Do These 5 Easy Things in March to Get Ahead for Christmas! [Episode 27]

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.

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!

[00:00:53] Heidi: Hey there, friends. Welcome back to the Holiday Head Start podcast. Today we are sharing five simple things you can do in March to get ahead for the holidays.

[00:01:01] 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.

[00:01:11] Heidi: Well, this isn’t one of my own traditions, but I came across a thread the other day. That was a roundup of gentle April fool’s jokes. And I thought they were so fun. And I thought maybe all of you would enjoy hearing about them too. So Sam said he did a surprise Christmas for his family. Everyone got a present and they had a Christmas dinner with chicken instead of a whole Turkey and listen to holiday music.

[00:01:32] Heidi: And he even dressed up like a budget Santa Claus. Like it was very much a thrown together costume, but he had a picture. It was so cute. Rachel says, and I’m just going to quote exactly what she says. She says the soft pretzel tree only blooms once a year on April 1st. We wake up and pick the soft pretzels for breakfast with butter and cinnamon sugar.

[00:01:51] Heidi: And she explains, I bake some soft frozen pretzels, hang them from the branches of our tree and then wake everybody up. That is so cute. And think how happy Stanley from the office would be to have a pretzel tree. So would Neil. He loves us. Oh, he does. You have to do that. I’m going to think about it. Danny suggested hiding all of the silverware and then serving something messy for dinner like spaghetti and then you just start eating with your hands and act like it’s totally normal.

[00:02:19] Heidi: Oh my gosh. And along those lines, Shiloh says his mom used to make a normal dinner on April Fool’s, but instead of setting the table, she would put random items in brown grocery sacks and they had to eat off of, or with whatever happened to be in the bag. Oh gosh. So instead of a plate, they might have a container lid.

[00:02:37] Heidi: Your fork might be a pasta server and your cup might be a gravy boat. Oh my gosh. So it was hilarious to see everyone open up their bag and April Fool’s Day was something that they looked forward to all year. That is cute. I’ve heard that before. That’s a really cute idea. And several people mentioned sticking googly eyes on everything, which I’m always here for.

[00:02:58] Emily: I’ve done that twice, including last year. And I was informed that it wasn’t as funny because I had already done it once before. I’m like, Oh my gosh, you guys, it’s hard to think of things. They’ve got high standards. Yes. Seriously. So I’m going to have to do something else this year. But the first year I did it, they thought it was hilarious.

[00:03:16] Heidi: Well Maisie had a fun idea that might work where you wrap all their food in Christmas

[00:03:24] Heidi: Um, Rebecca suggested having the tooth fairy come and leave fake teeth under a pillow as a refund. April Fool’s Day can be lots of fun. A fun way to add a little surprise for the people you love. It doesn’t have to be mean or hurtful or something that’s going to make a mess. You can just have fun with it.

[00:03:42] Emily: Yes. We’d love to hear about your favorite April Fool’s traditions. Come join us on Instagram at the Holiday Head Start.

[00:03:49] Heidi: We are back today with our monthly series about five simple tasks you can do this month to get ahead for Christmas.

[00:03:55] Emily: If you’re someone who prefers planning ahead, Over last minute rushing, one of the challenges of planning ahead for Christmas is just knowing where to start.

[00:04:04] Heidi: So we are here to help you push back on that helpless feeling.

[00:04:08] Heidi: It might be too soon to wrap gifts or bake cookies, but there are a lot of fundamental tasks you can do at any point in the year to make wrapping gifts and baking cookies a little easier. when we do get to that point.

[00:04:20] Emily: But our first task for March is something that you can actually use all year round, and that is to stock a personal recovery kit.

[00:04:27] Emily: Tell us about this one, Heidi.

[00:04:29] Heidi: I would love to. I’m so excited about this. So if you are someone who gets drained by big things, even good big things, try creating a recovery kit for yourself.

[00:04:39] Emily: Yeah, the idea is to get a box or a basket that you can fill with little things to help you pamper yourself after a taxing event.

[00:04:47] Heidi: Obviously, this would be lovely to have as you settle into your post Christmas life, but you could use this any time of year. Think how great it would be to have this on hand after hosting house guests for a week, or after completing a big work project when you just need a little you time.

[00:05:04] Emily: Definitely.

[00:05:04] Emily: And as a little spoiler alert, if you also join us on the Teacher Approved podcast, we will be sharing this idea in a few weeks for helping teachers recover from the end of the school year.

[00:05:14] Heidi: And it would also be helpful for teachers to have on hand at the start of the school year. Those first few weeks back are no joke.

[00:05:22] Heidi: All teachers deserve a little pampering.

