get ready for christmas

By Cynthia Ewer
Editor, Organized Christmas
Author, Houseworks: Cut the Clutter, Speed Your Cleaning and Calm the Chaos

Looking for a silly treat for Thanksgiving? it's Turkey Poop!

Just right for a gag gift--or even Thanksgiving Day place cards--Turkey Poop is easy to make.

Place a handful of Milk Duds-brand candy, chocolate-covered raisins, or brown jelly beans in a small zipper food storage bag or seasonal cellophane gift bag.

Label with the following poem or our printable Turkey Poop gift tag.

You invited me to dinner
with your family and your friends.
You didn't say I was the main dish.
For me it was "THE END!"

You frightened me so badly
I knew I had been duped!
So I left you with my calling card:
This bag of Turkey Poop!

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By Cynthia Ewer
Editor, Organized Christmas
Author, Houseworks: Cut the Clutter, Speed Your Cleaning and Calm the Chaos

Coming to the end of Reality Check week, we tidy up loose ends today, declutter before we decorate, and consider whose house for the holidays.

to do today: declutter before you decorate

The decoration tide sweeps in with September's falling leaves, breaks against Halloween's goblins, and is streaming full-force by Thanksgiving's turkeys and pilgrims. Come Christmas, the average home is drowning in tinsel.

Do your visual field a favor: declutter tables, counters, mantels, shelves and the entire surface of your refrigerator before you decorate.

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Making seasonal S'Mores In A Jar for any holiday is easy--if Peeps ® brand Marshmallow Candies are available for the celebration of your choice. Christmas, Easter, Halloween and Valentines Day are on the list, but so far, Thanksgiving Day is not.

Until JustBorn, manufacturer of Marshmallow Peeps, gets with the harvest holiday, we have a work-around for you! Better yet, it's a frugal way to repurpose extra Jack O'Lantern Peeps left over from Halloween.

These Harvest S'Mores In A Jar are created using the back side of Halloween Pumpkin Peeps. Pointing the Jack O'Lantern faces to the inside of the jar creates a pretty harvest jar gift. Better still, with Halloween Peeps on sale at clearance prices after October 31, it's a frugal and festive way to say "Happy Thanksgiving!"

Add our free printable gift tag, and it's a Thanksgiving treat to treasure:

S'Mores In A Jar Recipe

Harvest S'Mores In A Jar Gift Tags

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American Thanksgiving is on the way, and it's time to get organized? Check out this free customizable Thanksgiving holiday planner from OceanSpray.com!

To print pages for a Thanksgiving holiday planning book, check off items from a list of planning pages, menus, recipes and tips. Click the "create book" button at the bottom of the page, and the site will generate a .PDF file containing all the information you requested.

Don't miss the Holiday Countdown! A November calendar, it sets out a four-week schedule to prepare for Thanksgiving Day. Nice!

Thanksgiving Holiday Planning Book

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By Cynthia Ewer
Editor, Organized Christmas
Author, Houseworks: Cut the Clutter, Speed Your Cleaning and Calm the Chaos

We’ve all experienced this seasonal panic: it's the night of the office holiday party and a spouse’s good white shirt has gone missing!

Calm the chaos with a pre-holiday wardrobe check. Assessing the State of the Closet for all family members before the holiday begins means never having to say, "It's in the wash!"

to do today: family wardrobe check!

To sort out whether each family member has well-fitting and appropriate holiday-season clothing, use a lined blank page in the Christmas planner, or print a free Wardrobe Planner form.

Add a name for each family member to the form, click it into the Christmas planner, then check the calendar to focus on the clothing needs the season will bring.

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American Thanksgiving is a celebration of family and fruitfulness, but it's hard to cultivate a grateful spirit when you're trapped in a kitchen disaster.

Solution? Follow a Thankgiving countdown to create a step-by-step road map for a stress-free holiday meal.

Put the focus on the feast--not the fuss--with Thanksgiving tips and a day-by-day checklist from RDLiving.com:

No-Fuss Thanksgiving Checklist

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By Cynthia Ewer
Editor, Organized Christmas
Author, Houseworks: Cut the Clutter, Speed Your Cleaning and Calm the Chaos

When I visit the supermarket during the holiday season (which starts earlier and earlier each year), I don't hum along with the Muzak carols. The old tune "Secret Agent Man" runs through my head as I survey the most egregious agents of Christmas Excess: Christmas magazines.

