​​The Easiest To Do List: 5 Ways to Plan Christmas from Your Couch This May [Episode 30]

[00:00:00] 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 strategies and practical tips we mastered in the classroom and put them to work in our personal lives.

 

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.

 

Let’s go.

 

Heidi: hey there friends. Welcome back to the Holiday Headstart podcast. Today we are talking about five phone friendly tasks that you [00:01:00] can do in the middle of your may busyness.

 

Emily: But first, we have a tradition spotlight Traditions are an important tool in building a healthy, happy, connected life.

 

This week we have a tradition from Heidi,

 

Heidi: well, calling this a tradition is a stretch, but if you want to grow your own pumpkins for Halloween, Instagram tells me that May is the perfect time to plant those pumpkins so that they will be nice and orange by October.

 

Emily: Definitely double check though based on your climate

 

because we are not gardeners. And not only, it’s not like, oh, we’re not gardening experts. No, we are not gardeners, period. So don’t trust us for anything.

 

Heidi: No, you’re not the people for gardening advice. That’s why this is just a reminder. You’re planting your own pumpkin. Sounds like a fun activity.

 

This might be your month ago for it, and you know, maybe not though. Double check. And then you can send us a picture.

 

Emily: We’d love to hear about [00:02:00] your favorite traditions. Come join us on Instagram at the holiday head Start.

 

Heidi: Well, here we are in the middle of the 100 days of May or December, or the month that never

 

Emily: ends. Yeah, whatever you wanna call it. If you have kids, you have approximately 80 million events on your calendar in May.

 

And you know how tiring this month is, which, uh, maybe

 

Heidi: you can guess is why this episode is coming out a little later than normal. Yep. And that also means that you are busy enough without also having to make room in your schedule for a little Christmas prep.

 

Emily: So go ahead and skip this month if you do not have the bandwidth to deal with one more blasted thing in May.

 

Or you can save this for later if you want. Yeah, it doesn’t have to be in May. These

 

Heidi: tips work anytime of year, but we hope that you’ll keep listening because the suggestions we have for this month just might be what you need to get some planning done without sacrificing your sanity.

 

Emily: Yep. And that’s because we were very [00:03:00] intentional in choosing our suggestions for this month.

 

Knowing how stressful this time of year is, we leaned into screen friendly tasks that we like to call TV tasks.

 

Heidi: So our definition of a TV task is anything that you can do on your couch at night without having to stress too much.

 

Emily: Now you absolutely do not need an excuse to rest. Go ahead and rest without doing something productive while you are laying on the couch.

 

There’s no expectation that you should spend your downtime working on anything. Rest is productive on its own.

 

Heidi: But you know, that being said, one of my favorite ways to enjoy downtime is by checking a couple of easy tasks off my list at the same time.

 

Then I get the enjoyment of crashing on the couch with a good show and that little boost that

 

Emily: comes with getting a few monkeys off my back I. And this is a way better use of my phone time than shopping, which also sort of feels like, oh, I’m getting something done ’cause I’m ordering something to deal with the problem.

 

No, [00:04:00] these tasks are probably even better ’cause they shouldn’t cost you any money. Yes. Perfect. And crazy as May is you might not have a ton of couch lounging time in your near future. But don’t worry though, we’ve got you covered. Each of our tasks for May can be done on your phone.

 

And that

 

Heidi: means whether you are waiting to pick up kids after school or sitting at a ballpark or you know, killing time before the school performance starts. ’cause you had to get there so early to get a seat. You can still get a few simple things done. So em, why don’t you kick us off with our first phone friendly, couch friendly may task.

 

Emily: Well, let’s start with something fun and look at Pinterest. If you already have holiday Pinterest boards set up, put your feet up on the couch and scroll through them, delete anything that doesn’t appeal to you anymore. Now, clearing

 

Heidi: off our boards is not the most fun part of Pinterest, but if you wanna be able to find the information that we do actually like you kinda gotta clear out the clutter, so tidy those boards.[00:05:00]

 

Emily: Also consider if having multiple holiday related boards might be useful, or if you’d prefer one large holiday board with lots of subsections.

