5 Things You Can Do in January to Get Ahead for Next Christmas (Seriously!) [Episode 40]

{\rtf1\ansi\deff0
\margl1800\margr1800\margb1440\margt1440\deflang1033\lndscpsxn
{\colortbl;
\red128\green128\blue128;
\red114\green179\blue114;
\red102\green0\blue204;
}
{\fonttbl;
{\f0 Arial}
}
{\b\fs48 HH 40 January Tips Replay\b0}
{\pard \line \par}
{\cf1 [00:00:00]}
{ }
{\pard \line \par}
{\b\cf2 recording-1_2026-01-21_20-39-15:\b0}
{ Hello everyone. Thank you for joining us today. We hope everyone had a fantastic holiday season and that your 2026 is starting off great.}
{\pard \line \par}
{\b\cf3 recording-1_2026-01-21_20-39-15-1:\b0}
{ We had a lovely Christmas and we will be back next week to unpack everything, but this week we’re going to reshare an episode from last year about Christmas prep that you can get started on right away.}
{\pard \line \par}
{\b\cf2 recording-1_2026-01-21_20-39-15:\b0}
{ Yep. The thing about Christmas is there’s always the next one to prepare for, and we wanna help you make that prep as painless as possible.}
{\pard \line \par}
{\b\cf3 recording-1_2026-01-21_20-39-15-1:\b0}
{ And that means doing a little bit at a time. So keep listening for our five get ahead tips and make sure to join us next week where we’ll break down all the good and bad of our own holiday experiences.}
{\pard \line \par}
{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 elementary school teachers who’ve taken the simple }
{\cf1 [00:01:00]}
{ strategies and practical tips we mastered in the classroom and put them to work in our personal lives.}
{\pard \line \par}
{And we are 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 [email protected]. Ready to get a headstart on your holidays.}
{\pard \line \par}
{Let’s go.}
{\pard \line \par}
{Hey there, friends. Welcome back to the Holiday Headstart podcast. Today we are talking about five simple tasks you can do now to get ahead for next Christmas and sharing a tip for taming future credit card bills. Let’s kick things off with our tradition Spotlight traditions are an important tool in building a healthy, happy, connected life.}
{\pard \line \par}
{This week we have a tradition for Groundhog Day. This might not be a holiday that you are used to celebrating, and we’re not sharing this suggestion because you should feel pressured to add it to your calendar, right? We have a }
{\cf1 [00:02:00]}
{ no pressure policy here at the Holiday Headstart podcast. There is zero guilt or expectation that you should add anything to what you’re already doing or not doing.}
{\pard \line \par}
{But if you’re looking for some ideas for how to add a little surprise and delight to a very minor holiday, this might give you some ideas. And it might also give you ideas for how to streamline or elevate a tradition that you’re already committed to. Sometimes hearing what works in one area can help us smooth out some friction in another area.}
{\pard \line \par}
{So with all that being said, today’s tradition spotlight is just to consider celebrating Groundhog Day because it’s such a silly, low key holiday. Adding just a little sparkle can go a long way, as with any holiday, even the minor ridiculous ones. We want to start by identifying our purpose. That will help us know what level of effort to put in.}
{\pard \line \par}
{If your purpose is to add a little surprise to the day, you could serve breakfast or dinner on some Groundhog Day paper plates. You could buy a whole stack on Amazon. Just use what you need this year and then tuck away the rest for next year. }
{\cf1 [00:03:00]}
{ Easy peasy. Just don’t forget where you put them. If, however, your purpose is to make the day special.}
{\pard \line \par}
{You could print a coloring page or do a craft, or you could put up some simple decorations like a banner. While I was looking for Groundhog Day plates, I came across some cute honeycomb decorations. These are just little cardboard pictures with a tissue paper base that unfolds to support the picture.}
{\pard \line \par}
{And those are nice because if you just use paperclips instead of adhesive to hold the base open, you can store them flat and reuse them next year. I do that with some of my back to school decorations. If your purpose in celebrating Groundhog Day is to make memories, you could go outside and take photos of your loved ones, seeing their shadows, or you know, not seeing their shadows.}
{\pard \line \par}
{You know how that goes. Or you could buy some props and do a Groundhog Day photo shoot. There are links to the plates, decorations, and photo props in the show notes, and we’d love to hear how you celebrate Groundhog Day. Come join us on Instagram at the holiday Head Start. One nice thing about Christmas is that it is }
