Tired Of Being A Stress Ball Of Rage In December? Organized Christmas Starts Now

Last week, I was anxiously waiting for my alarm to go off so I could run to my computer and make sure I grabbed tickets for the “Hot Cocoa with Anna and Elsa” event at our local park district farm. Yes, that’s right! I was booking things for December in August! And while you might still think summer is here until the weather cools down (it’s not, it’s fall, sorry!), the “-ber” months are upon us, which means Christmas and the holiday season are right around the corner, whether you like it or not, buddy!

One woman on TikTok and founder of the TOM app, Gem, wants to make the holiday season a lot easier for you so that you can actually enjoy the holidays with your family instead of locking yourself up in a room, gift wrapping alone, and writing Christmas cards until your fingers bleed. She leads the charge on planning, prepping, and organizing for the holiday season now, little by little, so it’s not super overwhelming come Dec. 1 — she calls the program “Organized Christmas.”

“Now, immediately, I know that lots of you will recoil in horror,” Gem jokes.

“But what Organized Christmas is, is a very slow, very gentle, very calm way to get ready for Christmas without you really even noticing that you're doing it. That's the whole magic of it. Every single week, I just give you a few jobs, bite-sized jobs just to tick off. It's not too much, it's not gonna overwhelm you, it's not gonna take up too much time in your week, cause I know that we're all busy. Tick them off, move on, get on with the rest of your week, forget about it.”

She continues, “At the end of Organized Christmas, which finishes at the end of November, the whole idea is, it leaves December pretty much stress-free, so you can actually enjoy it.”

How brilliant!

With September already upon us, that means the first full week of tasks has been assigned. First up: Research and book holiday events.

“Now this could be anything ... could be Christmas lights. It could be an event that you've been wanting to go to for ages, but you never quite get it booked in time. Have a look this week. Do some research. This is your year. And I’ll be talking budgets very, very soon, but if there's that one thing that every year you think, God missed out again, have a look this week,” she explains.

Next up: Note when school holiday events occur, if applicable.

Gem explains, “Have a little look on your school website ... to see if there's anything on there about Christmas events, Christmas fairs, Christmas plays, that sort of thing. Especially if you work shifts or need to take time off work. If there isn't anything on there yet, then make a little note in your diary today to check in with them in a few weeks time. Otherwise, you'll just forget in all of the chaos, because this time gets really really busy. You want to give yourself as much time and chance as possible if you need to book that time off work.”

Lastly, food deliveries.

Gem notes that some grocery stores or online delivery services will add priority slots for Christmas shopping deliveries, take note of when those are, and book!

“And it just makes it so much easier. Of course, we'll remind you when those slots go live, but have a little look. It's well worth it in my opinion, especially if you are going to make use of it regularly, because it just saves you on delivery costs as well,” she says.

Thousands of TikTok users commented on Gem’s video, praising her slow but steady prepping plan for the holidays.

“I’ve just found you. I always get overwhelmed at Christmas but adding this year I’m currently 32 weeks pregnant so hoping this will help me massively!” one woman noted.

Another wrote, “I’m a chronic leave it til last minute person. Not this year! I’m sick of December being stressful and being too busy to do things with the kids. I’ve almost finished my Christmas present shopping, advent calendars bought, snacks for Christmas bought but this is really helpful as a first-time prepper to make sure I’ve not missed anything!”

Three tasks a week seems totally doable and if those small, significant tasks add up to a less stressul holiday season, sign me up!