We decorated for Christmas the week before Thanksgiving this year. It was wonderful and has given us so much time to spread all the Christmas stuff out and feel less stressed. 

It is, or was, wonderful until this week when I realized that I felt like I had so much time to get everything done – that I forgot Christmas is slowly creeping up so soon! 

So I started getting a little nervous this week with everything left on our to-do list: making gingerbread houses, present wrapping (thankfully I am DONE with shopping), regular meal planning, planning out meals for Christmas week, decorating sugar cookies with the kids – oh and planning my oldest twins 5th birthday December 26th!

I love Christmas – but this time of year can also bring a ton of stress with it! So this year, I want to simplify things. Make things simple, easy, and more JOY-filled! 

Easiest Christmas Meals Ever

This week I came across a very handy FREE PDF guide from some of my very favorite food bloggers. I’m always hunting for tips on making meal planning in general, but especially meal planning during this time of year, easier and simpler! 

I want to be able to focus on my family this Christmas season – but a large part of that is also having good, home-cooked meals that warms everyone’s bellies. So how do we balance both? Spending more time with family but also good meals and snacks? 

So my friends over at Ultimate Bundles just came out with this great free eBook: Easiest Holiday Meals Ever eBook! It’s free to download and has some awesome tips in it! 

You can click the picture or the link above to grab it, but here’s two of my favorite tips from the free book (although it’s hard to pick): 

“Make one or two of your favorite dishes (like Lasagna) ahead of time and freeze. Bake and serve them during the busy days right before Christmas. Or save them for after Christmas so you can take a “Christmas Break” and enjoy more family time!” – Laura Coppinger of Heavenly Homemakers – heavenlyhomemakers.com

Yeeees!! I am ALL about making anything you can ahead of time. I’ve been doing a lot of crockpot cooking and making double batches of food so we can eat off of it a few days in a row. It can get a little boring but it’s still a hot, home cooked meal! 

“Search Pinterest for leftover recipes to make with all dishes you plan on cooking over the holidays so you have the extra ingredients on hand and nothing goes to waste.” – Lorena Grater of Green Healthy Cooking – greenhealthycooking.com

I need to remember this one!! When life gets super frantic, I am very very bad about keeping up on what’s in the fridge! I’ve been known to throw too much stuff away because I just get busy and forget. With our tight budget this month, I do NOT want to do that! 

There are 53 other fantastic tips in the free eBook! So head over and download it. It’s only free for a few more days:

Easiest Holiday Meals Ever PDF