In January, we shared five simple ways to get ahead on your Christmas prep (check out Episode 20 if you missed it). Today, we’re continuing the momentum with five simple tasks you can tackle in February to make your holiday season smoother and less stressful. 

The key to a stress-free Christmas is starting early. Taking small, manageable steps each month can spread out the workload and avoid last-minute panic. Whether it’s getting ahead on gift planning, organizing storage spaces, or preparing for DIY projects, this episode will help you take proactive steps now that your future self will appreciate. Tune in as we break down each task and share practical tips to make your holiday preparations more effortless and more enjoyable!

Highlights from the episode:

[01:03] - Tradition Spotlight on simmer pots

[03:12] - Tip 1: Start gift idea lists

[06:26] - Tip 2: Find hiding places for gifts

[08:50] - Tip 3: Organize photos

[10:55] - Tip 4: Organize crafts

[11:42] - Tip 5: Start DIY gifts now

[16:06] - This week’s Get A Headstart Tip for identifying your holiday stressors

[17:00] - What’s on our to-do lists this week

[19:06] - Our Nice Lists

What’s Next:

• Schedule your February Holly Day and add these tasks to your to-do list.

Resources Mentioned:

• Canopy humidifier
• Grab The Holiday Headstart Playbook
• Take the Holiday Profile quiz
• Follow on Instagram @theholidayheadstart 
• Leave us a review on Apple Podcasts!

If you enjoyed this episode, you'll love these too:

• The Holiday Headstart Episode 20 - 5 Things You Can Do in January to Get Ahead for Next Christmas

More About The Holiday Headstart:

Welcome to The Holiday Headstart podcast, where we get intentional about kicking overwhelm to the curb and bringing joy back to your holidays (and every day). We’re Heidi and Emily, two sisters and former elementary school teachers, who’ve taken the simple strategies and practical tips we mastered in the classroom and put them to work in our personal lives. 

And we’re here to help you do the same! Join us each week as we share how, with a little planning and a little prep, you can ensure that the days that make life special don’t become the days that make you stressed.  

Welcome to the Holiday Head Start Podcast, where we get intentional about kicking overwhelm to the curb and bringing the joy back to your holidays and every day.

I'm Heidi, and I'm Emily. We're two sisters and former elementaries.

And we're here to help you do the same. Join us each week as we share how, with a little planning and a little prep, you can ensure that the days that make life special don't become the days that make you stressed.

You can check out the show notes at theholidayheadstart. com. Ready to get a head start on your holidays?

Let's go!

I even bought a pretty glass pot so that when it's cold and dreary outside, I can just fill it with pretty fruits and herbs and just let everything simmer on the stove. And you've probably seen these at Christmas time. I know cranberries and oranges are really common around the holidays. It's kind of my favorite cinnamon sticks and cloves in there.

It smells just like Christmas, but there are lots of good smelling combinations when the, I really like is lemon and then rosemary and get the rosemary on the sticks. Fresh rosemary

So this is making me realize I should come up with one that feels like wintry, but not Christmas. Yes, absolutely.

Still feels wintry and cold, even though we don't have snow, it's just cold. So this is inspiring me. I'm going to come up with something. Okay. I love it. I love it. I look forward to the updates.

such a twist. Let's dive into our first task, which is to set up gift idea lists. Gifts are one of the most stressful parts of the holidays, so anything we can do to simplify that task is like giving our future selves a gift.

The different lists depend on how many gifts you need to give that person. So if you have the holiday headstart playbook, there is a page for gift ideas for single gifts. This is for all the people that you only need to give one gift to, or maybe, you know, like a birthday gift and a Christmas gift, but you know, at Christmas, you're not overwhelming them with tons of gifts, you know?

Yeah. And then, so you can just add their name to the list. And then there are three columns for recording any ideas of things that you think they might like.

Do you want them to have a personal gift, a thoughtful gift, or a friendly gift? Personal gifts require more thought and effort. So it would be helpful to keep those on your radar.

This will likely be, you know, like your kids, your partner, maybe a best friend if you exchange a lot of gifts, or parents. The Holiday Head Start Playbook has a template for kid gift ideas. And a template for adult gift ideas. All you have to do is just duplicate the template and then you have a personalized gift list for all of your people.

or use anything else that makes it easy to track important lists.

The

I know I have done it both ways. Let me promise you, start early on this. If you have ever sat down and tried to generate a list of gift ideas all at once, you know how frustrating that can be. Oh yeah,

And then we're going to need to get started on our second February task. So tell us about this, Heidi.

You think you will remember, but you will not. And then you'll be Chevy Chase stashing your new gifts in the attic and finding the Mother's Day gift that you hid. Who knows how long ago classic

If you are able to hide gifts in one central place, it really is easier to manage than having several hiding spots all over the house. But if you don't have the space for one central secret gift hub. What you need is a decoy hiding spot. This might be a location that isn't very well hidden, but it's camouflaged so well that no one notices it.

