A couple random ideas for the holidays...

*Save your empty toilet paper rolls!

Around the first of December I start collecting the empty cardboard rolls in a bag until I have 15 or 20 of them. I use them to make candy filled "crackers" by covering them with Christmas wrapping paper. I put pieces of wrapped Christmas hard candy in each one. Leave enough space on each end to tie with a ribbon. Then I put the wrapped treats in a basket in my foyer, and when my holiday guests leave, they get to take one home with them. They can also be used as favors on your Christmas dinner table.

*Something for everyone!

I always seem to have little Christmas odds and ends that accumulate such as small children's books, candles, small toys, inspirational Christmas books, or ornaments. I keep a small basket under the tree filled with these things, unwrapped. You never know when you need an extra gift for someone you didn't know was coming by. Or when my friends pay a visit and bring a child, I always want to have some little thing on hand to give them. Some of these kinds of items can be picked up at sales after Christmas for up to 70-80% off the regular price and saved till the following year. Another idea would be to wrap them, and have a sticky note attached that says boy/girl/adult male/adult female or something like that...or just a description of the gift that can be easily peeled off before handing it to someone.

*What did I do last year?

Keep a simple journal of the Christmas season. I have a little journal book that I purchased for about a dollar last year. It has a cute Christmas snowman on the front so I can easily identify it. It was fun to go back and read the two or three lines I wrote in it each day starting the first week of December. I noted what friends stopped by, what concert I attended and with who, when I did what decorating, what food I contributed to the family Christmas party, etc. I also listed the gifts given and received, and checked off the names as I sent out my thank you cards. It only takes a couple of minutes each day--it's not meant to be a deep spiritual journal, but just a brief record of the things I'd like to remember.

*Toys for the tots

It seems like there is so much around the house at Christmas time that we don't want the little people to be touching. It's hard to keep their sweet little fingers off our fragile ornaments and out of the candy and cookies. Last year I splurged on a Fisher-Price Little People Children's Nativity Set. I found a place in our family room for it, on the hearth of our fireplace so the children can reach it easily. It stays set up and they are free to play with it whenever they want. They can't break it, and they know it's there just for them. OK, I admit it. I really like it too!

*Don't reinvent the wheel!

I finally got smart a couple of years ago and started taking pictures of the Christmas decorating I did that I thought looked pretty good. I don't do the same thing every year, but at least I have some ideas by looking at what I've done before that worked. For example, the picture in my header is last year's. This year I'm going for a more casual look, so I used the same swags on the banisters, leaving the pine cones, but I took out the gold beads and satiny ribbons. Instead I made large bows out of green, red, and cream colored checked cotton ribbon. I'm making bows for the tree out of the same ribbon.

I have also saved the Christmas issues of some magazines and put sticky notes on the pages I want to revisit. Sometimes just looking at one thing in a picture in a magazine gives me an idea of something new to try.

I hope some of these ideas will spur you on to share some of yours as well. What little things do you do to simplify the season and still make it memorable?