How to Bring Fun Back to the Holidays? Simplify Every Single Thing.

IN RETROSPECT , last year’s over-the-top Christmas party was the one that broke me.

After years of increasingly elaborate holiday seasons, last December my husband and I crazily got up on step ladders to create a magical Hogwarts Christmas-themed spectacle. Like set designers, we suspended 200 battery-powered “floating candles” on fishing line, sticky-tacked to the ceiling.

In concept, great. But in reality, every so often a flickering candle came crashing down on a guest’s head, prompting my husband to hand out colanders to wear as helmets (which somewhat undercut the whimsical Harry Potter motif).

“What’s this year’s theme?” my youngest daughter asked hopefully this week. She lives out of town and was trying to assess the level of protective gear to bring with her.

“How about ‘Home Alone?’ ” she asked, visions of tripwires and booby traps likely dancing in her head.

We need another theme already? Thinking about cramming all the decorating, entertaining and gift wrapping into the scant 26 days between now and the holiday, I realized that for the first time in my life, I was dreading Christmas.

“Have you ever heard of a Christmas-lover who suddenly turns against Christmas?” I asked Sharon Martin, a psychotherapist in San Jose, Calif.

“Yes, either you get carried away and do more and more for the holidays, or you go on autopilot year after year—until one year all the traditions and the social pressure feel overwhelming,” said Martin, author of “The Better Boundaries Guided Journal” (New Harbinger, 2024).

In fact, she said, Christmas Fatigue Syndrome can strike at any age. If you had a baby this year and spend your nights soothing a teether; if you’re the only one who decorates the tree even after your teenagers swear they’ll help; or if you’re dreading your 40th standing rib roast (a cut of meat that costs as much as your 1976 Ford Pinto).

The solution is a Christmas cutback. “It doesn’t have to be all or nothing,” assures Martin. “Recognize which things sound fun and which things overwhelm you.”

And that’s the whole secret to making Christmas merry again: Winnow out things you do just because you think you should, and leave time for those that make the holiday meaningful to you.

Ask others for help, say, in turning a party into a potluck, suggests Martin, or hire an extra pair of hands, as Michelle Todd Schorsch does. A few years ago, the retired political consultant in St. Petersburg, Fla., started hiring professionals to decorate indoors and out, including spotlights on palm trees and a mailbox where neighborhood kids drop off letters addressed to Santa.

“At first I was, like, ‘Man, I should be doing this myself.’ But it frees me up to do things that feel like I’m making magic, like answering all the letters in our Santa mailbox. In 2022, I wrote 171, sealed them with wax and sent them back with a North Pole postmark,” she said.

Professional organizers—who typically charge from $60 to $160 an hour, depending on where you live—also frequently decorate and take down clients’ Christmas trees, set up for parties, stock pantries for holiday baking and even wrap presents, said Richmond, Va., organizer Mindy Godding, president of the National Association of Productivity and Organizing Professionals.

Or, to simplify things on your own, consider these streamlined approaches to four holiday tasks.

Edit the Decorating

You don’t have to decorate every surface, said Maggie Griffin, an interior designer in Gainesville, Ga., “so pick a wow spot—like the Christmas tree.” She swears by a pre-lit, artificial tree she bought from Balsam Hill. “You snap together the three pieces, and the lights are already on it,” she said. “After Christmas, within a couple of hours I have the entire tree down.”

If unboxing (and worse, re-boxing) ornaments is your pain point, try this method: “I buy a couple of crates of clementines, poke ornament hangers through their tops and cover my tree in fruit and lights,” said Birmingham, Ala., interior designer Caroline Gidiere. “It smells great, it’s gorgeous, it glows and afterward they go in the trash.”

Another approach is to limit your palette to neutrals and one color. This year, use just gold baubles, for instance, and your white lights, and save everything else for next year.

“A neutral color scheme is soothing, especially if you’re feeling overwhelmed by too much color, too much stuff, too much to do,” said Theresa Bedford, a nurse and mother of a 1-year-old in Beavercreek, Ohio, who downsized to a 4-foot-high, pre-lit Christmas tree. “It still lights up the living room—and gives me peace.”

Rent your tabletop settings from a company like Spoon + Salt, which delivers and picks up everything shown here but the vase and berries, and services New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania.

Farm Out the Fete

The phrase “festive dinner party” might evoke visions of menu planning, dirty dishes and, if you are me, 200 candles that need to be removed from the ceiling the next day.

“It’s no wonder people feel holiday-party fatigue before the holidays even start,” said Cameron Forbes, a designer who this year launched New York City-area tablescape rental service Ours at Yours. Like other party-in-a-box companies, including Spoon + Salt in New Jersey and Houston’s Gatherings by Curated Paperie, hers reduces the hassle of hosting.

“Tell us the date, and we deliver a box to your door with linens, napkins, cutlery, plates, votive candles, candle holders and even custom place cards with your guests’ names,” Forbes said. Prices start at $250 for six settings, plus $50 for additional pairs of settings up to 12. After the party, scrape the plates and repack the box. They’ll pick it up “and do the dishes,” Forbes said.

Consider outsourcing the party food, too. “Every year I order from Greenberg Smoked Turkeys in Texas,” said Gidiere, author of the forthcoming “Interiors for a Life in Good Taste” (Rizzoli). The cooked bird ships frozen. You thaw it for eight hours, then serve it at room temperature. “It’s always delicious, and I spend time catching up with people instead of cooking all day.”

If it’s drop-in guests you fear, make a cocktail (sans alcohol) to keep in a pitcher in the refrigerator, and buy a can of peanuts. “You’ll be ready for anybody,” said Godding.

Lighten Santa’s Load

Gift-giving gets out of hand. Try bestowing neighbors, co-workers and schoolteachers on your list a simple present you’ve made in batches.

“Last year, I found a TikTok recipe for cherry whiskey, ordered bottles online to put it in, put holiday music on, and my roommates and I worked on the gifts together,” said designer Forbes. “Another year, I made fancy Chex Mix, and people were texting me in February asking for more.”

To those you want to give something special, “limit it to one significant gift that feels personal, and ask them to give you just one,” said Greensboro, N.C., organizer Amy Pepin.

Redefine ‘Bouquet’

A time-friendly alternative to an elaborate floral arrangement? Foraging. Whether you have a yard or are an urban gatherer (think sidewalk shrubs and vacant lots), “limit yourself to what is outside—holly with red berries, other evergreens, even a branch that’s a nice shape,” said Bess Piergrossi, a flower farmer in Eliot, Maine. Instead of a centerpiece one year, she cut a 6-foot-long bare branch, spray painted it gold and suspended it from the ceiling rafters with string. “With some twinkle lights, it was enough—especially with my 2-year-old daughter on the move.”

Or maybe you don’t need table decor at all. “Stop being stuck in the story about what the holidays have to be—including what the table has to look like—and instead think of your table as an expression of what makes the holiday fun for you,” said Santa Barbara, Calif., psychologist Diana Hill, who hosts the Wise Effort podcast, about focusing energy on things that matter. “At Christmas, my mom puts those poppers that you pull the ends off on the table. That’s so much easier.”

All of these are great strategies. But they’ll only help make Christmas more fun if we can give ourselves permission to embrace them, said Martin.

As for my “Home Alone” party, I think I’ll skip the trip wires, paint can on a string and glue-and-feather fan—and instead concentrate on the warm-and-fuzzy final scene, when the family reunites.

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