{\cf1 [00:04:00]}
{ not a surprise, except for that last week in December.}
{\pard \line \par}
{Next Christmas is always going to be happening this year. Another nice thing about Christmas is that a lot of what you do from year to year tends to be routine. Unless you like a lot of novelty in your celebrations, you can assume that much of what happened last year can be repeated this year. We are getting closer to Christmas every day, and because we know a lot of what needs to happen to pull those celebrations together, there’s a lot we can do to get ready for it.}
{\pard \line \par}
{In advance. Today we are going to share five easy things you can do this month to get ahead for January. So kick us off with our first suggestion, Emily. Since this quintile of the year, we are focusing on reflecting. Let’s start by reflecting on the last holiday season. You could write your memories and reflections in a journal if that’s handy.}
{\pard \line \par}
{If you’re looking for some guided prompts, check out the Holiday Headstart Reflection Journal. You can get the journal at the link in our show notes. Our journal has specific sections for reflecting on each of }
{\cf1 [00:05:00]}
{ the eight areas of holiday intention, vision, planning, relationships, home experiences, spending, and personal wellbeing.}
{\pard \line \par}
{We look at what went well and what didn’t go well in each of those areas, and then we use that information to make our resolutions. This is the part that’s going to help us with next Christmas. We identify what we want to be sure to repeat in the future and also what we want to leave in the past. Now our golden rule of reflection is that we only answer the questions that are useful for us.}
{\pard \line \par}
{So even though there are lots of questions on the page, absolutely do not feel obligated to answer all of them. I wrote them all, and I don’t answer every question every year. For some years, I have found some questions to be more useful than other years, so. They’re all just there because you don’t know what’s gonna spark.}
{\pard \line \par}
{You know, the best reflection for you, and we would give you a friendly nudge to focus on those resolution questions. That’s where the real magic of reflection comes into play. The Reflection Journal also includes sections for planning your post holiday reset so that }
{\cf1 [00:06:00]}
{ you have a personalized roadmap for getting back to normal life.}
{\pard \line \par}
{And there’s a final section for responses, so you can have a quick chat with the people that you celebrate with. You can ask them what they most like about celebrating the holidays, what they don’t like, and maybe what doesn’t even matter to them. That information could be so valuable to helping know where to focus your time and energy in the future.}
{\pard \line \par}
{Use your resolutions and your loved one’s responses to guide your decisions going forward. Maybe you need to find new recipes for your Christmas Eve meal, or take a hard look at whittling down your list of December activities, and then it’s time for our second get ahead task. Make a savings goal.}
{\pard \line \par}
{Avoiding holiday debt is so important these days, and the key to doing that is making sure to save enough each month leading up to Christmas. Now, please note that I am saying this to myself as much as I’m saying it to anyone else. I did set up an automatic transfer each week from my checking to my savings, so I feel like I’m taking some grownup steps.}
{\pard \line \par}
{Ooh, that is a good one. I’ve gotta do that. }
{\cf1 [00:07:00]}
{ I’m also gonna make sure to buy Target and Amazon gift cards on each month’s holiday. I’ve been pretty hit or miss with that in the past, but since I know I’m gonna end up shopping at those places eventually, whether it’s Christmas or not, it’s really not a risky investment.}
{\pard \line \par}
{And they also spend a lot on Etsy, so I probably should see if they do gift cards too. Oh yeah, that’s a good idea. That brings us to our third get ahead task. If you’re responsible for filling anyone’s stockings on Christmas, set up a stocking bag or bin for each stocking. This will let you gather small things all year long instead of trying to find everything in December, and then you can also easily see how much you have and who has more than others.}
{\pard \line \par}
{Yeah, that’s a real pitfall if you’ve got multiple kids. Mm-hmm. Heidi’s been with me on Christmas Eves before when I’ve discovered, oh no, these are not even at all. Or I just overbought for everyone. Like, why did I think this could all fit in here in the holiday Head Start playbook, there are stocking stuff for idea pages for }