 

Heidi: Now I am a many boards girly. I just counted, and I have 53 Christmas theme boards. Some of them are practical like cookie recipes, and some of them are dreamy, aspirational boards with, you know, gorgeous gift wrapping ideas that I am never, ever going to do because I hate wrapping gifts.

 

But it’s so lovely to look at. To keep that many boards organized. I title all of my holiday boards, Noelle and then blank. So I have Noelle Colon baking, Noelle Colon Decorating, Noelle Grinch Dinner, Noelle Breakfast Ideas, and you know, for like 47 more of those by having all of my Christmas boards start with the same word, it makes it easy for me to hop from board to board without having to scroll ’cause they’re just all right together in my little menu.

 

Emily: And I do the same thing to organize my boards.

 

Heidi: I think, actually, I probably got the idea from you.

 

Emily: [00:06:00] I used to spend a lot more time on Pinterest than I do now. I think you probably spend more time on Pinterest these days than I do. I’m more likely to be scrolling Instagram and saving ideas on Instagram that I like. Yes, I do. Same with Instagram. It’s just so much harder to organize over there.

 

Oh, 100%. It is not a better system, but it is what I do more. I just kind of haven’t been on Pinterest as much lately. Maybe I should resurrect it.

 

Heidi: Yeah. There’s so many fun things. I wish it was an easy way to get Instagram to Pinterest. I know you can kind of, but it’s a hassle, but you know, we take what we got. Yes. Now that I’m looking at my boards, I can easily see that there are some holiday boards that I have not even thought of in years.

 

So. I’m going to be narrowing down my Pinterest boards very soon in the future. That’s on my task to do this month.

 

Emily: And once you’re done paring down your unused pins and boards, it’s time for the fun part of finding new ideas,

 

Heidi: right? Go crazy. This is what I love about Pinterest is that it’s fun with no clutter [00:07:00] and no commitment.

 

You can find a new decorating idea or an idea for a new holiday color palette. You don’t have to stick with any of it. One thing I like to do is to take a tradition we already do and then search Pinterest for ideas that might add to what we are already doing for our celebrations. So Pinterest is where I found the idea of adding plastic antlers to corn dogs for our kid friendly reindeer games dinner.

 

Emily: And that’s our easiest holiday dinner that we do, and the kids will actually eat it. So that’s been the perfect way to have like a festive dinner for our reindeer games day. So thank you Pinterest for that one.

 

Heidi: And while you are on Pinterest, you might want to make us start on our second task for me, which is to find new recipes.

 

Maybe you want to set up a board for easy holiday appetizers or find a new

 

Emily: Thanksgiving side dish. May is a perfect time of year to browse ideas because the pressure’s off. You can round up ideas that sound interesting without the [00:08:00] pressure that you’re going to have to make anything. If you do

 

Heidi: find any interesting recipes, this is also a good time of year to give them a trial run.

 

If it’s a high stake situation, you probably don’t wanna wait until the day. I have to find out if that new recipe is any good.

 

Emily: True because the last thing you want on Thanksgiving is to find out the new corn casserole recipe turned out to be flavorless mush. Testing things out now gives you plenty of time to adapt your plans.

 

Now it might be a little tricky for a recipe

 

Heidi: of like peppermint chocolate chip cookies with very strong Christmasy vibes, but you know, we can be creative a way around that is leaning into the quirkiness of peppermint. In May, you can enlist your family and friends as official taste testers and get their feedback.

 

You know, people love an opportunity to share an opinion.

 

Emily: And I love to use the paprika app to keep track of my recipes. You paste in the webpage of the recipe that you wanna save and it just kind of like slurps in the info and the [00:09:00] picture for you into the app, and then you can easily edit it or add notes.

