Holiday Giving Made Easy Isn’t it just the most wonderful time of the year? The first snows of the season, the twinkling lights, the music, the parties. Amidst everything to enjoy, it can sometimes be hard to squeeze in the shopping and planning that needs to be done! While we all love the idea of the festive season, the reality of this time of year is that it can be stressful, tiring, and yes, downright expensive. Between planning, cooking, shopping and the other million-and-one things to do, Christmas time can get crazy. These tasks can, unfortunately, ruin the season for us. We want to be able to enjoy the dusting of snow sparkling on our lawn and the hot cocoa while watching Frosty on TV – but we are often interrupted by the craziness of gift giving, planning, and the other million-and-one things on our plates. During this holiday season, we encourage you not to let the logistics and planning ruin your holiday spirit and cheer. Turn it into an organized process, one that happens early on, so that you don’t have to worry at the last minute. Finding a way to make it methodical and fun will help you stay organized. In turn, this means you will have less to stress about when it gets down to crunch time (a few days before Christmas and everything closes). Luckily, we’ve got some tips for making gift giving easy. Santa Claus was on to something when he made a list and checked it twice. It’s always smart to start your gift-giving process by making a list. Write down everyone you need a gift for, a couple options of gifts for each person, where those gifts can be purchased, and your goal purchase date. Double check the list with your spouse to make sure you haven’t forgotten anyone or that you don’t have someone on there that you don’t really need to buy a gift for. Starting this early can also help with doing research on sales: you might find that a certain item is on sale for a limited time – hop on that right away! Once you have all your information on a list, you can decide the order of your shopping. Some gifts need to be purchased earlier than others, such as gifts for your kids’ teachers, your boss or secretary, or friends’ holiday parties. Make sure you purchase your gifts in order of when you will need to distribute them. This way, you will keep your brain ‘in order’ and help make sure that you actually give your gift on time.