[00:05:25] Emily: For sure. I think for women, especially women with children talking about pampering and taking time to rest and recover can feel like a pie in the sky dream or like you’re being selfish for even thinking about yourself. But even though it might not be easy to make it happen, finding a way to rest is essential to your health.

[00:05:44] Heidi: And if you are someone who struggles with that guilt over taking time for yourself, remember that if you want to be able to give your best to the people you love, you do have to be a little selfish sometimes.

[00:05:55] Emily: Gretchen Rubin from the Happier Podcast has a great saying that applies here. When we give more to ourselves, we can ask more from ourselves.

[00:06:03] Emily: If you want to be able to show up as the best version of yourself, you have to make your well being a priority sometimes.

[00:06:10] Heidi: And this is especially important after a draining event, like we hear people all the time talk about how you can’t pour from an empty cup. And making a recovery kit is a tangible way to help refill that empty cup.

[00:06:24] Emily: Yeah, think how great it will feel on Christmas night to pull out your recovery kit with some fuzzy socks or a head massager or a magazine you love but don’t normally buy.

[00:06:34] Heidi: Now, if socks and head massages and magazines don’t interest you, you can stock your recovery kit with things that do. Maybe a craft kit or art supplies would be more restorative for you.

[00:06:45] Heidi: Or maybe you want to stock up on some DoorDash gift cards so that you don’t have to think about meals for a few days.

[00:06:51] Emily: If you’re not sure where to start, try thinking about your five senses. What are some soothing sounds or scents? What textures do you find comforting? What’s something relaxing you can read or watch?

[00:07:02] Emily: And of course you can’t go wrong with some favorite treats.

[00:07:05] Heidi: I am working on adding a page to the Holiday Head Start that will help you plan your own recovery kit. But while I get that set up, you can get started on finding a box or a bin to use, find a shelf where you can store it, and then just start adding to it over time.

[00:07:19] Heidi: You can even make this one of your holiday tasks each month. If you need a little reminder.

[00:07:25] Emily: We all know that we need some downtime to recover before we can bounce back. A recovery kit is a way to make sure that needed downtime is actually restorative and not just crashing out.

[00:07:36] Heidi: And if you have a loved one going through a tough season right now, a little recovery kit for them might be a welcome and much needed gift.

[00:07:44] Emily: All right. Stocking and relaxation kit is tip one. What’s tip two, Heidi?

[00:07:49] Heidi: Well, this is to pick a holiday decorating theme or color scheme. We used January and February for our holiday reflecting. And now that we have moved into the second quintile of the year, we’re working on our holiday dreaming. If holiday decorations are important to you, one way you can make them less stressful and less expensive is to pick a decorating theme. And stick to it. That’s the hard part.

[00:08:13] Emily: This has been a huge lifesaver for me. I used to buy all the cute holiday decor I came across. Not only was this expensive, but it turns out that having more stuff actually makes it harder to decorate. If you have lots of small things in lots of different styles, you end up with festive clutter instead of cute decor.

[00:08:30] Heidi: Oh yeah, I have fallen into this trap many times. Picking my holiday color schemes has saved me lots of money and lots of hassles over the years. So, for example, for the 4th of July, I discovered that my decor, wait for it, is red, white, and blue. No.

[00:08:44] Emily: Groundbreaking.

[00:08:45] Heidi: I know. But, once you start shopping for 4th of July decor, you see that a lot of that decor uses kind of a beige y tan instead of white to make it look like Christmas.

[00:08:57] Heidi: Betsy Ross herself made that patriotic wreath and I am always tempted by that decor. I love it all, but I remind myself that it doesn’t fit what I already own. So I just admire it on the store shelf and I leave it there.

[00:09:10] Emily: Well done. And that’s not to say you can never change up your holiday decor, but unless you’re wanting and can’t afford a big overhaul, it’s a safe bet to stick with your established color scheme.

[00:09:22] Heidi: This is especially important with Christmas decor. You know, all fourth of July decor more or less goes together, even if it’s not an exact match, but with Christmas, all bets are off these days. There’s, you know, all blue Christmas decor, metallics and bright colors with magenta and lime green. And that is just scratching the surface of what’s available.

[00:09:42] Heidi: If you’ve ever looked online before the holidays, you know, like stores have whole colorway schemes of things. And if you don’t have a vision of what you want, you’re just going to end up with a lot of clashing decor.

[00:09:55] Emily: In the Holiday Head Start playbook, there are two pages that can help you out. First, there’s a decorating preferences page where you can reflect on what holiday decor means to you and what decoration pieces are important.

[00:10:07] Heidi: Yeah, I’m not someone who does much outdoor decorating, but my neighbor across the street makes the most darling porch scapes each season. It’s so charming and welcoming. I love it. Also, I can say it’s not for me.