They sneak into the racks in September, and by November 1st, they're everywhere. Oh, the glowing turkeys and lavish gift wraps! Who can resist the cheery covers, the promised joys?

You can, that's who. Today, we take aim on the secret agents of Christmas overkill: Christmas magazines.

to do today: Christmas magazines reality check

If there's a single factor that creates more ambivalence, more stress, and more anxiety at the holidays than any other, it's Christmas publications.

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By Cynthia Ewer
Editor, Organized Christmas
Author, Houseworks: Cut the Clutter, Speed Your Cleaning and Calm the Chaos

For many of us, the Christmas season causes more than usual chaos on the home front. Do you shove stacks of mail and magazines into dark closets to hide them from drop-in visitors? Does your dinnertime schedule fall off the rails when faced with multiple evening rehearsals? Does Mount Washmore raise itself to new heights in the laundry room, only to be scaled in panic an hour before the Nativity play?

Forewarned is forearmed! A simple housework plan--and family cooperation--will keep things humming at home, holiday or not!

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By Cynthia Ewer
Editor, Organized Christmas
Author, Houseworks: Cut the Clutter, Speed Your Cleaning and Calm the Chaos

Cutting costs at Christmas doesn't mean celebrating like Scrooge. It's not about what you buy--it's about what you do!

Putting "celebration" at the center of the season--and taking the focus off of gifts and giving--can be the key to happy holidays that don't break the bank.

Better, when it comes to kids and Christmas, cheap is good! Simple, inexpensive family activities can be as meaningful as pricey Nutcracker tickets--and no need for scratchy dresses or dress-up suits.

Try these no-cost, low-cost ways to celebrate the holiday season with kids:

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By Cynthia Ewer
Editor, Organized Christmas
Author, Houseworks: Cut the Clutter, Speed Your Cleaning and Calm the Chaos

What's the secret for a stress-free Christmas? Stay healthy!

to do today ... take 5-10-15 for holiday health!

On December 26th, ask any wife and mother how she's feeling. If she's honest, she'll probably say, "Tired!" Along with the excitement and bustle of the holidays comes another factor: stress and fatigue.

Parties, events, and too many late nights cooking, making and wrapping can take a toll on even the healthiest. Add stressors like rich foods, alcohol, family gatherings and winter travel, and you've got a recipe for post-Christmas depression.

Even the most dedicated health and fitness buff may take a tumble during the holidays, so try this simple 5-10-15 minimum daily reminder to maintain good health during the holiday season:

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By Cynthia Ewer
Editor, Organized Christmas
Author, Houseworks: Cut the Clutter, Speed Your Cleaning and Calm the Chaos

For many families, Christmas comes not once a year, but lingers on for months! Credit card bills arrive shortly after season’s end, not to be paid off until the following summer. Grocery budgets groan under the burden of holiday meals and baking supplies. Nearly two-thirds of American families don't know the true cost of their own Christmas celebration--and if they did, they'd be shocked. That much ... for a single day?

to do today ... set a holiday budget

A budget is more than just a piece of paper! It’s a dynamic way to allocate funds and track spending. Used properly, a budget provides an at-a-glance picture of where your spending falls against your goals.

Knowing where the fiscal limits lie will help you avoid the financial fuzziness that permits Christmas to burden the remainder of the year. Take a deep breath ... and get ready for a debt-free Christmas!

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Ready to make the move to energy-efficient LED lights this year? Light up the tree--and save!--with Home Depot's Christmas Light Trade-In program.

Beginning November 5, bring your old incandescent Christmas light strings to any The Home Depot store for recycling, and you'll receive a $3 OFF coupon for the purchase of energy efficient LED lights.

Because LED lights use up to 80% less energy than older incandescent or string models, you'll save on your holiday lighting costs. Home Depot will recycle the old strands ... and the $3 discount will help you light up your holiday home on budget!

The program ends November 15, so mark your calendars! Deck the halls for less:

Christmas Light Trade-In from Home Depot

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A Christmas Story The Family Stone Four Christmases It's A Wonderful Life National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation Christmas with the Kranks Bad Santa A Christmas Carol Home Alone Deck the Halls

Clever blogger, Like Merchant Ships, has a great tip for storing and organizing gift bags: a ladder hook!

