28: Mom Hacks for the Holiday Season to Save Time + Reduce Stress

In this solo episode, Sarah shares some of the best mom hacks she's come across for handling the holidays and ALL that comes with them! From tips for entertaining and bulk preparing, to shortcuts in the kitchen, wrapping stations and more, this is one episode that will send you into the holidays with a plan to protect your time and work smarter, not harder. 

Check out these Thanksgiving snacks for kids. 

Chapters

• 0:41 Introduction and Overview of Mom Hacks
• 3:48 Meal Time and Feeding Hacks
• 11:16 Home and Schedule Simplification
• 14:32 Gift Wrapping and Holiday Preparations
• 24:19 Family Gratitude and Memory Jars
• 26:38 Home Organization Hacks
• 29:11 Conclusion and Final Thoughts

Transcript

Sarah Schlichter (00:47)
Welcome back to the podcast, everyone. Today is going to be a fun episode. I've actually done some research for this one in a few different areas, but we're gonna be talking all about mom hacks for the holiday season. And these are gonna be hacks for...

prepping your meals, having dinner guests or family over, entertaining, gift wrapping, keeping things organized, all of that. I got a lot of great tips from the Lazy Genius podcasting community. I love that podcast and they have a great Facebook group. And these are just things that I've kind of picked up over time.

and specific to this prompt some people shared some great hacks for the holidays. I also pulled some of my instagram community where some of you tuned in with some tips and then some of these are just tips that I have. I'm sure there are many more out there.

If you have great tips, comment on this episode or tag us on social media and share your tip too. My goal was to get as many as I could in one place. So this is an episode that I want you to listen to hopefully while you're getting some stuff done. So you're out for a walk or you're washing dishes or you're folding laundry. And this can help prepare you for that hectic holiday season because

If you're like me, we even get to start talking about the holiday season and maybe there's travel, maybe there's people coming to your house and you're entertaining. Maybe there's shopping that has to be done. Maybe you hate gift wrapping. Maybe there's teacher gifts. There's just so much involved in the holiday season that it can just be a stressful or even overwhelming time of year, right? It's good stress. It's things that we like and look forward to hopefully, but it's still a lot.

So today I just wanted to share again, some of these hacks. Hopefully a couple of these will help you maybe more, maybe less. Again, this is just as always, our goal is to reduce our stress as a busy mom. So stress in the kitchen, stress with planning. Here are some ways we can fill our cup and maybe think ahead. So the way I've structured this episode is I'm gonna divide it into three parts. So the first is just gonna be meal time and feeding,

We have probably talked about all of these over the course of our last 26 episodes here and there, but just to have them in one place and again reiterate some tips for hosting. Then I want to talk about the home systems for all of us that have things scattered or trying to figure out ways to simplify a lot of that.

our schedules, we're going to talk about simplifying that. And then the family system. So traditions, obviously the gifts are a huge thing, organizing, and then we'll close and I'll try to recap them all. So without further ado, let's get started. We are first going to start talking about some meal time and feeding hacks. So first off, I'm a big fan of batching. We've talked about this before when we talk about meal prep.

but batch those breakfast casseroles. When you're making one, make two.

Make overnight oats, make gingerbread baked oatmeal. That's actually a recipe I have on my blog. You can make that ahead of time. Anything that you can do ahead of time, frees you up during that morning time, right? So Christmas morning, we have done the tradition where we've made cinnamon buns the night before. we've picked up breakfast because we've been traveling. We've done the tradition having freezer options. We've done fresh. We've done it all. You just have to figure out what works for your family. But if you can put that thought in ahead of time,

you might be able to spend less time on Christmas morning or Thanksgiving morning actually attending to that option. And along with batching prepping meals ahead of time is just batching meals to freeze. So work smarter, not harder. If you're making one lasagna, make two, make two or three loaves of that pumpkin bread. If you know it's going to go right away, why not have an extra loaf? It takes no more time. I mean, you're just mixing more ingredients. You're still going to bake them for the same amount of time. So

batch your breakfast, batch your meals, work smarter not harder.