[00:10:20] Emily: Yeah, it’s easy to feel like you have to care about all seasonal decorations if you’re going to care about any of them.

[00:10:25] Emily: But if you take the time to figure out what really matters to you, you can make sure your home reflects what you want it to say.

[00:10:31] Heidi: And not to mention you can save yourself from wasting time and resources on decorations that don’t really matter to you. So take a few minutes to figure out your preferences and then move on to the second sheet playbook, which will help you uncover your preferred color story.

[00:10:47] Emily: Oh, I love this. It’s such a helpful tool. The page is geared toward Christmas, but since it’s digital, you could easily make a copy and adapt it for any holiday.

[00:10:56] Heidi: Right? So for example, I’ve got my red, white, and blue, no tan, 4th of July color story. And for Christmas, I am straight red and white.

[00:11:05] Heidi: Knowing my colors helps me save money and it also helps eliminate decision fatigue. I’m not faced with hundreds of choices every time the stores put out their new holiday decor. Cause I know exactly what I need. Although, I ain’t admitting guilt here, I have been leaning toward a totally different route with my Christmas color story.

[00:11:24] Heidi: I really, really kind of want to go just green and gold and natural, but, uh, Whoa. That’s going to have to wait until my funds catch up with my vision. I can’t imagine with your beautiful red and white tree. I know, but yeah, you’re right. I might be too sad to give that up. Oh, you just need two houses. There we go.

[00:11:44] Emily: I think that’s the only reasonable explanation, right? Yes.

[00:11:48] Heidi: Okay. Emily, tell us about our third get ahead tip for March.

[00:11:51] Emily: This will depend on where you live, but consider working in your garage or basement before it gets too hot. If you’ve been wanting to sort through your bins of holiday decorations, March is a good time to do that.

[00:12:02] Heidi: Unless you happen to live someplace that is already feeling the summer temps in March, then you might need to save this tip for November.

[00:12:09] Emily: Or if you’re someplace that still of snow on the ground, you might want to save this for May. But for those of us in the middle. March and April are a great time to tackle some of those organizing tasks that are too hot to do in June. And I had my garage reorganized last March, and it was the perfect time to do it.

[00:12:27] Emily: Although we did have kind of a freak storm that day, so it was actually pretty chilly. But

[00:12:32] Heidi: better too chilly than too hot any day then. And that brings us to our fourth tip, and that is to edit your Christmas card list. This is one I am definitely jumping on this month. There are some people that I send Christmas cards to that I don’t hear back from, and that’s fine.

[00:12:47] Heidi: I send cards because I want to send cards, not because I expect anything back. However, there are some people that I don’t hear from like former coworkers that I think social media is just a fine enough way to stay in touch. They don’t need a card for me.

[00:13:02] Emily: Yeah, cards are expensive, and if you have to have your cards printed out and you can shave ten people off your list, you can probably save at least a few bucks,

[00:13:10] Emily: and who couldn’t use some extra cash during the holidays? I think I can whittle mine down a little bit this year, too. Yeah, I need all the pennies I can get come Christmas. Yeah, and there’s some people I send to that I’m like, Do they not send one to me? Cause they don’t send cards and overall, like, again, I don’t care, but when you like have not really had any contact with them for a long time, it sometimes feels a little like, maybe I don’t want to send them a card.

[00:13:32] Emily: Yep. Yeah.

[00:13:33] Heidi: Save that two or three bucks plus a stamp. Another perk of editing your list now is that you know, which addresses you need. You’ve got lots of months still to track down those missing addresses. And then come December, you’re going to be ready to stuff all those envelopes without any hiccups.

[00:13:50] Emily: Our final March tip comes back to our quintile theme of dreaming. Take some time this month to think about ideas or traditions that support your holiday purpose.

[00:13:59] Heidi: You could block out some time to do a formal search for ideas, or, you know, you could scroll Pinterest while you’re catching up on your favorite TV show.

[00:14:07] Heidi: We are dreaming, so give yourself permission to push the limits a bit.

[00:14:11] Emily: If you need some help getting these tasks done, why not schedule a holiday this month for tackling your holiday tasks?

[00:14:18] Heidi: And besides Christmas tasks, you can use that time to plan upcoming birthdays and any other approaching holidays, like Easter’s headed our way soon, so you might as well get a jump on that.

[00:14:28] Emily: We’d love to hear what you’re doing to get ahead this month. Connect with us on Instagram at the holiday headstart.

[00:14:34] Heidi: Okay, Emily, let’s share what we’re 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 lists.

[00:14:45] Emily: While I’m still working on my daughter’s birthday and trying to get ahead for Easter, I actually have quite a bit snagged for their baskets already.

