Getting Ready for Seasonal Celebrations: Real-Life Tips From Our Inbox

Take a Timeout

Invite a large group of friends to your house and fix your favorite brunch recipes, including lots of goodies. When everyone is done eating gather them together and hand out an agenda with directions, including cell phone numbers. You can even make banners to attach to your car window that look the same.

Head out to the first of many Holiday Bazaars scheduled for the day. Pick large organized ones, where there are master craftsman and artists. The atmosphere is very joyous from the second you walk in the door. It smells great, from evergreen wreaths to scented candles and warm delicious cider. Once there you can look and shop. After a few of these take a break at a neighborhood park and tailgate. When you?re all done — or just too tired to continue — it's time to head back with some of your friends for show and tell. You have started early, mentally and physically, to a less stressful season.

Joyce Renner, Lake Oswego, Ore.

There never seems to be enough time to do everything or see everyone. My girlfriends and I get together to bake cookies one afternoon, with all our kids playing around us, and then one night we get together again and do a cookie exchange and potluck dinner! We do it early enough in the month of December that our evenings aren't already booked solid. It's so much fun!

Lynda Cavanagh, Clearwater, Fla.

I take a weeks vacation about the second week of December. If I have someone to vacation with, I go to Leavenworth, Wash.. It's like a snowy Bavarian village all lit up for Christmas. You can do all types snow sports there or nearby. Or, as I do, you can shop and find good food. If I don't have someone to vacation with, I start baking my Christmas cookies.

Debby