Kids snack station. So this is something I really like because if you're trying to get food prep done or wrapping done and your kids keep coming up to you, mom I'm hungry, mom I need a snack. If you just have a designated snack station for them, that may be a way to help ease some of that burden. And this could be something you plan with them. Maybe they'll be in charge of picking out some of those healthy snacks. Maybe you take full responsibility for that because as you know with the Division of Responsibility, which we've

covered here. As the parent you are in charge of what you offer. It is up to the child as to if they eat it and how much. So make those kids snack stations. Maybe it's a drawer in your kitchen, maybe it's a bin that you pull out, maybe it's a part of the pantry designated to them. But do that ahead of time. Make sure you have some protein snacks in there, jerky or even if it's a drawer in the fridge with like some yogurt, string cheese, deli turkey.

things that are easy to grab and go, yogurt smoothies, all of that is going to be really helpful and it's giving them some responsibility and empowerment.

Alright, shortcuts. We're always a fan of this, but especially in the busy holiday season, rotisserie chicken, frozen veggies, one pot meal, sheep pan meals, right? We want to take as much time out of prep work and cleaning as possible, which is one reason I love one pot meals and sheep pan meals, right? There's less cleanup because you only have, hopefully, one vehicle to wash one sheet pan, one big pot or pan that you cooked with.

and use those shortcut ingredients. You have time, you have limited time and we don't want to spend all of it prepping. We have other things to do too. So it's not about being gourmet. Again, it's just about getting everyone fed and moving on to the next thing. With that, reusing menus. So this is actually something that is really timely because whether you're someone who enjoys prepping your meals out each week or not,

reusing menus can be really helpful. And this could even just be like the last five meals that your kids really enjoyed. Just serve that next week. Make those the bases of your menu. Or in terms of the holidays, reuse your menu from last year. If you served...

sweet potato casserole and you baked your turkey and you have the green bean casserole just do the same things why reinvent the meal and look for new recipes if they were a hit last year it'll be a hit again this year what a lot of people have recommended is actually printing them out and putting them in a binder and I think that's a great idea again this is going to save time in the years to come one of the lazy genius principles is decide once and kind of go on with your life so if you make

that decision once. These are our recipes for Thanksgiving or for Christmas. You don't have to put mental energy towards those decisions in the future. So that is a great idea. I'm a huge fan of the binder just for general weeknight recipes too. Like well if I'm trying a new recipe and it's a hit I'll try to print it out and add it to our binder.

Another great tip that came in from someone in our community was prep your brunch board on Christmas Eve to have it ready for Christmas morning. So if you are someone that does like snacky foods on Christmas morning, what can you prep the night before? If you're doing a brunch board, maybe it's getting their crackers out or cutting the cheese or getting the fruit and veggies picked out, making sure you have them on hand. This can be something really fun. And I feel like this can vary from family to family. I would love to include my kids in this if possible.

Or even if you are making homemade cinnamon buns, there's prep work you can do the night before, right? You pretty much have to prepare the dough to have it ready to bake on in the morning. If you're doing, a baked oatmeal or a crock pot oatmeal or an egg casserole type dish. We love a lot of the egg or potato breakfast casseroles. You can prep that the night before. So in the morning, all you have to do is put it in the oven while you enjoy your cup of coffee and watch your kids open presents. So

Big fan of all of that stuff. In terms of hosting.

These are some of the best tips I got. So ask for help early. This could look like making a small age appropriate task list that kids or guests can do. Fold napkins, set the table. Just put your guests to work. I actually did hear this from Kendra in a lazy genius episode. If you have that guest wondering what to do with their hands, give them a suggestion. Here, can you go set the table? Can you put the glasses out? Can you put this pitcher of water on the table? People want to help, especially the people who don't know what to do with their hands.

giving them some tasks just have those ready in your head so you don't have to do everything. Simplify the menus so again you could reuse menus or just pick one to two wow dishes if you're entertaining and outsource maybe you pick up some sides from the grocery store. Locally for us Wegmans is great Whole Foods as well if you have local grocery stores that do those prepared sides maybe you just put your energy into one to two dishes and pick up sides for the rest or you ask us to bring something.

