WFMW: holiday elves and Santa paper

As I have stated before, the holiday season is my absolute favorite time of year.

I have an obscene love of Christmas/holiday music.

I love buying gifts for other people.

I even wait until after the holidays when all of the holiday colored and patterned ziploc/hefty plastic baggies go on clearance and then I buy them all. Seriously, all of them. I STILL have like 5 boxes from last year. I like to use them year round...makes life more fun, right?

And I have a natural and healthy love of shopping that keeps me hopping.

I wouldnt even mind living in a Christmas town...you know where everyday was Christmas. And it was acceptable to sing Christmas Carols all the time, where you can always taunt kids with the gift of coal if they act up and pout over nothing, and no one judges you for watching holiday movies everyday, and eating fudge everyday and cookies everyday and pies everyday... And there would be little elves around to do the dirty work like the dishes, clean the oven (you know, from all of the pies and cookies), and pester people to let me know if they want anything...b/c I hate guessing what people want and I hate forgetting people too. Little elves would be perfect at this. Plus, I would have them shave my legs for me - you know, just one less thing.

So naturally I have a slight tendency to sometimes go overboard during November and December. I have a few tried and tested tips that have helped me make sense of the chaos that can be the holidays...

• buy your gifts early in the year during sales and clearances so you don't have to struggle at the last minute to find something - which always leaves me stressed out b/c there is no such thing as 'quick' when it comes to shopping with the masses during this season
• get everyone in your office/group/club the same thing. You'll save money doing this, it makes it so much easier on you and no one will feel slighted in any way.
• don't overextend yourself. Its perfectly okay to say no to parties and other invitations. Part of the joy of the holidays season is being at HOME...doing nothing...well maybe watching It's a Wonderful Life on DVD while decorating the Christmas tree...drinking too much wine and eating far too much of the pumpkin pie you made 'just to see how it would turn out'.
• the one thing that has made wrapping gifts for the kids SO much easier is having 1 roll of wrapping paper from Santa - it is always covered with faces of Santa...this paper is available everywhere so I am not going to suddenly have an issue with this. Santa's wrapping paper has Santa on it - so we know its from him. And then I buy whatever the hell I want for our wrapping paper. But the kids always know which gift is from Santa. Stupid but means something to them. Plus it helps to even it all out and make sure Santa brought enough for both of the little boogers.
• Have a go-to dessert or appetizer. You forgot that you are going to see your long lost ex-coworker who you really don't keep up with much but you feel bad you don't have a gift for them...in comes your go-to dessert or appetizer. Make them up a batch of your super special holiday cookies and even if they are in a holiday ziploc bag it will be such a great gesture.

This is what works for me during the holidays...go HERE to see what works for everyone else!