Five Keys to a Low Stress Christmas This Year

By using an online Christmas wish list template, you can make gift buying and giving low-stress and a guaranteed success for your friends, family and extended family.
Who hasn't had themselves or family stress out and even freak out over the twin pressures of gift buying and keeping within ever tighter family budgets? Not to mention the near impossible challenge of figuring out a gift that will make Uncle Bob happy.
The solution is not hard, it's implementing a simple online “Christmas Wish List”, by which each family member can note down their wishes. By posting the wish list online, other family members can access it online, buy the gifts they want, and then mark the online list so the rest of the family or friends know that gift idea has been taken. It's the online equivalent of passing a list around a room, but by using the Internet and private web-sharing to do the “passing around”.
Here are the five keys to a low-stress Christmas:

1. Start early. Ideally you will post your wish list 6-8 weeks before Christmas, giving everyone time to see the wishes and start on their shopping.


2. Sell the family and friends on the idea with a couple personal emails and phone calls – tell them that this year “we're doing things differently” and everyone is encouraged to put their wishes on the list ASAP. Tell them how this will make the actual holidays lower-stress and happier.


3. Choose a good online tool to host your wish list. Don't email the list around – you'll go crazy with all the different versions and responses! Instead use an online web sharing site such as www.keepandshare.com, which is leading example of modern group sharing sites that make it easy to privately share a document, file or calendar with friends and family.


4. Build momentum and success early. Check up on progress in the first few days and, if a few folks aren't participating, follow up with them. If necessary, just have them tell you their wishes on the phone or by email and you can add them to the list.


5. If appropriate, incorporate budget limits and institute selective gift giving. You can require or suggest that folks be sure to note at least several ‘wishes' that are very affordable. This can make it much easier on the younger generation to afford gifts for their rich uncles. Another great idea is selective gift giving – this is a way to avoid the trap of everyone having to give a gift to everyone else, which can be kind of ridiculous and very stressful and costly. Just pick a system – e.g., every cousin will give a gift to just one other cousin this year (you pick who gives to whom), and then next year the giving will rotate so Sally isn't always stuck giving to Johnny.