Use disposable where it counts. I know these are bad for the environment. I get it. But when we are trying to simplify our energy and make sure we can be present for these memories, I'm a fan of just letting disposable have its have its place here. They do have really cute Thanksgiving theme, Christmas theme, disposable plates and napkins. So that can be a thing. If you don't want to be at the dishwasher all day cleaning dishes, simplify it here. This is a great shortcut.

And then another one I wanted to add is managing picky eaters. So maybe you have a gluten allergy or a dairy intolerance or you're vegan or you're vegetarian, right? You have some sort of dietary restriction. And the idea of going to a holiday party is a little daunting because you are afraid there won't be any food you can enjoy. So I'm always a fan of bringing what you want to eat. If you have a child who's a picky eater, bring a healthy snack that you know they'll eat, bring a safe food because it's just the

worse to be at a party and watch everyone eating and feel really hungry and not be able to indulge or not feel like you can have that food or be nervous. So just bring something that you like.

Bring something that's higher in protein and lower in sugar if you know that you and or your kids are going to be eating more sugar at the party. we don't have to control everything, but I do think it is really helpful to have an option that can be a safe option for the family.

Okay, now we're going to move into sort of a segment on home simplification and schedule simplification. And a lot of these were great hacks for me personally, because I wouldn't consider myself super organized at home. I mean, we get by and we have some systems that work, but I feel like I'm always reevaluating with three small kids and schedules changing and three different school drop-offs and pickups right now.

we do have a lot going on and there is chaos and there's a lot of clutter. So I think some of these are great for me and hopefully they'll work for you. So number one, protect your time. Obviously if you are overwhelmed all the time it is going to be apparent to your kids and your family. So you have to fill your cup too, especially us introverts. So

protect that time. you don't put that time for you on your schedule, it probably won't happen. One great tip that I did get was don't schedule any appointments in December. So don't schedule hair appointments, don't schedule dental cleanings, don't schedule yearly checkups, right? You can do all of that ahead of time. You can prepare, you can do that earlier in the fall or even after the new year just to free you up. Now, obviously you might have a sick appointment here or there or something might come up that you will have to go to the doctor or

dentist or hairstylist etc for but if you're not filling your schedule with those appointments that's going to give you a lot of time and less stress elsewhere. then schedule downtime so this kind of goes with what I said for scheduling time for yourself but one mom just talked about taking a day off from work and wrapping presents. I loved that.

We just don't give ourselves permission to do those kinds of things. And I think normalizing it can be great because this is our holiday season too. I know we put so much intent and so much energy in for our kids because it's very special for them, but it's our holiday season too. So I think doing these little things, having these pockets of time, filling our cups in ways that we need to can go a long, long way.

Let things go. Everything doesn't have to be homemade. Pay a little bit more for grocery delivery. Grocery pickup is a time saver. You don't have to do everything all the way. One great thing that I like to think about, and this is actually something I asked my kids last year, is I said, what is the most important part about the holiday season? What's your favorite part?

And maybe kids say presents, maybe kids say going to the Christmas Eve service at church, or maybe they see seeing their family, or maybe they see decorating the tree, right? So if you know what's most important to them, you can again prioritize that. Sometimes we assume it's all of these things or this, this, this, but maybe that's us projecting on our kids. So I think just asking the question, you could even ask this to your partner too, like.

What is your favorite part of the holidays or what is most important to you? And then you have somewhere to start with for prioritizing and you might be surprised at how simple their answer is. So I highly recommend asking that question. All right, when it comes to wrapping gifts, this is a big one. There are so many tips within this topic itself. So let's get to some of them.

