December brings with it a huge amount of stress and extra work – from shops and restaurants experiencing their busiest period all year, to businesses trying to cram a full month’s work into only a few weeks and dealing with absences from lots of people taking holiday at the same time. There’s also a busy social calendar with friends and colleagues holding parties, and a general sense of license encouraging more visits to pubs and bars after work. On top of that you have to family and friends to buy presents for, and decisions to make about where you’ll be spending Christmas and how you’re going to get there!

It all adds up to an exhausting time, which is why it’s well worth starting to plan now. Today we’re giving some hints on how to start getting ready for Christmas…in April!

Planning Parties – Take the Initiative!

If you’re already looking at the social whirl of November ad December with a sense of horror, you need to take control It’s too easy to say yes to everything in advance, and find yourself double booked (which means either choosing who to disappoint, or trying to get to multiple events in the course of a single evening) or just plain exhausted.

One way to avoid this is to take the initiative. Plan your own Christmas party and invite friends. Then you’ll be able to head off inconvenient invitations secure in the knowledge that you’ll still get to see that person. All the most fun Christmas party venues London has to offer book up quickly so it’s best to get looking now if you really want to make an impression!

Present Problems

If you leave all your shopping until the last minute you’ll find December is unmanageably pricey, especially if you have a lot of family to shop for. Laying down some ground rules early can help to keep things under control.

For example, if you’ve got a multitude of cousins, brothers and sisters to buy for, you could suggest that only the youngest children get presents from everyone, while a Secret Santa system takes care of the adults and keeps cost under control.

Starting to shop this early could be a mistake, as it still leaves the majority of the year for people to buy the presents you’ve selected for themselves. If the gifts you select wouldn’t be harmed by being duplicates – wine or perfume for example – then go ahead. Otherwise you can simply begin to set aside money so that closer to the time you can shop without placing yourself under strain.