November and December usher in colder weather, the Advent Season (celebrating the Coming of Christ), and our primary fundraiser for the entire year. As a pastor, alongside my husband, I plan programs for the weekly church service, preach the weekly sermon, and coordinate weekly services including youth, Bible Study, Men's Fellowship, and Women's ministries. I am already tired just thinking about it.
As the director of a non-profit, we have many roles during this season as well. My husband handles the logistics of our Red Kettle Fundraiser, but I coordinate volunteers. I also am responsible for the Angel Tree Program that provides new clothes and toys for children in our community who are need. All of this on top of Emergency Social Services, Shelter, and a Thrift Store operation that provides money for our programs all year.
It is definitely a lot to handle, and couldn't be done without being deeply rooted in Christ for our strength. Many of my Officer comrades in The Salvation Army can feel overwhelmed by the responsibilities. As a parent, there is the added feeling of not being able to be there for their family with all of the added events.
Over the last few years, I have been trying to live more simply. Less Stuff, I have heard, will give us more time for what matters most. But when you are in the thick of ministry and fundraising, how can we make sure that we are focusing on what truly matters, without shirking our responsibilities?
I don't have it all figured out, but in my 16 and a half years of this ministry, I have figured out a few things. So today I am giving you 8 time saving tips, so you can spend more time with your family during this busy season.
1. Save Everything. It has been a great thing to be able to reuse forms, instructions sheets for angel tree, etc. I keep everything in a binder, and electronic copy in my resource folders on my computer. Each year, in October, I go through and change the dates and reuse again.
2. Use a master calendar for all of your Christmas season tasks. This helps me keep track of everything that needs to be done.
3. Prepare All of Your Meals in Advance. I have done this in many ways. You can check out Salliemoms Kettle Cooking Challenge on Facebook to see what is cooking up this season!
4. Intentionally Combine Events. Christmas can be a wonderful time for multigenerational service projects, Christmas Parties, and dinners.
5. Plan your Advent Sundays in October. Every year I fail at this, but my life would be a lot less stressful, if I would get this done ahead of time. I do get it done by the first Sunday of Advent, and I do five weeks of Sundays, so it still saves me time the rest of the season.
6. Buy a gift card once a month so that at Christmas, you already have 12 gifts to give to your family and friends.
7. Decorate for Christmas early. Listen, I am not skipping Thanksgiving, I just know that later on in the season, there won't be time to really savor putting up the tree. Our Thanksgiving is just a little more red and green!
8. Don't schedule activities on a Sunday. There are six other days in the week to make this happen.
Bonus tip! Take time for you! Take a sabbath. Steal away 15 minutes for coffee on a kettle run. Go see a movie!
Do you have anything saving your life this Christmas season?
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