{\cf1 [00:08:00]}
{ kids and adults.}
{\pard \line \par}
{You can make a page for each of the stockings that you need to fill and tweak the suggestions to fit that person’s needs. The first category of stocking stuffer is items that might need to be restocked. Anything that gets used regularly can go here. Hair stuff, toiletries, toothbrushes, office supplies, school supplies, that sort of thing.}
{\pard \line \par}
{These types of gifts are great to stock up on a little at a time throughout the year, and this is your friendly reminder that you can totally put practical items into a stocking and not be a scrooge. Now, a stocking full of socks and underwear would not be fun. Having some socks and underwear mixed in with some fun items really doesn’t detract from the excitement.}
{\pard \line \par}
{And we’ve got several categories of fun items. Think of consumables like bubbles and stickers for the kids, or treats and lotions for grownups. You can add any small items that your loved ones might collect, like trading cards or action figures. Grownups can get more useful items like screen wipes and nail files, and you’ll still have }
{\cf1 [00:09:00]}
{ plenty of room for the, just for fun stuff like puzzles and card games.}
{\pard \line \par}
{As you go through the year, be on the lookout for items that fit your stocking categories. For example, those back to school sales in July can be a great time to stock up on crayons and markers, and then just add all your purchases to your designated stocking bags or bins, and look at you being months ahead of the game.}
{\pard \line \par}
{There are pages full of stocking stuff for suggestions in the playbook, and you can add your own ideas as you go through the year. Just, you know. Don’t let buying a head mean that you buy more than will fit into the stocking. As Emily mentioned, that is an easy trap to fall into. You’re just cramming stuff in on crisp teeth.}
{\pard \line \par}
{I’m luckily, I’ve got a little bit of stretch in the kids stockings, but not too much or piling stuff next to it on the cat. That’s frequently what we have to do. Our fourth get ahead task is to unec with your future self in mind. Is there anything you can do now to make decorating next December easier?}
{\pard \line \par}
{One tip is to photograph your decor before you take things down. This }
{\cf1 [00:10:00]}
{ saved me last Christmas ’cause I couldn’t remember how I had put up my glitter houses the year before. And so when we were trying to do it, I was like, wait, how did I make this work? And luckily I had taken a picture. So you will love having a handy reference of what goes where next year.}
{\pard \line \par}
{I have an album in my photos just for this purpose, and it really does make redecorating so much easier down the road if you’re someone that doesn’t like the decisions of having to decide. Yeah, I do not like the decisions and. That’s super smart to put it in an album, which I have not done. I had to search, I’ve like just went back to December looking through, oh good, there’s a picture.}
{\pard \line \par}
{So there and put that on my to-do list. And I also try to pack away items based on where they’re displayed rather than by type of decor. So, you know, I don’t keep all my garland in one place. I keep all of my kitchen decorations in one box and all my living room decorations in another box. That way it’s easy to just put it all back up again.}
{\pard \line \par}
{And those are basically the only rooms I decorate. So that makes it easy to keep track of. Our fifth get }
{\cf1 [00:11:00]}
{ ahead tip for January is to gather your recipes. Now, if you want to print something, do it now while it’s fresh in your memory. ’cause by next December it will be a little hazy and you might not remember what side it was on.}
{\pard \line \par}
{Or you can organize your recipes digitally. And I really like using the Paprika three app. It is not overly fancy, but it really just does such a great job of saving your recipes. While you’re working on ’em, your phone stays awake if while you’re cooking, that’s a feature I really love. And you can add in notes when you make it, of what you wanna remember next time you make it.}
{\pard \line \par}
{And you can also put in a link to like the blog post on somebody, on a food blog, for example. You can put that into the app and the app will like slurp it in and turn it into a, a recipe in your app with a little picture. It’s just a great app. It is free. I think, actually, I’m not sure. I know I paid a couple bucks and that was either to upgrade something to like get, get rid of ads or }
{\cf1 [00:12:00]}
