No, we aren’t decking the halls in August. We have not started listening to Christmas music. Despite the heat, we haven’t even started dreaming about the first snow. But in our house, there are certain things we take care of starting around the end of summer in anticipation of the holiday season to come and to prepare for Winter.
Why do we start our holiday and winter prep in August?
The weeks between August and New Year always seem to fly by. With multiple holidays in a row, the end of the year is a wild ride for most parents. We like to be intentional with our family time and make sure we prioritize the events, people, and places that are extra special to us.
At Giving Them The World I share my family’s commitment to experiences, community, and connecting with the world around us. My family’s days and weeks are full. And we love that! But, without a plan, a full schedule can quickly feel draining. It takes some work and planning in order to make sure we are filling our days with things that have purpose and bring us joy. We also need to plan for rest days so that everyone has some unstructured downtime.
If I can slowly chip away at some tasks ahead of time, or stock my pantry, it makes future activities and hosting so much easier. Spreading out the preparation also allows me to actually take those rest days. The more organized I am going into the holidays, the more I am able to make memories with my family instead of running the rat race that the holidays have become.
Here are the things we do in August to prepare for winter and get ready for the holidays.
3 ways we prepare for winter and the holidays in August:
1. Filling out the calendar
In late August I start mapping out our plans for the rest of the year. Are we traveling? What holiday events do we want to prioritize this year? We can’t go to them all. Most dates for community events, shows, etc. are set well in advance. I put the ones we have chosen to prioritize on my calendar and then figure out where I want to fit in some hosting, while still leaving plenty of days open for spontaneous adventures, cozy evenings by the fire, and regular life stuff.
Tickets to some holiday events, such as the Nutcracker, may already be on sale. But for other events, tickets may not go on sale until sometime in the fall. I put those ticket sale dates in my calendar so that I can make sure to snag tickets to our favorite events before they sell out. Even the free events may require an advance reservation/timed entry.
2. Stocking the pantry and freezer
The late summer harvest also gives us an opportunity to stock our freezer and pantry with items we will appreciate in the colder months and the busy holiday season. Some of the ways we stock our pantry and freezer include:
- Freezing bags of sliced apples for pie making and cranberry sauce.
- We use our freezer a ton to help get ready for the holidays. We do a lot of baking in our house in November and December. One of the biggest game changers for me is freezing fully assembled, uncooked pies that I can pull out and bake on the holidays or on a cozy day with minimal effort. Unbaked pies don’t last forever in the freezer. I try to bake and consume them within 4 months.
- Canning apple sauce and apple butter (for serving on scones and other baked goods).
- Freezing pear puree.
- One of the granola recipes that my family likes uses fruit puree as the primary sweetener. Fruit puree can be used as a sweetener in a lot of recipes. We also sometimes use applesauce as a substitute for oil or butter in cakes, and other baked goods.
- Canning or freezing peaches and pears.
- Freezing zucchini (shredded for zuchini breads or zoodles for a cozy pasta night).
- Zucchini is pretty high in moisture, so for better outcomes, consider blanching zucchini before freezing it. You can find instructions and advice online.
- Making berry jam.
- Homemade jam is so much better than store-bought. Growing up, my family would bring home massive amounts of berries from local u-pick farms and then fill the pantry with jam. It is such a sweet childhood memory. Jam-making is a tradition I am continuing with my own children. Jam is also a great holiday or hostess gift and a nice thing to have on hand to give to family, friends, and neighbors.
- Freezing tomato or making sauces and tomato pastes with the excess. I especially love to freeze cherry tomatoes. Cherry tomatoes are easy to pop into a dish in their frozen state.
- Drying herbs.
- I don’t like to let the herbs in my garden go to waste. Drying out garden herbs is a great way to stock up the pantry with herbs that we will use in holiday meals, soups, and other winter comfort dishes.
3. Getting ahead on Christmas gifts
Around this time I also start thinking about Christmas gifts. Sales hit throughout the fall and I want to have a plan when they come along. Instead of saving the Christmas gift shopping for Black Friday and the first couple weeks of December and then having to pay expedited shipping to make sure things arrive, I like to slowly acquire the gifts and spread out the spending.
Homemade gifts take time to make. So if I plan to hand-make any gifts, I start thinking about those now. As I already mentioned, I like to gift homemade jam over the holidays. Having plenty of jam on hand as we go into the holidays is really helpful. If we are invited to a party and I need a last minute hostess gift, I will often grab a jar of jam and put a pretty ribbon on it.
Planning is the key to a full and spontaneous life.
I believe that organization, intentionality, and careful planning are actually the key to a spontaneous and adventurous life. It might sound contradictory, but planning gives us margin and energy for the unexpected. I plan for rest days so my family does not feel overextended all the time. We also give ourselves time and permission to get things done before most people are even thinking about it (such as holiday decorating, cookie dough making, holiday baking, pie assembly, etc.). That way, when something unexpected comes up, like an invitation or a random community event that we just heard about, we can say yes, knowing that we aren’t setting ourselves off track.
For me, the planning and early prep is all about giving us the freedom to say yes to life as it happens.