Check out this oversized hook from Big Lots (purchase price: $1.50) for a neat and easy way to store gift bags for reuse:

Store And Organize Gift Bags The Easy Way

By Cynthia Ewer
Editor, Organized Christmas
Author, Houseworks: Cut the Clutter, Speed Your Cleaning and Calm the Chaos

Halloween has come and--and the holidays won't be far behind. Newspaper ads weigh down the Sunday paper, and a few brave retailers kick off "pre-holiday" sales. It's the quiet week before the rising tide of holiday season to come.

Time for a Reality Check! During Reality Check Week, we take aim at holiday illusions. What are the ideas, preconceptions, and habits that drain the joy from your family's holidays?

Granted, this isn't always the easiest week. We'll be examining about several hot-button holiday issues. Money. Time. Stress. Unrealistic expectations. These factors are the not-so-secret underside of holiday joy. Don't be surprised if this week's exercises raise some holiday-related anxieties. At the holidays, is there ever enough time, enough money, enough energy?

There's a method to this madness. By taking a long, cool look at the forces and ideas that burden holiday observances, we gain the power to change them: to simplify, scale down and reign in holiday excess.

We won't leave you alone and in the lurch; each day, you'll find ideas and inspiration to arm yourself against holiday joy-killers.

Ready? Time for a Reality Check ... to get organized for your family's most joyous Christmas ever:

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Moving into the heart of the household, it's Week Ten at the Holiday Grand Plan: Family Room Week! We'll clean and organize this central area of family life as we begin to think ahead to holiday visitors in holiday prep. Keep working on those gifts!

Ready? Let's get organized with the Holiday Grand Plan!

Family Room Week at the Holiday Grand Plan

November's here, and it's time to clear the decks in the kitchen: holiday meals ahead! In the next two weeks, we'll declutter, organize and clean cooking spaces and food storage areas. This week, it's the kitchen; we'll leave food storage spaces--refrigerator, freezer and pantry--for next week.

Holiday prep chores focus on the tastes of the season. We'll dig out our holiday recipes, plan menus and baking, and do a tabletop check to prepare for the festivities.

Cooking Space Week Assignments

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Spring forward, Fall back: Time Change Sunday is on the way!

On Sunday, November 1, we come to the end of Daylight Saving Time in most of the United States. With an extra hour in the day--and winter on the way--it's time for a seasonal safety check!

As you circle the house, resetting clocks to Standard Time, make time for this short safety checklist from sister site, Organized Home. It'll see you into the winter from a safe--and organized--home:

Fall Back: Home Preparedness Checklist for Time Change Sunday

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By Cynthia Ewer
Editor, Organized Christmas
Author, Houseworks: Cut the Clutter, Speed Your Cleaning and Calm the Chaos

There's nothing like the approach of the holiday season to make our hearts turn toward home--and home improvement projects!

Problem is, our eyes can be bigger than our calendars (and wallets and time and energies) when it comes to preparing the house for the holidays. How do we keep the pre-Christmas fix-up list within the realm of reason at this time of year?

to do today ... plan holiday home projects!

It's not just "visions of sugarplums" that dance through our heads when we think of the holiday season. Many of us also succumb to Holiday House Fever: an intense desire to begin major home decor projects in the weeks before Christmas.

Anybody who's ever decorated a Christmas tree before a half-painted wall knows the risk: our dreams overpower our time, energies and resources. Result: damp carpets, naked windows, wet paint and lots of stress.

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Zowie! Look at this amazing Christmas planner, created by craft blogger Mrs. B from Mrs. B's Craft Room: a house-shaped confection of a holiday planner.

The unique shape was created by using a Cricut Personal Electronic Cutting Machine; binding appears to have been done with a Bind It All craft tool.

Inside, computer generated lists, calendars and planners have been glued to each house-shaped page. While Mrs. B created her own lists, we think you could use down-sized Christmas pocket planner pages from Organized Christmas.

Ribbons, buttons, stickers and embellishments make this unique planner sparkle! Check it out:

Mrs. B's Holiday Planner

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