{ something, or that’s how much it costs.}
{\pard \line \par}
{But it was like a one-time fee of I think like $3. And making those notes now before you put your recipes away for 11 months is so important. So if you made any tweaks, make sure to jot that down now before you forget that you needed to double the casserole for Christmas morning, or you needed to swap out mayo for sour cream and the dip that everyone loved.}
{\pard \line \par}
{By the time you’re making it in December, you’re gonna be struggling to remember exactly what you did. Well. This has really saved me because I make the same two breakfast casseroles every Christmas Eve to have on Christmas morning to make things simpler. And oftentimes I go, I am so confident going into it ’cause I’ve made it so many times before that I can’t remember, like, wait, what bread did I decide is the best bread to use in the French toast casserole?}
{\pard \line \par}
{Because I’ve tried several over the years and I can’t remember which one’s the favorite, but luckily I had recorded it in the app. And it’s same with the. Potato bacon egg }
{\cf1 [00:13:00]}
{ casserole that I do. It calls for a certain amount of cheese, but it like kind of leaves. It’s flexible on what kinds of cheese. And so I’ve experimented with it over the years and figured out the ratio of pepper jack.}
{\pard \line \par}
{That’s not too pepper jacky for my kids. And luckily I had recorded that in the app. So those little details will save you. Yay for those notes coming in handy to say this in those stressful moments. Yeah, because who can remember from a year ago? I never can. We never will, but I always think I will. Our fatal flaw.}
{\pard \line \par}
{So those are our five January tasks. Reflect on December start on your savings goal. Set up your stocking bags, unec with next Christmas in mind, and gather and organize your holiday recipes. Now we just have to get it all done. Yeah, let’s go. We got, we got stuff to do. So in the previous episode, episode 19, we talked about scheduling a monthly holiday to work on those get ahead tasks.}
{\cf1 [00:14:00]}
{ }
{\pard \line \par}
{We will continue sharing our suggestions on the podcast, but you may want to start a list of tasks you can do during your upcoming holidays that will save you from the trap I’ve often fallen into of wanting to get things done in advance, but just not knowing where to start. So I don’t do anything. One of my goals this year is to use my holidays to organize my recipes.}
{\pard \line \par}
{I did a great job a few years ago with Thanksgiving recipes. Like it was perfect, but I haven’t done anything for Christmas. And right now it’s just a big stack of printed pages. ’cause I often like to combine parts of different recipes into one. I’m using the recipe template in the holiday Head Start playbook.}
{\pard \line \par}
{Plus that makes everything look cohesive, which I know does not help my cooking, but it does make me happier while I’m cooking. So that’s gotta help improve my cooking in the long run. Right? For sure. And if you like having a printed page, that template does look really nice, printed out on your counter.}
{\pard \line \par}
{We’d love to hear what you are doing to get ahead this January for the holidays that are ahead. So connect with us on Instagram at the }
{\cf1 [00:15:00]}
{ holiday headstart. Now it’s time for a get a Head Start tip. Each week we leave you with a small actionable tip to help you get a head start on your holiday planning.}
{\pard \line \par}
{This week’s get a Head Start tip is add back to school expenses to your seasonal savings goals. Tell us more about it, Heidi. Well, as you may have noticed, December is really expensive. So many surprise expenses creep up on us and they can often break the budget if we’re not careful. That’s why we wanna make sure that we are saving early and often.}
{\pard \line \par}
{If you have young kids, another season of expenses that might catch you off guard is back to school season. After the holiday season, back to school season might be the biggest drain on your budget. The best way to address that is to start setting aside money. Now, you could add it to your holiday savings and have one big seasonal spending pot, or you could have a separate category for back to school expenses.}
{\pard \line \par}
{Do whatever will help you to avoid the shock of getting that credit card bill in September. If you’re buying yourself gift cards every month, }
{\cf1 [00:16:00]}
{ an easy way to save for school expenses is to buy gift cards to the stores where you do most of your back to school shopping. I’m guessing it’s a lot of the same stores where you do a lot of your holiday shopping, so if you don’t use all your gift cards for school, you can use them for Christmas.}