 

And then you can organize them by folder. So if you have certain recipes you use for Christmas Eve dinner, they can all be in one folder. So you could use this like Pinterest and just have like anything that’s interested you in there. I tend to use it more for the ones that I’ve. Know that I’ve tried and liked, but you could use it however you want.

 

Heidi: Now, our third phone friendly task is to look for playlists. Adding a specific playlist to a holiday activity is a great way to elevate the experience. The more senses that we incorporate into our events, the more memories they make.

 

Emily: And choosing a playlist for your seasonal fun is one of the simplest ways to add to the sensory experience of your event planning, how you want an experience to sound is a task that gives you a huge bang for your buck.

 

Heidi: Yeah, unless you wanna change up the vibe from year to year, you can make one choice for your cookie baking playlist and then just reuse

 

Emily: it every [00:10:00] year. The nice thing about having one set playlist for an activity is that reusing. It builds connections. When your family is decorating gingerbread houses, your Mariah Carey inspired playlist adds a nice background ambiance, but then when you listen to that playlist the next year, not only did the songs boost the mood, but there’s a connection to last year’s memories.

 

Heidi: And those connections just keep building from year to year. The soundscape of your activity becomes an effortless way to strengthen the power of your traditions. So Emily,

 

Emily: where are we getting these magical playlists? Well, luckily it’s a very simple task. Any streaming platform has literally thousands of playlists to choose from.

 

You could use a general Christmas playlist, but there’s so much holiday music out there that you can really dial into. Any specific vibe for your event, you could look for a pentatonics inspired playlist for decorating the tree and a jazzy Christmas playlist for your ugly sweater party.

 

Heidi: So weirdly making playlist is one of my favorite [00:11:00] hobbies.

 

I think it’s one of those things, it’s clutter free. I love a hobby with no clutter, and when I’m making a playlist, I really love to dial into a specific vibe.

 

I start by finding a key song that fits the mood of our activity, and then I build the playlist around that song. So my Grinch playlist is a little quirky, a little dark, and it has a lot of Sian Stevens to give it that kind of grinchy weird vibe. But for our winter solstice dinner, totally different tone.

 

It’s Celtic Christmas music all the way. And just like my dozens of Pinterest boards, all of my Christmas playlists are with Noelle, so that they are all grouped together in my library. But obviously you don’t have to make your own playlist if that is not your jam.

 

Emily: And I personally do not love creating playlists.

 

So. I like to find already made playlist that I can use to work for me, and I’m lucky because my sister is a playlist connoisseur, so I just check hers first. But otherwise, you [00:12:00] can spend a few minutes searching for playlists that match the tone you want to strike for your holiday activity.

 

Heidi: Don’t feel limited to Christmas.

 

I think every holiday should have its own five B playlist. Maybe some classic rock for the 4th of July, and I love Motown hits for Valentine’s Day and

 

maybe nineties pop meets old fashioned crooners for your meg rainfall playlist. Or you know, maybe that’s just me.

 

Emily: I

 

Heidi: do really like

 

Emily: my meg rainfall playlist though. I wonder if you need to teach a course on how to craft the ultimate playlist.

 

Heidi: If I knew if it was any good, I totally would, but I just know what I like and so that’s what I do.

 

Emily: Rounding up a few holiday playlists is a simple task to check off your list. Now, another simple TV task for me is to round up addresses. So next time you’re scrolling your phone in front of the tv, take a moment to send off a couple of messages asking your cousins and old roommates for their addresses, especially if you know they’ve moved recently.[00:13:00]

 

Heidi: If you are a Christmas card center, getting addresses in May is a great way to get ahead. You might have to track down a couple of updated addresses in the fall, but you can get what probably 95% of the addresses

 

Emily: that you need right now and just think how great you’ll feel in November when you’re not trying to track down addresses from people who are already stressed with their own tasks and they might not be very quick to respond to an extra request.

