Holiday countdown
A game plan for getting everything done
By Mimi Mees
CNN
(CNN) -- The saying is irritatingly familiar: "Never put off 'til tomorrow what you can do today." And yet, many of us cannot help ourselves when it comes to the holidays.
Every year we promise we won't go through the last-minute frenzy again. And in a perfect, organized world, holiday hosts would set meal and party dates in August, make gift lists around Labor Day, order pre-printed cards before the fall equinox, wrap up ordering gifts after carving jack-o-lanterns, and ship international presents just about the time turkey carving begins.
If that isn't in the same hemisphere as your reality, CNN.com has some advice on how to get it all done and preserve some holiday cheer.
"The important thing is whatever schedule you make, stick to it," said Barry Izsak, the president of the National Association of Professional Organizers. A late start doesn't have to mean a haphazard start. So come up with a game plan based on deadlines for shipping and ordering, and go from there.
There are 12 days between Thanksgiving and Hanukkah. There are 30 days between Thanksgiving and Christmas, and 31 days to the first day of Kwanzaa. That's not a lot of time to prepare for the Festival of Lights, design the perfect Christmas card or find custom mkeka mats.
If you're compressing the timeline, accept that some things, like pre-printed cards and homemade items, are going to fall by the wayside. Instead, focus on what you can do in the remaining few weeks.
Catalogs and the Internet offer the ease of shopping from home, but you must allow time for back orders and delivery.
For example, Amazon.com's deadline for standard shipping to send a Hanukkah gift to Israel has passed. However, the news is better for domestic shipping. The site offers standard shipping as late as December 18. It's even later -- December 21 -- at Lands' End.
Here are a few pointers to use the time remaining:
Check malls to see when they start offering extended holiday shopping hours. This typically starts in late November. Mail domestic holiday cards at least three days before you want them to arrive. If you're planning to shop at a mall, try to go in the mornings Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday to avoid crowds. Get international greeting cards in the mail no later than December 6 for Mexico and Africa and December 13 for the rest of the world. Mail gifts for military personnel in Iraq by December 10. Determine holiday tips for mail carriers, doormen and other service people, and deliver them by mid-December. Check with local bakeries and caterers to find out how late they will accept orders for holiday meals. Consider focusing your shopping around a central idea, like magazine subscriptions for everyone. Ask people for gift lists or have the family draw names to cut down on the number of gifts to buy.If it all seems too overwhelming, hire a personal shopper. But hurry. Deborrah Ashley, a personal shopper in Atlanta, Georgia, says, ideally, she likes customers to contact her by mid- to late- November. She considers the first or second week of December as the latest to reach her.
The convenience comes at a price, though. Ashley bases her charge on a percentage of the client's total budget. If the budget is under $1,000, she charges 15 percent of that for her service. Between $1,000 and $5,000 the charge is 12 percent, and for budgets more than $5,000, the cost is 10 percent.
If this holiday season doesn't go as smoothly as you'd like, here's some advice on how to do it differently next year. Print or bookmark Izsak's sanity-saving countdown for 2005:
January: Take advantage of big discounts on holiday items like wrapping paper and cards and store them for later use. August: Make a list of gift recipients and establish a budget; update holiday card lists; make travel arrangements; decide which nights to host holiday meals. September: Choose and order pre-printed cards; take photos for personalized greetings; start ordering gifts. October: Finish ordering gifts; start addressing cards; order restaurant or gift certificates. November: Fill out the insides of cards, and print family letters; ship overseas gifts before Thanksgiving; ship domestic gifts right afterward; start non-perishable food shopping for holiday meals; begin wrapping gifts. December: Mail cardsKeep calm, stick to your plan, and "when all else fails, write a check," Izsak says. And "be realistic. Maybe you only need to buy tangible gifts for five and make the rest gift certificates."
