Like it or not, the holiday season is upon us. Time for family dinners, parties, open houses, and stress. How are you going to handle all of the cooking, shopping, and merry-making? Sounds like it’s time to re-think how you do the holidays and make yourself and your family a lot happier by making a few adjustments:

• Set limits and stick to them. What holiday traditions mean the most to you? Who do you genuinely want to see during the holiday season? Will it break your social life to only pick one non-family event to attend? Limiting how many events you host at home will cut down on a lot of cleaning and decorating, so maybe you might want to consider only hosting one or two events.
• A good house cleaning before you put out the decorations is a must. Your precious ornaments deserve to be shown off to their full advantage!
• Don’t put out every decoration you own every single year. Mixing things up and varying what is put on display keeps things fun for you while decorating, but also cuts down on how much you have to clean up after the holidays.
• Think ahead toward next year. Save those holiday popcorn tins and re-purpose them for ornament storage, so that next year, finding the ornaments among the chaos in your attic will be a breeze. Also, empty wrapping paper tubes are a fantastic way to store lights and keep them tangle-free for next year.