 

Heidi: If you are rounding up addresses, you need a place to organize them.

 

You can add the information to the contact list in your phone or download a specific address book app. There’s also a sheet in the holiday Head Start playbook where you can record everyone’s information.

 

Emily: We both like to use Minted to order our holiday cards because they have a built in address.

 

Book Minted isn’t the cheapest option, but it’s worth it to me to have my envelopes arrive already addressed. Plus, I mean, minted just has the best designs anyway, so that’s part of the appeal. But I store my. [00:14:00] Addresses on minted for this reason. And if I ever need to change them, I go do it on minted.

 

Heidi: Oh, I do the same thing.

 

That is my address book is minted, which is probably not the best idea, but no, that’s where we’re at.

 

Think how far ahead you’ll be if you round up addresses now and then get them entered into your minted address book. And when it has time to order cards, all you have to do is push a button. Or if you don’t use minted, see if the company you do use has an online address feature for you.

 

It’s one less tedious task to deal with in the midst of the holiday craziness.

 

Emily: Another TV task you can think about now is to make your book lists. If reading is part of your seasonal enjoyment, why not start making your book lists now while you have time to look around for fun titles.

 

Heidi: One of my favorite traditions is opening a picture book every day to read in December.

 

Emily and I both have huge libraries of seasonal picture books. It is maybe reached a point where it might be a little problematic. Oh, [00:15:00] shush. Don’t talk about it.

 

Emily: If you have your own library of holiday picture books, you could pick out the titles you want to make sure to read in December and then tuck them away where you can easily access them.

 

Heidi: And if you wanna wrap the book so that you can open one a day, that’s definitely a task you can get out of the way well in advance. And if you’ve got room on the couch, you could even make wrapping the books. A TV task.

 

Emily: Yeah. It might not be a phone task, but you could do it in front of the tv for sure. If you don’t have your own picture, book library to draw from. Spring and summer are the perfect time to start hunting for titles

 

Demand for holiday books is low this time of year. So you can grab some great deals online or in thrift stores.

 

Heidi: If buying a Christmas library isn’t in your plans, you can take a look at your local library’s catalog of holiday books. Then you can make a note on your calendar of when you want to schedule library holds so that you can make sure to have the books you

 

Emily: want for December.

 

And don’t feel limited to just picking out the picture books you wanna read. Reading Christmas novels is one of [00:16:00] my favorite parts of the season.

 

Heidi: Unlike picture books, however, you probably don’t have the time to do a novel a day in December, which is unfortunate because there are so many good titles out there.

 

Emily: If you do have the time, way to go you for making the Perfect Life. There are just too many books and too little time in December for sure. So if holiday reading is important to you, this is the perfect time of year to start making your two be read list. You can check out reviews, see what people recommend, and make sure that you’re spending your limited festive reading time on the books you’ll enjoy the most.

 

Heidi: We actually have a resource that can help you out. If you want a starting point for your own list.

 

Emily and I with some help from our mom. Keep a running list of our favorite holiday reads on Google Sheets that you can use as a reference.

 

Emily: These are all books that we’ve read and recommend. If you’re into fluffy holiday rom-coms.

 

We promise we’ve only included the good ones, and so we will include a link in the show notes if you wanna check it out. And I. [00:17:00] May have started noting if it’s spicy, we cannot vouch for the spiciness guys ’cause we just skip over it if it’s spicy. So, but don’t hold it against us. If you were like, holy cow, that was spicy.

 

Like we didn’t mean to we, sorry. We just skip over that and you should too if you don’t like it. And if you do like it, enjoy

 

Heidi: Merry Christmas to everyone.

 

That is our list of phone friendly. Get ahead tasks for May. Tidy up your Pinterest boards and look for new ideas. Look for holiday recipes. Find or create holiday playlists, track down addresses for Christmas cards. Find book titles you want to read in

 

Emily: December. Hopefully this list gives you a good starting place for checking off a few holiday related tasks.

