Hey guys! I’m guessing that a lot of you are in that awful pre-Christmas stress mode, and I am here to try to help alleviate it, at least a little! I have some easy Christmas hacks that will hopefully help you get through this last week of prep madness so you can actually enjoy the holiday!

1) Forget coming down the chimney, give Santa a key! When we moved into our new house, it had a wood stove, but no real chimney. To add to that, the city removed the wood stove shorty before we moved in because of new air quality standards, so we couldn’t even pretend with that. But I was poking around and found an old skeleton key in our junk drawer (these are really easy to find at antique shops and are usually really cheap to buy). I covered it in Elmer’s glue and then dusted it with glitter and tied a nice red ribbon on it. Now part of our Christmas Eve ritual is to hang the key outside the house for Santa to let himself in. The magic of the key only works for Santa so we don’t have to worry about anyone else being able to “use” the key to get inside.

2) In our house, Santa doesn’t wrap presents. Instead, we have a giant red bag that the kids help me leave by the Christmas tree on Christmas Eve. Santa leaves the presents unwrapped in the bag (with tags on them to indicate who gets what gifts) and in the morning the kids get to dive right into Santa gifts. When the season is over, we fold up the bag and store it with the rest of the holiday stuff.

3) Making cookies is something I adore doing, but I know not everyone loves to bake. Instead of taking the time to bake, pick up some plain sugar cookies. Most grocery stores have plain Christmas or holiday cookies ready to go at this time of year. Grab some frosting tubes and some sprinkles and you are good to go! For less of a mess, line your dining table with newspaper and have the kids decorate on top of that. When you are done, roll up the paper and toss it in the trash.

4) If you love Christmas lights, but hate the hassle, skip them! Instead of spending hours putting up Christmas lights, maybe hang a strand or two and drive around looking at other people’s lights. This year for the first time, the NextDoor app has something called a “Cheer Map”. This allows for neighbors and community members to add their houses to the map if they have done a great decorating job. The map shows you the addresses of the houses that have self identified so all you have to do is open it up and start driving. To make it even more fun, stop and get some hot chocolate and cookies and you can have a stress free fun night!

5) Do you hate wrapping gifts? I get to a point where I don’t want to wrap another thing, and this is where gift bags have become my best friend. I go to someplace like Marshalls, TJ Maxx, or Ross and buy tons of holiday gift bags and tissue paper. I can usually find packs of bags, which is great because it reduces the cost. I actually have a little stash of gift bags now that I keep in my holiday boxes. People know that I am a gift bag kind of lady, so I often get the bags back from the people I gift them to. Makes for a less stress wrapping experience.

6) Is Christmas breakfast something you dread? Make it ahead! I make a french toast bread pudding (super easy, just bread, eggs, milk, butter, and spices) and hashbrown casserole (hashbrowns, sour cream, salt, butter, milk, and shredded cheese) a few days before and pop them in the fridge. On Christmas morning, all I have to do is get them into the oven and in an hour, breakfast is ready to go! If you want to make your breakfast a little more special, get a couple of bottles of sparkling cider and some frozen raspberries and you have a festive and delicious drink to go with it.

7) Lastly, does your family stress you out? Set up a pedicure or some other self care for yourself a couple of days before Christmas. You can escape, spend some time being pampered, and be able to forget for a minute that your mom is driving you crazy. I usually get a pedicure on the 23rd and it is the best way for me to be lazy and have someone else do something nice for me. I try to leave a nice tip if I can afford it and I always have a glass of champagne while I am having it done. Totally worth it and it really does help with the stress level.

Do you have any hacks that you use to help alleviate your stress during the week before Christmas?