The first step to feeling less stressed is taking time for self-reflection,” Crawford said. She recommends identifying one goal for the holiday season, which for many people involves spending more time with friends and family — not cookie baking, light-wrangling or all those other things on our to-lists.
“Maybe it’s spending extra time with family members or hosting a special party. If you have just one goal in mind, you can become less overwhelmed by all of the things you thought you should do,” Crawford says. “I think it comes down to really prioritizing and identifying those things that are really important. The best way to achieve any goal we have is to just take small steps.”
Jess Trott, who owns the professional organizing and concierge service Organize with Jess offers similar advice for calming the holiday chaos. “I’m always going to recommend that people take a look at what they’re saying yes to,” she said.
If you’re feeling overwhelmed or stressed out by the holidays, “it’s typically because the plate is too full,” she said. Make decisions on holiday commitments by first asking, “What can I happily say yes to,” rather than “What can I physically say yes to.”
“We say yes to way too many things, and then we execute them poorly,” Trott said. “Nobody is doing it all.”
That’s right. Not Martha Stewart. Not your perfect friend on Instagram. Everybody is letting something slide, getting help or taking shortcuts to get it all done.
Outsourcing and paring down your to-do list
What happens if you’ve already said yes to too many things! Like back in September and October before this article came out!
Don’t worry. Our experts have some suggestions for holiday tasks you can drop or hire out. “You don’t have to do it all,” says Nancy McKee, who owns the Greensboro home décor shop Total Bliss. For many years, McKee and her team have been helping customers decorate their homes for the holidays. They swoop in, bring the bins down from the attic and deck the halls. It usually takes a day or two, at the most, McKee says. After Christmas, they’ll take everything down and pack it back into the attic.
“Instead of the days that you spend with (Christmas décor) drug out around the house, we get in there and do it, and then close those boxes up,” McKee says. “They can even be gone that day and come home to their house totally decorated,” she says. “It sounds wonderful. I want it, too. I think I’m going to make them (decorate my house) first this year.”
Many companies will help with holiday decorating, including some you might not expect. Trott’s company also offers holiday decorating and take-down services, and they handle all kinds of errands for clients, including Christmas shopping, gift wrapping and hiring housekeepers.
“I’m always going to say to ask for help, whether from friends or family members” or by hiring someone, Trott said. “People who are willing to say ‘I need help’ are the ones who get help.”
Now that grass-mowing season is over, many landscapers will hang outdoor Christmas lights, though you’ll want to make sure their insurance covers work on ladders and roofs. Go-Forth Pest Control in Greensboro also offers professional holiday-light installation, maintenance and storage.
The company added the service five years ago and now decorates as many as 100 houses throughout the Triad and in Lake Norman. “We have a workforce that is very busy in the spring and fall, but not in the winter,” said Leah Hazelwood, who owns Go-Forth with her husband, Chase. Now, they’re booked with lighting jobs during the off-season, sometimes working nights and weekends on installations.
“It allows us to retain higher-paid skilled labor year-round,” she says. Hiring someone to maintain and hang Christmas lights is admittedly a luxury, which can cost thousands every year, Hazelwood says. But for homeowners who can afford it, it takes a lot of stress and risk out of their holiday decorating.
What are some other things you can outsource this holiday season? Cooking from scratch is a big one. Many restaurants, caterers and grocery stores offer fully prepared heat-and-eat holiday meals. If you don’t mind cooking, you can always shop online and pick up your groceries at the store to save time. Many retailers let you shop online and pick up your purchases in store, which can save a lot of time.
Don’t have time to pick up relatives from the airport? Use Lyft or Uber instead. Running out of time to get those holiday cards in the mail? Skip it, or wait until the new year to send out cards. You could also send a quick message to friends and via email or on social media. You can also use a service like Postable to mail cards for you.
No time to wrap gifts? You could always put the “naked” presents right under the tree. Gift bags are handy, reusable and available at dollar stores. Or take advantage of in-store gift-wrapping services. Some charity groups set up gift-wrapping stations in stores as a fundraiser.
