Some people will claim that as soon as Halloween is over, it’s Christmas time. However, depending on who you ask, Christmas preparation might start anywhere from September to November. The Mirror argues that to save money, you need to start planning for Christmas in August. It’s unlikely you’ll find anything that’ll complement your Christmas light displays that early in the year, but it’s not a bad idea to start shopping for gifts early, especially if you have a lot of people to buy for. In this article, we’ll look at preparing for Christmas, what time it should start and what you should have been doing already.
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Gift Shopping
Making a list of who you need to buy gifts for this Christmas saves you the hassle of thinking on the fly. Black Friday is, by far, the best day to get gifts for Christmas since so many deals go on sale for appliances and odds and ends. However, you should still be wary when shopping. The Balance notes that there are several things you shouldn’t, under any circumstances, buy on Black Friday. Cyber Monday is another great day for sales, with electronics and accessories coming down to a bargain-basement price. If you have a techie in your life, this day is the most critical shopping day for gifts you’ll run across.
Decorations and Trees
If this is the first time you’re putting up a tree, you should be looking at the options you have available. Live trees, while they make for incredible decorations inside the house, can leave behind a lot of clean up when you get rid of them. If you’ve had to sweep up a mountain of pine needles after the tree comes down, you know how much maintenance they are. On the other hand, artificial trees are easy to mount up and take down, with only a little bit of fuss. If you’re a firm believer in collecting Christmas lights, several sets are great for long-term use. However, Christmas decorations might need to be refreshed from year to year. Older decorations can come out of storage, but they lose a little more of their luster with each passing year. Lights, too, can be fixed, replacing older bulbs with new ones. Unfortunately, these fixes don’t deal with kinks and shorts in the electrical lines of the bulbs. Some lights are designed to start coming apart after a few years of storage, and these can be a fire hazard if you keep putting them up after they start disintegrating.
Planning Happens Early
One of the best things about putting the time and effort into planning for Christmas is that the season feels a lot less stressful. Leading up to the day itself, you have enough things to think about, such as what you need to buy for Christmas dinner and how long the preparation for meals will take. Dedicating the time to planning for gifts and decorations early and scheduling when your tree goes up will help you get a bit more order into a chaotic season. As most people will tell you, there seems to be too much to do during Christmas without enough time to get all of it done.
