Now that the busiest time of year has officially begun, I think we could all use a few Christmas hacks to help survive the holidays! Between all the cooking, the parties, the decorating and the gift wrapping, the holidays are the time of year where you probably wish there were more hours in the day. While we can’t add more literal time to your day (I’m still working on my time machine!), we can give you a few tips to help squeeze more out of the 24 that you do have! Check out our favorite Christmas hacks to help you survive the holiday season!
RELATED: Safety Tips For Christmas Tree Decorations
Christmas Hacks to Help You Survive the Holidays
Determine how many decorations you need to buy
So, do you have a tough time trying to figure out how many decorations you need to purchase in order to decorate your Christmas tree? Here is a handy guide- For each foot of tree you have, you will need 100 lights, 9 feet of garland and 20 ornaments.
Fill out a sad Charlie Brown tree
You picked out the perfect Christmas tree but once you have it set up at home, it doesn’t look as full as you thought. What do you do now? All you need is some green pine garland. Green garland matches the color of the Christmas tree and will work perfectly for filling in the tree’s empty spaces. No one will ever notice.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7dtPbtjo4Aw
Keep ornaments from breaking in storage
Tired of broken Christmas ornaments year after year? Try storing smaller ornaments in egg cartons. Egg cartons are the ideal size for smaller ornaments and thick enough to protect the ornaments.
DIY a gift bag in seconds
Don’t have any gift bags available to wrap a gift? Not a problem! All you need are some empty potato chip bags. Turn them inside out, wash with dish soap and warm water to remove chip grease and then allow to dry. Then, put your gift in the bag, silver side on the outside and tie with colorful ribbon. You can even make bows out of those bags! Check out this clever video tutorial:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5sQKDDWOE70
No more tangled lights!
Hate how your Christmas tree lights get all tangled up? Preventing that problem is easy with a few plastic clothes hangers and some duct tape. Just wind the strand of lights around the clothes hanger. Then, duct tape the end of the light strand to the clothes hanger.
Take stock of your groceries in a snap
Before you head to the grocery store to shop for your holiday party, open up your fridge and take a picture of the inside with your phone. That way, when you are at the grocery store and wondering whether or not you have butter or eggs, just open up the picture on your phone.
So long, sticky sap!
You love the smell of fresh cut Christmas trees but hate the sticky sap that gets on your hands right? To get that sticky sap off your hands with ease, all you need is some toothpaste. Dab a good size amount of toothpaste on your hands, rub the toothpaste into your skin, then wash your hands with soap and warm water.
I think the most important Christmas “hack” of all is to just enjoy yourself. Don’t let stress overwhelm the joy of the season. Bake cookies with the kids, go caroling, have a holiday movie marathon. Just revel in the excitement that is Christmas!
Love these, although I have a feeling I use a lot more ornament (no tinsel) – I love a lot of baubles