 

These tasks aren’t huge, but getting little tasks out of the way early. Free up our time and energy for those big tasks closer to the holidays.

 

Heidi: We would love to hear how you’re preparing this month, or even just how you’re surviving this month. [00:18:00] Connect with us on Instagram at the holiday head start.

 

Emily: Now it’s time for a get ahead start tip.

 

Each week we leave you with a small actionable tip to help you get started on your holiday planning. This week’s tip is make your own TV task list. Tell us more about it, Heidi. Well, if you’re like

 

Heidi: us, it is easy to fall into the trap of thinking that if you aren’t doing everything, you can’t do anything.

 

This can be especially tricky around the holidays when the to-do list is never ending, but you know, your energy ran out at about 9:00 AM so when that happens, it can be tempting to feel like since you don’t have the bandwidth to deal with the big tasks, there’s absolutely nothing you can get done. This is where your own TV task list can come in handy.

 

So in section 10 of the holiday Head Start Playbook, it is full of to-do lists. One of those lists is for your own TV tasks. We’ve added a few ideas for you, like organizing photos on your phone, making [00:19:00] grocery lists, writing thank you notes.

 

Emily: But don’t limit yourself to our ideas. Think back to last December.

 

What are some of the little tasks that you could do from the couch at the end of a long day? Maybe you could look for Christmas pajamas to order or peel potatoes while you binge some real housewives. There’s a lot you can do from the couch if you get creative.

 

Heidi: Now, the key to making TV tasks successful is starting that list now, the future version of yourself.

 

Who will be doing these tasks? Will not have the brainpower to generate a list of possible things she can do on the couch. Help her out by brainstorming that list now and avoid future decision fatigue. You can write it down in the holiday headstart playbook or in someplace else where it will be easy for that tired.

 

Future self-defined. I.

 

Emily: And just remember, just because there are things you can do in front of the TV, doesn’t mean you are expected to fill your downtime with to-do lists. Like we said, relaxing is productive all by itself. You deserve to slow down and enjoy your time without having to check things off your list all the [00:20:00] time.

 

Heidi: Maybe instead of thinking of TV tasks as adding work to your relaxation time, we should reframe this as a way to add relaxation to your work time. Yes, you’ve got to plan that dinner menu one way or the other. You may as well do it where you’re comfortable. Yep. I love that. Okay, Emily, let’s share what we are working on this week as a way to keep ourselves accountable and give you some ideas of what you can do in advance for your own celebrations.

 

We’re sharing what’s on our to-do list. Emily, what are

 

Emily: you working on? Well, I’ve started picking up gifts for my son’s birthday next month and since we just started summer, I am working on figuring out how to make summer go well for all of us and also make it enjoyable. I really love a routine, but I do

 

Try to be a little looser in the summer, so I always have to kind of find that balance at the beginning of summer for how, strict I want to be on the routines, but also I don’t want it to be. No, no routines all the time [00:21:00] over here. So trying to strike the balance. I’m gonna have the kids set some summer goals, so they have some things they’re working on.

 

So just getting all that set up.

 

Heidi: Oh, it’s such a transition from that regimented alarm set every 40 minutes for something school

 

Emily: year to.

 

Heidi: Now it’s all over.

 

Emily: I have a tough time. The transition from school to summer and then the transition from summer to school. I have a hard time every time, like once I get into the flow of one of them, it’s hard for me to change course and go to the other one because they’re just so different.

 

They’re so different.

 

Heidi: Well, good for you. You’ll, you’ll figure it out.

 

Emily: Somehow I’ve managed it every summer, even though I don’t know how. What are you working on this week, Heidi?

 

Heidi: Well, I have been scrubbing bottles. This is the dumbest task, .