So like I mentioned earlier, some people will take a whole day off from work. One mom said she watches Christmas movies, she wraps all her gifts at once, and that makes it an enjoyable experience. So maybe if you're someone who does not look forward to wrapping, you don't like wrapping, you have a negative association with it, maybe you can pair it with something positive and kind of just knock it all out in one swoop.

set a dedicated time, that was kind of a theme that came up over and over again. Whether or not you're taking a whole day off, knowing that you have a time dedicated to wrapping gifts can just give you a breath of fresh air and some relief moving forward.

A lot of people talked about having a gift wrapping station. So we have some iteration of that in our house. There's, you know, a table with all of the rolls of wrapping paper. There's tape, there's scissors, there's ribbons, there's stickers. So having it all in one place is helpful. And many moms talked about, again, storing it all together for next year. Just take a big trash bag, put your wrapping paper in it, your scissors, your tape, just put all of that in your bag so it's ready next year. So for me, that's like a

I want to buy an extra pair of scissors. Lots of tape ahead of time and just save it, store it so next year I don't even have to worry about it. I take out my wrapping stuff and there it is. And another way to remember this is maybe to make a note for yourself in your phone. I know a lot of moms do that for next year, whether it's gifts that they got or sizes for their kids or traditions that worked really well, kind of keeping it somewhere.

that you can look back or look forward is really, helpful because we forget. Again, we have a million things in our minds at all times.

Another great tip from a mom was having a designated wrapping paper for each kid or family member. Genius, right? I have three kids, maybe they each get a different wrapping paper so automatically when gifts are under the tree I know who's a suit. This could also save you from having to address gifts or put you know the little ribbons or gift tags on them. Maybe you have a different wrapping paper for family or extended family etc.

someone else mentioned using fabric drawstring bags. So if you're someone who really just despises wrapping paper or you don't want to create all of that waste.

you can just use these fabric reusable bags. And actually my in-laws have really cute bags and that is how they have dispersed gifts in the past. So you kind of just have a lot of different bags and you put the gifts in there. There's no wrapping paper to clean up. It's less messy. It's easier to just reuse over and over again. So that is an option. There are so many options to figure out what works for your family, but figuring out what is the part that stresses you out.

or the part that you dislike most, and then find a solution for that.

I like the idea of having a few annual non-negotiables. So as we head into the holidays, you're going to hear everything from the things you should be doing, from the things that other families are doing. It's easy to compare and put pressure and tell ourselves we have to attend every school event. We have to do every holiday thing.

In reality, that is just going to make us more overwhelmed. So having a few non-negotiables is helpful. And again, this could come out of that conversation you have with your kids. What's the most important part about the holiday season? What's your favorite part? So maybe it's drinking hot cocoa in the car and driving around the neighborhood to look at lights. Very fun. We did that when the kids were little. Maybe it's giving them

You know, a new pair of Christmas pajamas on Christmas Eve and picking out a new book for them. And that's something that you can do. Whatever those annual non negotiables are, make sure your energy is there. A lot of people track their gifts. Now, this isn't something I've done personally, but a lot of people talk about having a spreadsheet, whether it's a spreadsheet for gifts you've already bought or

gifts you bought for extended family last year. Some people talk about writing the price, how much you spent, if it was on sale. You have this list each year that you can go back to. So ⁓ last year for Aunt Pat I bought her this sweater and it was $30 so this year I want to make sure to get her something a little different. That is an option.

For all of us moms that try to keep it all in our head, can tell you it's impossible to do it that way. So I am more of a notes app person on my phone, but spreadsheets notes app, whatever it is, having recollection and a record of some of this is important. Some people talk about when it comes to stockings and stocking stuffers, like use the something they need, something they want, something they'll read and...

was it something they'll use maybe so that's a great way to start if you have no idea what to put in we do a lot of practical things like new water bottles new socks new underwear like that stuff can be exciting but it's also like i'm going to buy that for you anyway so i might as well present it as a gift

new books, things like that, new toothbrushes. So those are some great ideas for stocking stuffers. We're pretty practical when it comes to stuffing stockings. A lot of people when it comes to the actual giving of gifts.