Speaking of gifts, if you really want to simplify, avoid overconsumption during the holidays. Gifting can be a big holiday stressor for givers and recipients. Studies show that having more stuff actually makes us more stressed and overwhelmed, Crawford said.
“I work with hundreds of clients who have too much and then they can’t part with it because so-and-so gifted it to them,” Trott said.
Rather than buying individual gifts for everyone you know, host a white elephant exchange. Or better still, schedule an experience with one another, like a fun dinner out, a family craft night or a night at the theater. This can work for kids and their friends, too. A fun outing or a day spent with friends will likely be more memorable than another toy. Volunteering with friends and family is a great way to celebrate and create great holiday memories.
“By stepping outside of ourselves and helping others, we can keep our head and emotions in check and remind ourselves what’s truly important,” Crawford said.
Remember, there’s no shame in doing less or using available shortcuts to make your holidays more enjoyable.Seeing the beautiful displays she creates for clients and in her store, many people assume that McKee’s own Christmas decorations must be over the top. But in the home she shares with husband, Tom, McKee keeps decorations fairly simple.
“Most people would think that we are very extravagant and do very extravagant decorating,” she said. “We’re with this all day, every day. Our decorations are more simple. We use bigger things and less of them. A big bowl or vase of holly and cedar can decorate a whole room.
“It’s all about the family to us,” McKee says.
Cut Back On Cooking to Savor the Season
If you can’t stand the workload, get out of the kitchen. Or at least spend less time there.
Instead of toiling over the perfect holiday meal, consider buying a prepared meal or some side dishes. And ask guests to bring a dish so you’re not in charge of everything.
Michelle Moore, who works at a senior ministry associate at Westover Church, has been ordering the Fresh Market holiday meals for years, whether she’s hosting her extended family from Tennessee or just feeding her family of four.
“I just need less crazy in my life, and this is one way to make it less crazy,” Moore said.
The Fresh Market meals are good and affordable, and they save Moore hours in the kitchen. With help from her mom, she’s prepared Christmas dinner from scratch before. But it’s not something she really enjoyed.
“It was just very stressful,” she said. “We want to spend time with our family. We don’t want to spend it in the kitchen.”
While the Moores buy the basics of their holiday meal from the grocery store, they supplement the feast with family favorites, such grandma’s twice-baked potatoes, husband Jason’s favorite chocolate-chip pound cake, strawberry pretzel salad and mandarin orange salad.
As Moore’s story shows, simplifying holiday celebrations doesn’t require abandoning traditions completely.
Rachel Crawford, a certified life and business coach with Envision Today in Greensboro, says until recently her Italian father-in-law insisted on celebrating the Feast of the Seven Fishes on Christmas Eve with a full slate of homemade seafood dishes. It was a ton of work that took days to plan and prep. And some family members don’t even eat seafood. Recently, the family convinced him to pare down the menu to two seafood dishes, instead of the traditional seven.
“Of course, he was resistant at first,” she says. “But I have noticed such a big change in him because he can now spend more time with the family and not be in the kitchen. Before, he was running around trying to do so much.
“We’re still enjoying the tradition, just scaling it back a bit, which has been super-helpful at reducing stress,” she said. “Overall, I think I’ve learned that the holidays are more about making memories with the ones you love and holding on to the memories that are near and dear to your heart.”
If you hear the words Merry Christmas and immediately start running through your to-do list and stressing over all there is to do, just breathe. This article is for you.
With the help of expert holiday decorators, life coaches, professional organizers, formerly stressed-out celebrators and others, we’ve developed a guide for simplifying the holidays this year.
Changing your mindset
The key isn’t working more efficiently so you can get more done, although good prep and planning can be helpful in alleviating holiday stress. It’s about stepping out of that “hustle and bustle” mindset altogether.
Often, people put very high, unrealistic expectations on themselves during the holidays, said Rachel Crawford, a certified life and business coach with Envision Today in Greensboro. “Because of this, people aren’t always able to enjoy the holidays because they are trying to do so much.”
How easily good intentions can cause holiday to-do lists to spiral longer than Santa’s naughty or nice list:
You must make everybody’s favorites, plus all the traditional holiday foods, from scratch because people are expecting it. You must decorate your house, from top to bottom, so people think you’re just like Martha Stewart or Clark Griswold from “Christmas Vacation.”