 

So we try and celebrate the summer solstice. We don’t do anything big. Usually we just do like s’mores around the campfire. In my backyard. The fire pit. Yes. There we go. That’s the word. [00:22:00] But I’ve been trying to think of some ways we can add to it without necessarily adding too much work.

 

And I, had these pretty bottles left over that had had some lemonade. They’re like the fancy French lemonade, you know, that’s in the glass bottle with the little hinge stopper. Yeah. Yeah. And, uh, maybe I just needed an excuse to use these bottles ’cause they were pretty, but for the winter solstice, we always make a simmer pot as a family.

 

And I thought, oh, we could fill these with water and set ’em outside on the summer solstice and then I just, you know, put ’em in my fridge or my basement or something until the winter solstice and we could use our sun water. To make our simmer pots perfect, which sounded lovely, and I had these bottles, but getting the labels on, oh no,

 

I don’t know what French glue is made of, but they should build the space shell out of it. I have boiled these bottles. I have a special scrapper

 

Emily: like. You should come try my heat gun and see if it helps. Oh, that’s a good idea. The kids were just using it the other day to get their [00:23:00] stickers off of their water bottle so they can put new stickers on them.

 

And the heat gun worked really well.

 

Heidi: That’s a good idea. I What if that boiling would do the trick? You would that with vinegar and dawn was what the internet said to do, but. Something like on the necks. I just, yeah. Anyway, it doesn’t really matter. It’s not gonna affect the water. But aesthetically, come on

 

to wrap up the show. We are sharing our nice list. Emily, what is on your nice list this week?

 

Emily: I am adding to my nice list, the sunshade I got from my van. I’ve never been good at using a sunshade because they are such a hassle to fold and unfold. I mean, they’re not as bad as folding and unfolding a map, but they’re up there with like, you never can quite get it right.

 

But I got one of those that opens up like an umbrella and it is a complete game changer. I’ll link in the show notes to the one I got, but you’ll wanna make sure that you get one with measurements that fit your windshield. I’ve noticed there’s a wide price range on these two, and mine’s on the higher end, but it held up really well and I noticed that the lower price ones [00:24:00] don’t have as good of review, so maybe keep that in mind when you’re looking for one.

 

Well,

 

Heidi: that’s good to know. And this is definitely the time of year for it. Oh yeah. I’ve been surprised at how

 

Emily: much cooler it keeps your van. I know it really does make a big difference. Like I wish, I wish I could have them up in all of my windows somehow, not just the windshield, but it does help, especially ’cause I have leather seats and so the front seats get hot, hot when the sun’s on them.

 

So it is definitely worth using this little sunshade. What’s on your nice list, Heidi?

 

Heidi: Well, I am putting the album Doggy Paddle by Shallow Alcove. That is so hard to say. Wow. On my nice list. It’s a tongue twister. Shallow alcove. Oh, nope. Can’t do it. So this is an artist that is new to me. I just discovered her recently.

 

It might be a band. I’m not even sure that’s how new this is, but it’s just lovely. It’s similar to that kind of. DIY folks sound that was popular in the mid aughts. If you can remember that far back, [00:25:00] if she were recording music in 2009, a hundred percent, she would have a ukulele and she would probably be on the hotel cafe tour.

 

Well then I’m, I’m

 

Emily: in, sign

 

Heidi: me up. This is your sound. So if you remember Miko or Lisa Hannigan or Vienna Tang, you will probably like shallow Alcove. I really like the title track from the album, doggy Paddle. I’ve listened to it several times. It’s, it’s just charming and, you know, full of angst about being a young adult, which obviously is a distant memory, but it’s

 

Emily: still beautiful.

 

We can channel back to those days in our minds.

 

Heidi: That is it for today’s episode. Remember these five tasks to help get ahead in May, and don’t forget our head start tip to start your own TV task list.

 

Thanks for tuning in today. Use this week to get a headstart on planning for what’s ahead. And remember, don’t get it perfect. Get it going. [00:26:00] 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.