Amazon lists like if you go into Amazon you can create a wish list so people do that for each kid or maybe for the family and then again you have a record of what they've said they've wanted what you've bought in the past so I think that can be a really great way to go about gift

Just some other gift hacks. Someone talked about shopping for generic gifts the day after Christmas to save on hand for the following year. So that's a great one.

everything's discounted, right? And everything's fresh in your mind. So maybe you go out and get a bunch of those generic gifts and then save them for next year. One thing I do with my kids, if we're out and they see something they want, I just take a picture of it. All right, I'll take a picture of that for later. So if you are busy in the moment, that's a great mom hack. Just, they point to something you don't need to impulse buy it. Just take a picture and save it for later.

Another fun option is doing something like a holiday book countdown. So one mom talked about borrowing books from the library or going to the thrift shop and just getting a bunch of new holiday books and you can wrap them and maybe, you know, the last week before Christmas, the last 10 days before Christmas, you unwrap each book. So one night you read one and maybe each kid takes a turn unwrapping one. So that was something neat and I think that might be something we try this year.

What about teacher gifts? So we got some input on teacher gifts and some people say you know just buy once and

give it to everyone, you know, buy a gift card and maybe write a sweet thank you note. So the gift card goes to each teacher, but maybe the thank you note, obviously you're writing that personally. So that is a little bit more individualized. If you have a local jam or a cute little local coffee shop, we get a lot of local things there, magnets or earrings, bath soaps, things like that. I think those are great ideas for teacher gifts.

If we have any teachers listening, please chime in. Do you like those types of things? Do you like the gift cards? So I think as parents, we realize the importance of teachers, right? Like thank you for all of the work you do and we do want to give you a gift because we are thankful for the time you spend with our children. So.

Having a system to make that easier, like for instance, I'm probably going to go to Starbucks this week and just get a bunch of gift cards and whether or not I decide to give them to all the teachers, it's just nice to have them on hand for the holiday season, right? Like raffles come up or maybe like someone surprises you or you're just super thankful.

for someone in this season of life, having small things on hand, whether they're gift cards or whether they're just these random gifts you've bought throughout the year, which is actually another tip. I try to keep.

a box in my closet of just these random gifts that I'll find, you know, 10-15 dollars. It's nothing super over the top, but they're thoughtful. Like maybe it's a cute snow globe I found or a funny magnet or a good book and I like to just keep them in this box and then sometimes they will work great for recipients that I need a gift idea for. Sometimes they're great add-ons, so sometimes they're great for gift exchanges like if you go to a favorite

party or whatever keeping those gifts on hand throughout the year is very helpful. And along with that I'll add another hack that I do and I've just learned this over the years from being a mom is just to buy extra birthday cards.

I've been the mom buying the birthday gift and the birthday card on the way to the birthday party. I don't love to live my life like that. If I'm being perfectly honest, I would much rather have it done. Like when we get invited to a birthday party, I try to remember to order a gift, but I have started buying cards like much earlier in advance. So whenever I'm at the store, I'll just buy a bunch of cards. I don't necessarily get certain ages. They're just fun, kid-friendly or adults

more generic but it's just really nice to already have them on hand. So again with the gifts and the cards these are things we can buy year-round we don't have to cram it all into the holidays and that's actually really reduced my stress this holiday season. And again I just keep them in my closet but if you have a gift closet or if you wherever you keep your Christmas stuff you could keep them down there too. Breweries.

coffee shops, wineries, cute t-shirts, again, like just fun stuff like that that I feel like shows your personality, but also is a thoughtful touch towards someone else.

Now this family gratitude jar, this is a great one and I actually saw someone post this about a year ago and we started it after the new year. We started this jar and the whole idea was to put things in it that have some sort of meaning and we can look back in the jar at the end of the year and reminisce on all the fun things we put in there. Yeah, we kind of forgot to use that. So maybe that'll be something we try for the next year.