[00:14:53] Emily: And I got the cutest chocolate Highland cows. I got them from Target. They’re from their Marks and Spencer line and they are bigger than I was expecting. So they’re going to take a lot of real estate in the baskets, but that’s okay because they’re so cute. And of course we will call them Muckle Coos because that is what our Scottish grandmother would call them.

[00:15:11] Emily: But I do need to grab a few more things for their baskets. So I want to get on that sooner rather than later. And I’m setting up my baskets in my closet. My kids don’t go in my walk in closet. They know that I. Keep things in there that are for surprises and they’re good to not go in there. So i’m going to get the baskets out and start filling them now so that I can actually see What more I need or don’t need because I certainly often have way more than I need

[00:15:37] Heidi: that is so smart because I know there’s been You know easter weekends when you’re suddenly sweating that someone’s basket is not nearly.

[00:15:43] Emily: Oh, yeah. Tired of that, horror,

[00:15:45] Heidi: so smart to tackle that now?

[00:15:48] Emily: Yes. And I’m lucky. I do have a place that I can have them out without the kids seeing them.

[00:15:53] Heidi: And plus you have kids that like to be surprised, so they’re not going to spoil the hat.

[00:15:57] Emily: Yes, exactly. Like my kids are just like me that I don’t want to spoil a surprise.

[00:16:01] Emily: And so I would never be tempted to look and neither are my kids, thank heavens. Heidi, what are you working on?

[00:16:07] Heidi: Well, I am going to work on cutting back my Christmas card list this week. Last year, I ordered enough cards that it kind of bumped me up to the next price tier. And I don’t feel like I got enough cards back to justify that extra 20 bucks or so.

[00:16:22] Heidi: So my goal is to get back into that lower tier. You know, I’ll, I’ll leave all the aunties and the cousins on the list. But really with social media, I hear from people all the time. So if older mates and neighbors aren’t Christmas card people, I might as well save my money and just keep in touch with them online.

[00:16:39] Emily: True story. And because I had to bump up a tier, I ended up with like more extra than I wanted. So then I hated that too, that I paid more, but then had like leftovers that didn’t get used. So I gotta turn mine too. Cut, cut, cut.

[00:16:55] Heidi: To wrap up the show, we’re sharing our nice list. Emily, what made it on your nice list this week?

[00:16:59] Emily: I’m putting the book The Fall Risk by Abbey Jimenez on my nice list. It’s a short story she released recently about two neighbors that end up stranded in their apartments for the weekend after construction workers mistakenly remove their staircase. I love a forced proximity. And luckily for them, they share a nice landing that they can hang out on and get to know each other.

[00:17:20] Emily: And Abby just does a really good job of writing interesting characters with genuinely difficult life issues that they’re dealing with in a way that doesn’t feel like she trivializes it. I don’t know. She handles, more in depth topics. I feel like really well, even in the short story.

[00:17:35] Emily: So I only wish this was a full length book because. I love Abby Jimenez’s books and I’m excited for her new release that comes out I think next month that is a full length book.

[00:17:46] Heidi: Well, I was so confused because I knew that book was coming out. I thought, how could she have two new releases back to back?

[00:17:52] Heidi: Short story. Makes sense.

[00:17:54] Emily: What’s on your nice list, Heidi?

[00:17:56] Heidi: I am putting the Paperian brilliant weekly scheduler on my nice list. That was a mouthful. Yes, it is. So I’ve used this planner for years. It’s undated. And I think it’s like. 14 or 15 months worth of pages.

[00:18:09] Heidi: So it’s just one sheet a week. It’s like a, like a foot, long, 11 inches long, something like that, and about four inches tall. So the size of a sub sandwich got it. Exactly. But I like it cause I can just, it fits on the corner of my desk. I can see everything I need for the week on one. It, I haven’t found anything else that works quite as well for me, although I do, I did see someone online on Instagram.

[00:18:31] Heidi: I saw someone that had that, it was kind of like that same layout, but it had a month calendar that went on top of it. That is what I really want. So I started following them so I could jump on it when they released the 2026. So maybe coming soon to a future nice list. We’ll have to see, but for the meantime, I love this.

[00:18:50] Heidi: It’s just handy. It’s flexible. It doesn’t take up my whole desk, so it’s exactly what I need and think it’s always been on Amazon. I’ve always bought it from Etsy. It’s not an Etsy anymore, but it is on Amazon and it’s quite a bit cheaper. So I’ll put a link to that in the show notes.

[00:19:05] Heidi: That is it for today’s episode. Try out these five tips to help you get ahead on holiday prep this month and don’t forget to schedule a holiday so you have a set time for tackling those get ahead tasks.

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.