Every year at this time, the e-mails tell the story: "I wish I'd found this site earlier!" Faced with the reality of Christmas chaos, many folks are looking for a better way. Stumbling over our site, they see that it's possible to be organized--and joyous--during the holidays.

The secret to a stress-free season? Plan ahead!

Then try these five tips to get ready for next Christmas:

Viewed from a few weeks away, there’s a luxurious feeling of “plenty of time”, but as December draws near, the season’s pace quickens exponentially. Where did the time go?

Take major action against the seasonal time crunch with a pre-season scheduling session. The goal: to arrange for all those little appointments that slip the mind so easily.

Smart Scheduling for Stress-Free Holidays

Time takes on a slippery quality as the holiday season approaches. Being proactive--and early--saves time and stress as the season's pace quickens.

Will you visit family or take a Christmas holiday? Try these tips to keep the “happy” in holiday travel:

Be An Early Bird!

Make travel plans early. Particularly during the busy Christmas season, early birds have more choice of transportation options, and usually pay a better price than the holdouts.

Fly Flexible!

As we get ready for Christmas, we’ll be making lists (and checking them a lot more than twice!), holding discussions with spouses, children and parents, and drawing up a holiday budget.

Too often, we record our plans piecemeal, consigning them to a confused clutter of scrawled envelopes, jotted notes and cryptic calendar entries—none of which make it to the shopping center with us when it’s time to buy gifts.

Organized people keep the results of their work in a central place. Try the tips below to create and use a Christmas notebook--your personal guide to relaxed and happy holidays:

We’ve all experienced this seasonal panic: it's the night of the office holiday party and a spouse’s good white shirt has gone missing!

Calm the chaos with a pre-holiday wardrobe check. Assessing the State of the Closet for all family members before the holiday begins means never having to say, "It's in the wash!"

For many families, the Christmas season causes more than usual chaos on the home front. Do you shove stacks of mail and magazines into dark closets to hide them from drop-in visitors? Does your dinnertime schedule fall off the rails when faced with multiple evening rehearsals? Does Mount Washmore raise itself to new heights in the laundry room, only to be scaled in panic an hour before the Nativity play?

Forewarned is forearmed! A simple housework plan--and family cooperation--will keep things humming at home, holiday or not!

Create a Holiday Housework Plan

Family scheduling reaches fever pitch during December, when every work, school and social group in existence insists on holding a holiday function. Even if you never rely on a family calendar the other eleven months of the year, a Christmas calendar is a must for an organized Christmas season.

Christmas magazines and catalogs are fabulous resources for seasonal decorating, gift ideas, and Christmas recipes—but en masse, they can become too much of a good thing. When the piles avalanche from every side table, finding an article or a recipe that caught your eye a few weeks ago can be an impossible job.

How do you keep all that good information without being crushed by stacks or drowning in paper? Answer: a set of tear files.

Try a Tear File!

Planning for the holiday season? Why try to wing it, on the fly? To get into the seasonal swing in comfort, find a place in your home for an activity center devoted to Christmas planning.

An “activity center” is a key home-organizing concept. Borrowed from those mistresses of controlled chaos, pre-school teachers, an activity center combines a focus, a dedicated area, and storage for tools and supplies in a single location. For example, sand play is easy at the sand table, and clean up is even easier if shovels and dump trucks live in open bins stacked beneath it.

Just as little ones know where to go to play dress-up, your Christmas planning center is the place you’ll go to make Christmas lists, address Christmas cards, organize décor ideas and plan menus. It’s home to Christmas planning and information, so create a pleasant and efficient place to prepare for the holiday to come.

Every family has one: a gift-giver of extraordinary flair and creativity. Year after year, this paragon finds just the right gift, large or small, for every friend and relation, and all without breaking the bank. Her “just because” offerings are tiny jewels, she’s hip to the latest teen trends—and she never, ever hears the double-barbed response, “Oh, you really shouldn’t have!”

What’s her secret? A master gift list.