And Emily, I think you have found a good hack for this.

So I have some of those bags used in my regular storage in the garage. So a few more of them doesn't raise any suspicions to the kids. And if I happen to have one in the house for something, they just assume that it's something I brought in from the garage and. It is such a win and you could fit a lot in them too, which is nice.

I'll link the ones that I got in the show notes, but there are tons of options. I think just make sure you

But that definitely will work against you if you're hiding gifts.

So maybe see through would have been good for that particular storage bag. Yep.

As nice as photos are for memories, they really are great at helping us stay organized too.

On your phone and what photo albums you might want to make so that you can easily find photos you're looking for in the future, like your Christmas ones. And she thinks of things that I wouldn't have thought of, like making an album for your first day of school and last day of school photos, because that's the sort of thing you might want to refer to year to year.

You don't want to have to scroll back through your camera roll. I love those sort of tips from her. So she is definitely worth checking out for helping you get your camera roll and photos.

So that's kind of a fun little,

Yes, it will take a while to get everything organized if all you're doing today is putting the markers in a bin, but doing a few small tasks that you actually can manage is better than a whole afternoon of organization that you never seem to have time for.

And getting your craft supplies organized will be so helpful for our fifth task, which is to get started on those holiday DIY projects and gifts right now. I know it feels like we've got a lot of time, but if you enjoy giving handmade gifts or making your own holiday decor. You probably want to be thinking of those things now.

Cause I don't know how to knit. But when you're crafting presents, just make sure that you give yourself a hard deadline for when to stop. You deserve to enjoy your holidays and not be up till 2 a. m. on December 23rd, trying to finish that scrapbook that you're making for your mom. Oh yes.

Sometimes on Christmas Eve, finishing. Oh, I remember painting little peg dolls for my oldest one year. As sweet as those were, I didn't enjoy it enough to continue that stressful project any longer. I was glad I abandoned that tradition. But if you do enjoy the DIY, yeah, get that done sooner. Make your deadline not Christmas Eve or even the day before.

Make it much earlier.

There is a page in the gift section of the Holiday Head Start playbook for planning your handmade gifts so you can plan out your timeline and figure out all the supplies that you need to

And in the decorating section of the playbook, there's a similar sheet to plan out any DIY crafts you might be doing for holiday decor.

And if our goal is to have a calm and happy Christmas, there is a lot we can do to get started on that right now.

And then a system. for actually getting those things done. And that's why I schedule a monthly holiday. So can you explain a little more about that, Emily?

That gives you plenty of time to order gifts and figure out plans in advance.

Just a pro tip there. We'd love to hear how you are getting ahead in February. Connect with us on Instagram at the Holiday Head Start. Now it's time for a Get Ahead Start tip. Each week we leave you with a small, actionable tip to help you get a head start on your holiday planning.

Well, since our goal, this quintile is reflecting, try taking a few minutes to list your biggest holiday stressors.

I'm working on my holiday to do lists. I've got a note in my phone where I have a list for each month, and I like adding to this list as things come to mind, so it's not totally filled out yet, but I'm working on that. And I've got a holiday plan for this weekend, and I'm going to try and wrap up all the Christmas stuff.

I haven't quite finished putting it all away, or finished reflection since it's just all dragged out for a while, because January was rough.

Well, I am going through my bins this week and I actually did one right before we recorded this episode. Good job. I feel like I'm getting on top of things. Oh, I just jinxed it. I know it.

Wasn't that like one year when our mom said she was like ready for Christmas for the first time ever, like really in advance. And then she broke her leg like five days before Christmas.

But afterward, I just kind of threw everything back in the bin so that we could get on to the next thing because December is busy. If you have not noticed, so before the Christmas stuff gets too buried in the closets and garage, I want to sort through the bins and make sure that everything that's supposed to be in there is actually in there and it's all kind of organized because I know it would be just my luck to think I had everything that we need for next December and then have misplaced or lost something.

I'm going to head that off now and just deal with it and get it over with. Oh, so smart. All right. To wrap up the show, we're sharing our nice list. Emily, what made it on your nice list this week?

I like that it looks nice and it's also super easy to clean and maintain. And I'm thinking about getting another one for my office.

So if you want to save money on the

And they stop absorbing after a little while, but I couldn't adjust the subscription to get that off. And then I found that they were way cheaper on Amazon. Yes.

Yes. Or not at all.

Yes, so true.

Thanks for tuning in today. Use this week to get a head start on planning for what's ahead. And remember, don't get it perfect, get it going. Come follow along on Instagram at theholidayheadstart. We would love to hear from you. If you liked this episode, head to Apple Podcasts and leave us a review. We'll see you here next week.