Gifts must be thoughtfully chosen and perfectly wrapped. But don’t forget to use different wrapping paper for Santa gifts because kids are smart and they might figure it out.
You have to make time for a family photo shoot, with everyone smiling in coordinated outfits, so you can send out handwritten Christmas cards to everyone you know. You don’t want to miss the Greensboro Christmas parade or the Festival of Lights or any of the holiday movies at the Carolina Theatre or any of the fun community seasonal events. You should probably volunteer for the church Christmas cantanta and the live Nativity, too, and you really shouldn’t skip services this month. You also need to shop for the Angel Tree, volunteer at the food bank and take your turn as a bell ringer. You know, you should probably host a Christmas party for friends and invite the neighborhood kids over to decorate cookies.
And don’t forget about homemade food gifts for the neighbors and teacher gifts…
“The first step to feeling less stressed is taking time for self-reflection,” Crawford said. She recommends identifying one goal for the holiday season, which for many people involves spending more time with friends and family — not cookie baking, light-wrangling or all those other things on our to-lists.
“Maybe it’s spending extra time with family members or hosting a special party. If you have just one goal in mind, you can become less overwhelmed by all of the things you thought you should do,” Crawford says. “I think it comes down to really prioritizing and identifying those things that are really important. The best way to achieve any goal we have is to just take small steps.”
Jess Trott, who owns the professional organizing and concierge service Organize with Jess offers similar advice for calming the holiday chaos. “I’m always going to recommend that people take a look at what they’re saying yes to,” she said.
If you’re feeling overwhelmed or stressed out by the holidays, “it’s typically because the plate is too full,” she said. Make decisions on holiday commitments by first asking, “What can I happily say yes to,” rather than “What can I physically say yes to.”
“We say yes to way too many things, and then we execute them poorly,” Trott said. “Nobody is doing it all.”
That’s right. Not Martha Stewart. Not your perfect friend on Instagram. Everybody is letting something slide, getting help or taking shortcuts to get it all done.
Outsourcing and paring down your to-do list
What happens if you’ve already said yes to too many things! Like back in September and October before this article came out!
Don’t worry. Our experts have some suggestions for holiday tasks you can drop or hire out. “You don’t have to do it all,” says Nancy McKee, who owns the Greensboro home décor shop Total Bliss. For many years, McKee and her team have been helping customers decorate their homes for the holidays. They swoop in, bring the bins down from the attic and deck the halls. It usually takes a day or two, at the most, McKee says. After Christmas, they’ll take everything down and pack it back into the attic.
“Instead of the days that you spend with (Christmas décor) drug out around the house, we get in there and do it, and then close those boxes up,” McKee says. “They can even be gone that day and come home to their house totally decorated,” she says. “It sounds wonderful. I want it, too. I think I’m going to make them (decorate my house) first this year.”
Many companies will help with holiday decorating, including some you might not expect. Trott’s company also offers holiday decorating and take-down services, and they handle all kinds of errands for clients, including Christmas shopping, gift wrapping and hiring housekeepers.
“I’m always going to say to ask for help, whether from friends or family members” or by hiring someone, Trott said. “People who are willing to say ‘I need help’ are the ones who get help.”
Now that grass-mowing season is over, many landscapers will hang outdoor Christmas lights, though you’ll want to make sure their insurance covers work on ladders and roofs. Go-Forth Pest Control in Greensboro also offers professional holiday-light installation, maintenance and storage.
The company added the service five years ago and now decorates as many as 100 houses throughout the Triad and in Lake Norman. “We have a workforce that is very busy in the spring and fall, but not in the winter,” said Leah Hazelwood, who owns Go-Forth with her husband, Chase. Now, they’re booked with lighting jobs during the off-season, sometimes working nights and weekends on installations.
“It allows us to retain higher-paid skilled labor year-round,” she says. Hiring someone to maintain and hang Christmas lights is admittedly a luxury, which can cost thousands every year, Hazelwood says. But for homeowners who can afford it, it takes a lot of stress and risk out of their holiday decorating.
