Make Christmas more manageable with 88 most brilliant Christmas tips and tricks that will lessen your stress, avoid unwanted crisis and help you organize your busy festive season this year.  From kitchen tips all the way to managing your well being and finances, we’ve got you covered! Preparations Source via @asarye.creates   #1. Plan early, the best way is to plan for things to do. Try planning 6 weeks prior to Christmas so you have enough time to come up with Plan B  if things don’t go your way. #2. Through your planning, review your to-do lists a few times. See if there are ways to delegate/outsource some of these tasks.  You can start by delegating tasks to other family members, to your kids, your spouse or even to others for a small fee. #3 Prioritize your list. The most magical Christmas ,ideally will be one where everything goes as well as what’s planned. Make sure your list allows for plan B.  There should be things that are a ‘non-negotiable must have ‘ and things that are ‘great to have, but not the end of the world if it doesn’t happen’ #4. Utilize free event/party planning apps to help you with Christmas planning. Apps such as Event Planner, and  EventAssist are great at helping you plan and organize Christmas seamlessly. These apps plan the budget and the list of guests, send invitations, plan seating arrangements, make to-do lists and shopping lists, delegate individual tasks to others, track progress and much more. It’s literally like having a PA at your finger tips! #5. Feeling overwhelmed, lack creativity or just too busy to envision your Christmas this year ? Pinterest is your friend. Millions of recipes, decorating ideas and inspirations you can simply pin and save for references. Download the app on your phone and whenever you get time to browse on your phone, just scroll through the pins and keep the ones that tickle your fancy! #6. Once your plan is ready, get your girlfriend to read it. This way they might be able to point out things you may have forgotten, or better ways to do things. I find then I get my girlfriends to read it, they always comes with pure gold tips and hacks to make the tasks easier. #7. Create a menu; especially if you are responsible Christmas events that goes from Christmas Eve, Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner. Also, it helps if you also plan on what you can do with the leftovers. Yes! this way you can actually spend the days after Christmas resting and doing as little cooking as possible.     Organizing #8.  Start organizing your refrigerator/freezer by tossing out old items and unwanted items, this will help make room for every ingredients and dish you need to store for your parties. To remove unwanted odor in your fridge leading up to Christmas, keep an open box of baking soda in the fridge. #9.  Before you shop for decorations, wrapping stationery and what not, take some time to go through those piles of wrapping paper, decorations, lights and cards to see what you have on hand. Test the lights. This way you can make a list of things that you need to buy or replace. #10. Live in a cold or snowy climate? Start arranging and putting up outdoor lights in early November.  So all you have to do is turn them on in December. #11.  Keep things neat and organised . Coil strings of lights around empty paper towel tube,  wrapping paper tubes or an A4 sized cardboard. This way you won’t need to wrestle with tangled rigid strings when you need to use it next. Source via Martha Stewart   #12.  So the holiday season is over and you are gearing towards putting everything away. Before you pack everything away, go through your things and reconsider whether you going to continue using it for next year or if it is best to donate so they don’t build up over time. (also, less stuff to go through the next year) #13. Are you planning to go away this Christmas? Bought tickets and sorted out hotels all good? Great, now the next important thing to do is to make sure you make boarding arrangement for your pets and to cancel any subscriptions to your home during the time you are away. Oh yes, make sure your security system works too! #14. By all means, let your kids help you! imagine them as cute little elves helping you with the decorations and DIY projects     Budgeting #15You’ve heard this before thousands of times – work out a rough budget of expected Christmas costs as early as possible. But remember, this doesn’t just mean presents – include expenses such as food, gifts, little getaway, eating out, entertainment, decorations and other daily essentials. #16 Alcohol is a must this holiday season but can easily bump up your Christmas budget. Plan ahead and look for discounted cases and specials. Look online for deals, there’s some unbelievable bargains out there. #17 Have lots of people to give gifts to ? if secret Santa is not your thing, set dollar limits on all your gifts. #18 Avoid wasting money by doubling up on grocery. Before you even begin planning your Christmas meal, do an audit of what you have available in your pantry. Work out what you already have that can be put to good use for your meal plan. #19 If cheese boards are part of your Christmas menu, consider buying your cheese from the deli counter or from the farmers market. Pre-wrapped cheese can be much more expensive   Source via @dailyprism   #20 One of the main reasons for a budget blowout at Christmas is panic buying. Remember, the supermarkets are only actually closed for a couple of days. Try not to fall into the trap of massively over-spending on things you don’t really need. The trick is to utilize your left over prepared foods and ingredients into something different , that can be eaten for days...

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