{\pard \line \par}
{Just make sure you have a secure, convenient place to store those gift cards. You’d hate to get to August and not be able to find what you’d spent your money on. Oh, for sure. Now let’s talk about what we’re working on this week as a way to keep ourselves accountable and to give you some ideas of what you can do in advance for your own celebrations.}
{\pard \line \par}
{We’re sharing what we’re working on this week. Emily, what’s on your to-do list? Well, I am on a decluttering journey that I had hoped to do before Christmas, but ran out of time, so I’m working on it now. It’s been ages since I did a full clean out of clothes and toys. For my kids and it needs to happen.}
{\pard \line \par}
{There is a lot of things that need to go. Just calling it a journey. I knew it had to be intense. Mm-hmm. Yeah. I’ll be a different person at the end of this. I think. }
{\cf1 [00:17:00]}
{ Like all good journeys. Yes. What’s on your to-do list, Heidi? I am making my list of get ahead tasks for my upcoming holidays. I have fallen into the trap in the past where it’s like, okay, I set aside time to do this, but then I don’t know what to do and then I have to spend that time figuring out what to do and then I have no time left to do the thing I figured out to do.}
{\pard \line \par}
{So I’m gonna get ahead of the game and make my list now. I love it. Good for you to wrap up the show. We’re sharing our nice list. Emily, what’s on your nice list this week? Well on my nice list, it’s twofold. On the nice list is my family, my parents, and my siblings for gifting me a little free library for my 40th birthday.}
{\pard \line \par}
{And so the little free library is also on my nice list. They gave me a gift card so that I could pick out the one I wanted. I kind of dithered for several months about which one I wanted and how I was gonna get it installed, and then it got cold, but I decided there was a Black Friday deal, so I decided }
{\cf1 [00:18:00]}
{ to just go ahead and order it and I won’t be able to fully install it until the spring.}
{\pard \line \par}
{So I’ve got a temporary installation going on right now, but it’s so fun to have something new and just like pure joy, like it’s just for fun. Like it does. It’s not stressful, it’s just, it’s just enjoyable and every time I see it, it makes me smile. I am just so excited to have this, and also in the winter, it’s just nice to have like some little fun thing to keep me going through the worst months of the year.}
{\pard \line \par}
{Oh, yeah. January is bleak, but I haven’t seen it yet. I’ll have to take, come over and take a look. I’m excited. Yes. Yeah. You picked out a cute one though. Yes. I mean, you had to hear all of my, I really wanted the doctor who Tardis library so, so bad, but. It didn’t come in the easy care materials, and I don’t wanna have to repaint it every year.}
{\pard \line \par}
{So even though it made me very sad to not pick the tardis, I went with a regular one, but it’s still cute. It’s got like, it is very cute, cute roof line and, and all of that. Maybe I’ll }
{\cf1 [00:19:00]}
{ post a picture somewhere. Makes me think of a little schoolhouse. It’s darling. Yeah. What’s on your nice list, Heidi? Well, this is less exciting, but I am putting Sterilite containers on my nice list.}
{\pard \line \par}
{My whole life is, and especially my December is ruled by their latch bins, and honestly, I wouldn’t have that any other way. It’s true. It’s just, they’re so handy. They can hold a lot. They’re sturdy and even when they’re full, they’re not too heavy for me to carry. And I have given this a lot of thought, and I think.}
{\pard \line \par}
{That given enough stair light bins I could probably take over the world. Yeah, it adds up. Yeah. That’s it for today’s episode. Remember our five get ahead task for January, and don’t forget to factor school expenses into your savings plan for the year. Thank you so much for joining us, and we hope to see you here next week.}
{\pard \line \par}
{If you enjoyed this episode, we would love it if you gave us a five star rating and review on Apple Podcasts as a new podcast. We really need all of the positive promo we can give. Thanks for tuning in }
{\cf1 [00:20:00]}
{ today. Use this week to get ahead. Start on planning for what’s ahead and remember, don’t get it perfect.}
{\pard \line \par}
{Get it going. Come follow along on Instagram at the holiday headstart. We would love to hear from you. If you liked this episode, head to Apple Podcast and leave us a review. We’ll see you here next week. }
}