If you’re entertaining during the holidays, plan your events early. Send out “Save the Date” cards to people you’d like to attend. That way, they can plan on attending your event and also remember not to schedule their own holiday party on that particular day. If you don’t want to send “Save the Date” cards, just remember that people generally make their holiday plans weeks and even months in advance. Plan to send your invitations before the holidays hit and then follow up with a phone call or email to remind people a week or two before your event.
Mail those Christmas Cards
Christmas Cards are by far the most daunting of all holiday preparations. If you’re active in your community, the chances are that you have a huge list of people that you plan to mail a Christmas card to. I’m about to tell you how to break that task down to the point where it is practically effortless. If you followed my previous advice, you bought your cards early. Hopefully you had an idea of how many you’d need and you purchased a few extra – just in case. First, sometime in September, take an hour or two to check your address list and then address all of your Christmas card envelopes. If you’re like me and hate writing out your return address, you already have a handy return address stamp or stickers to help you save time and energy. Sometime in October you can sign your Christmas cards and stuff them in their envelopes. November is the time to get to work on your holiday letter or newsletter. Be sure to get this done in the early part of the month so that it doesn’t interfere with your Thanksgiving preparations. Once your letter is done, you can pop that into your Christmas card envelope too. Since Thanksgiving is a time when most families gather together, it is the perfect time to take a family photo. Once you get that photo printed, you can pop a copy into Aunt Marjorie’s Christmas card, seal it and mail it. If you choose not to send those family photos, your Christmas cards are ready to seal, stamp and mail. What’s the best day to mail those Christmas cards? The day after Thanksgiving. If you wait too long, the post office will be bogged down in last minute mailings and your card won’t arrive until the day after Christmas, or worse yet, a week after that! It is far better to have your card be the first to arrive rather than giving your friend or family member the idea that they may have been a holiday afterthought.