Maybe you’ve had the same experience as us – you get all set to start baking holiday cookies only to find out once you’ve heated the oven and start measuring…you don’t have enough flour for all you want to make! Or you have family coming over and you don’t have the right serving dish for the new side you’re making. We’ve all done it at some point. Holiday cooking, baking, and entertaining is usually a bit different than what we do the rest of the year. Maybe it’s your first time hosting a get together. Or maybe this year you decide you’re making homemade treats to share with a longer list. Whatever it is, prepping for the holidays before they really get going can help lessen a bit of the stress for you. This isn’t meant to be high pressure planning. More of a game plan so you can pace things out and enjoy the season.
So get your calendar and your favorite way to take notes, so you can start planning now and take a bit of pressure off the season. Also, this planning doesn’t include gift buying/wrapping/etc, unless you’re planning on making gifts. Everyone’s gift giving style is personal – some people are done shopping already! So while we don’t talk about it here, you can layer that into your planning as needed.
The goal for planning –
- Make a list of everything you need in advance to avoid last-minute surprises.
- Save a bit of money – knowing what you need helps you shop sales, prevents duplicate buying (we’ve missed the bag of sugar in the back of our pantry), and and ensure you get your preferred brands.
- It gives you an idea of what you can make in advance, saving you time for what you need to make the day you serve it.
- Helps you understand if you need to buy something for a get together, or can you borrow it? (Maybe you don’t always need an extra table, but your friend has one you can use)
Start with your calendar & recipes –
- Ideally you’ll start looking at this a couple weeks before Thanksgiving. Unless you’re hosting Thanksgiving dinner, in that case you might want to start even earlier. Look at everything you have from the week of Thanksgiving through New Year’s Day. Yes, things will come up that you might not know about yet. But if the majority of it is planned, handling some of the unexpected is a bit easier.
- Lay out what you’ll host first, if anything. This will take the most planning, so it’s important to have it top of the list. Even if you don’t know every side dish you’ll make, still get a structure of a menu to give you a general idea. Include if guests are staying with you so you can think about all the meals you will have when they are there. (A perfect excuse to plan ordering in pizza)
- Even if you’re not hosting, it’s still important to plan ahead. If you plan on making anything (even one thing) for the holidays, save yourself some time and plan before everything starts to get busy. Plan out the recipes for the dish you will bring to a party. The cookies you want to make to share with friends. Or treats for your neighbors.
- Decide what you need to make the day you serve it, what can be made a day or two ahead, or if there’s anything you can make a week or more in advance and freeze (plenty of cookies give you this option).
- Once you know what you want to make and when you need it, schedule it on your calendar to plan ahead and adjust as needed. We’ve lived the experience of thinking we could get something done on a certain day only to realize (too late) we have other things to get done. This makes for silly early mornings or late nights. Overlapping commitments can lead to rushed preparations and extra stress. While it’s not always avoidable, planning or preparing mentally can help you get through this.
Start a running grocery list and check what you already have –
- If you have multiple recipes, make one combined list – keeping a tally along the way. So in the grocery store you’re not thinking…2 eggs for this, 1 for that, 5 for that. You just know you need at least 8 eggs, no in aisle math required.
- Separate out non-perishables, so you know what you can buy over time and what you need to wait on until you need them.
- Highlight holiday specific ingredients. For example, for our stuffing, we use Pepperidge Farm Cornbread Stuffing. This usually is only out at the holidays, not all stores carry it, and in the past – when it’s gone, it’s gone. So we make sure to get it as soon as we see it so we don’t have to hunt for it last minute.
- Once you have the full list of everything you’re making, decide if there are time-saving ingredients you can get. Do you need to make a pie crust from scratch? Can getting chopped veggies save you valuable time? Picking a few things to save time gives you more for what you feel is most important.
- Start checking what you already have on hand. This is a good excuse to really look through cabinets and your pantry. Don’t bake often – check dates of ingredients. Not because they really go bad, but they can lose their punch. It’s sad to make something to find out your baking soda really didn’t do it’s job because it was old.
- Check for things not on the ingredient list – parchment paper, wax paper, muffin liners, aluminum foil, etc. Things that will be important to the process but aren’t always listed specifically.
- Don’t forget the drinks! Think through all the drinks you’ll serve and if you’re making any special mixed drinks, check for all the ingredients.
Do an equipment check –
- Plan your serving dishes to make sure you have enough for everything.
- Is the group larger than you usually have? Make a plan for plates, utensils, glasses – do you have enough for everyone? Will you use disposable? Where will everyone sit…this might be where borrowing a table from a friend comes in.
- When baking for gifts, add the treat boxes or bags to the list too. Or if it’s a dish for a party, plan how you’ll serve it, especially if you don’t want to worry about getting your serving dish back.
Taking a bit of time ahead can really make a difference for your holiday season. So make a cozy drink, even put on holiday music if it helps you get in the mood and plan away! Come December you’ll be so happy you did!