But even just having a family gratitude jar, maybe it's after dinner, you have, you do something that kids are thankful for, have them write it down, put it in the jar. It's something you could just do for the month of December or even just for a week. But leading into the new year, I feel like it helps teach kids that there's things to be thankful for outside of just

And then along with the gratitude jar, there's also a memory jar. So that is more like rather than having kids think about what they're grateful for. It's having them write down a fun memory and you can put them in the jar and maybe revisit it next year. But especially during the holiday season, hopefully there's lots of different memories that are coming up.

maybe memories you have as a child and it'll just be really special for them to capture those memories and for you as a parent to see what they actually do remember.

That's one thing I'm working on with my kids right now and they're still little seven, five and three. But I do think the older two are starting to understand the tradition with family, the tradition of helping others. so bringing attention to that. This is something I really like.

I love the idea of like pre-filled thank you cards. So thank you cards can be a lot, right? But I love the idea of maybe you add the message later, but the kids start by drawing something or writing thank you or we love you or XYZ. It's halfway done. It's a team effort. You're involving them. And then you can write a little personalized message on that as well.

Okay, another home organization hack is having a command center for your winter gear. So it is not snowed here in Virginia yet. I have seen it snow elsewhere, but we're already experiencing the winter coats and the hats everywhere. And that is my worst nightmare, just chaos to walking into everything. So we just have a big bin. I brought it out the other day. It has been hiding in the closet in a different closet since we haven't needed

any of that stuff but I bring it out and now we're just keeping all of our hats and gloves in there, boots as well. So we're hanging our winter coats up, at least I'm not seeing everything's blown out on the floor when we walk in the house, it's a little bit more organized. For now that's a great system that's working for us.

It also helps when you're trying to get out the door because everything's in one place rather than having to search one room or another room or another closet for that missing sock or whatever it may be. again, putting that energy into thinking ahead, doing it now versus down the road can be really helpful.

Another great tip was if you are traveling, make your small activity pouches. And this is something you can actually do now. We are traveling for Thanksgiving and I'm actually don't know what to expect with all of the government.

shut down flights and and reigniting what that's going to look like. But having these activity pouches, I'm just going to put stickers. There's we have a lot of like on the go things, mess free coloring, counting, word searches, just these weird knickknacks that you get from birthday parties. I just keep them in this one drawer and pull them out at random times. So I'll make those activity pouches for traveling to take on the plane to hopefully save us some mental

energy and stress there.

And The last one I have is reiterating the beginning is just find those mini pockets of time for yourself. So it can be hard to carve out just an hour for yourself or an hour all at once. So maybe that looks like just carving out mini pockets of time. A 10 minute walk here, a 15 minute yoga stretch session here, a small hot cup of coffee.

with your neighbor or your friend, a brief meditation later in the day, a hot shower, calling to check on a friend. Those things can fill up your cup. And if you're doing them more often in smaller increments, that's a good way to kind of stay present and feel more like yourself during this stressful holiday season.

But I think in closing as is a main theme in many of my episodes, like it's not about perfection. It's about just getting the job done. It's about getting the kids fed. It's about.

creating lasting memories, right? It's not about perfection. So try not to focus or over-focus on every single step of the process. think name what matters, another lazy genius principle, but figure out what is important for your family and then prioritize that. Rest is productive. It helps me show up as a calmer mom. I'm actually reading a book called Rest and why you're more productive when you do less. It's a great book.

there's actually a lot of science behind rest and how it is more productive. So especially in this busy holiday season, I totally recommend living by that mantra.

Okay, so if you enjoyed this episode, please share it with a friend or a family member who might need a little holiday encouragement. Maybe you can already tell they're stressed out. Please, please share this episode. That is one of the best things you can do to help support the show. Don't forget to subscribe. We've got so many more episodes coming to you in the next few weeks and months to help feed your family and kids with confidence. I wouldn't want you to miss any of them. So subscribing to the show.

Helps, leaving a review helps and sharing the episode helps so much. So I'm wishing you and your family a very safe, healthy, fun and happy holiday season.

If you're traveling, please travel safely and I will talk to you next time.