What are some other things you can outsource this holiday season? Cooking from scratch is a big one. Many restaurants, caterers and grocery stores offer fully prepared heat-and-eat holiday meals. If you don’t mind cooking, you can always shop online and pick up your groceries at the store to save time. Many retailers let you shop online and pick up your purchases in store, which can save a lot of time.
Don’t have time to pick up relatives from the airport? Use Lyft or Uber instead. Running out of time to get those holiday cards in the mail? Skip it, or wait until the new year to send out cards. You could also send a quick message to friends and via email or on social media. You can also use a service like Postable to mail cards for you.
No time to wrap gifts? You could always put the “naked” presents right under the tree. Gift bags are handy, reusable and available at dollar stores. Or take advantage of in-store gift-wrapping services. Some charity groups set up gift-wrapping stations in stores as a fundraiser.
Speaking of gifts, if you really want to simplify, avoid overconsumption during the holidays. Gifting can be a big holiday stressor for givers and recipients. Studies show that having more stuff actually makes us more stressed and overwhelmed, Crawford said.
“I work with hundreds of clients who have too much and then they can’t part with it because so-and-so gifted it to them,” Trott said.
Rather than buying individual gifts for everyone you know, host a white elephant exchange. Or better still, schedule an experience with one another, like a fun dinner out, a family craft night or a night at the theater. This can work for kids and their friends, too. A fun outing or a day spent with friends will likely be more memorable than another toy. Volunteering with friends and family is a great way to celebrate and create great holiday memories.
“By stepping outside of ourselves and helping others, we can keep our head and emotions in check and remind ourselves what’s truly important,” Crawford said.
Remember, there’s no shame in doing less or using available shortcuts to make your holidays more enjoyable.Seeing the beautiful displays she creates for clients and in her store, many people assume that McKee’s own Christmas decorations must be over the top. But in the home she shares with husband, Tom, McKee keeps decorations fairly simple.
“Most people would think that we are very extravagant and do very extravagant decorating,” she said. “We’re with this all day, every day. Our decorations are more simple. We use bigger things and less of them. A big bowl or vase of holly and cedar can decorate a whole room.
“It’s all about the family to us,” McKee says.
Cut Back On Cooking to Savor the Season
If you can’t stand the workload, get out of the kitchen. Or at least spend less time there.
Instead of toiling over the perfect holiday meal, consider buying a prepared meal or some side dishes. And ask guests to bring a dish so you’re not in charge of everything.
Michelle Moore, who works at a senior ministry associate at Westover Church, has been ordering the Fresh Market holiday meals for years, whether she’s hosting her extended family from Tennessee or just feeding her family of four.
“I just need less crazy in my life, and this is one way to make it less crazy,” Moore said.
The Fresh Market meals are good and affordable, and they save Moore hours in the kitchen. With help from her mom, she’s prepared Christmas dinner from scratch before. But it’s not something she really enjoyed.
“It was just very stressful,” she said. “We want to spend time with our family. We don’t want to spend it in the kitchen.”
While the Moores buy the basics of their holiday meal from the grocery store, they supplement the feast with family favorites, such grandma’s twice-baked potatoes, husband Jason’s favorite chocolate-chip pound cake, strawberry pretzel salad and mandarin orange salad.
As Moore’s story shows, simplifying holiday celebrations doesn’t require abandoning traditions completely.
Rachel Crawford, a certified life and business coach with Envision Today in Greensboro, says until recently her Italian father-in-law insisted on celebrating the Feast of the Seven Fishes on Christmas Eve with a full slate of homemade seafood dishes. It was a ton of work that took days to plan and prep. And some family members don’t even eat seafood. Recently, the family convinced him to pare down the menu to two seafood dishes, instead of the traditional seven.
“Of course, he was resistant at first,” she says. “But I have noticed such a big change in him because he can now spend more time with the family and not be in the kitchen. Before, he was running around trying to do so much.
“We’re still enjoying the tradition, just scaling it back a bit, which has been super-helpful at reducing stress,” she said. “Overall, I think I’ve learned that the holidays are more about making memories with the ones you love and holding on to the memories that are near and dear to your heart.”