O's Countdown to Holiday Sanity

Get Started:

November 6: The best way to avoid 67 trips to the post office, 7-Eleven and CVS is a Get Ready Day. Purchase postage stamps, wrapping paper, tape, ribbon; pick up prescriptions and cold remedies; stock up on pantry staples and refreshments. If you'll be mailing presents, either start collecting boxes now or split a bulk order with friends from the huge selection of decorative shipping materials found at USBox.com.

November 12: Put yourself on your gift list, and take your time picking out the one thing that's from you to you.

November 22: Judith Martin, a.k.a. Miss Manners, offers the following advice for avoiding annoying questions. "Even polite forms of 'none of your business' are too harsh for relatives who cite their love and concern when asking, 'So when are you having kids?' or 'Should you really be eating that?'" says Martin. "The most effective way to halt them is to run crying from the room. But the consequences—being labeled sensitive and being talked about all the more in your absence—may not be worth it. A less drastic method is to be charming. Thus, follow a dismissive 'Oh, who knows?' with an earnest 'But tell me how you've been, and what you've been doing.'"

December 5: Start brainstorming nifty (and thrifty) presents. One O contributor creates a gift of a movie and a recipe. She scouts video stores for inexpensive, previously viewed movies. At Blockbuster she recently reeled in Big Fish, Stuck on You, and Under the Tuscan Sun ($4 to $8 each). Then she handwrites recipes on cardstock to accompany each film—for example, the Naked Chef's whole salmon baked in newspaper for Big Fish—wraps the tapes and recipes with a big bow, and delivers them to the busy parents or multiplex-phobic people in her orbit. Other ideas include offering the gift of time (to babysit, clean closets or drive a carpool), setting a mutual $5 limit on gifts or abandoning presents altogether. One O staffer and her friends take the money they'd spend on one another and dine out together to toast the season.

December 12: You thought you wouldn't bother entertaining, but now you've caught the yuletide spirit. "A potluck supper can be one of the easiest ways to throw a holiday party," says chef Debra Ponzek of Aux Délices Foods, a gourmet shop and catering company in Greenwich and Darien, Connecticut. Ger her recipe for Braised Short Ribs of Beef.

December 15: This year we resolve to tip generously, because the difference between a good tip and a great one costs little but means a lot to the recipient (as any former waitress knows). If you're deciding between money and a present, keep in mind that most people prefer the cash. Who to tip and how much? Here's the lowdown.

December 27: Make no New Year's resolution. "People swear off things in January out of a sense of obligation or guilt," says Larry Kubiak, PhD, director of psychological services at the Tallahassee Memorial Behavioral Health Center. "But the worst thing is to make a resolution because everyone else is doing it." Kubiak is all for setting goals; he simply suggests you do it at a time when you're really ready—next month, the first day of spring, your next birthday.

Looking for more sanity-saving strategies? Martha Beck can save you untold aggravation, angst, time and money.