Every Christmas, we all face problems that are universal. The lights tangle, our wrapping paper gets bent out of shape, the packing tape gets stuck together. On top of that, we want to put special touches on our holidays but don’t want to spend a bundle to do so. Here are five simple Christmas life hacks (found from the amazingness that is the internet), certain to keep the happy in your holidays (By the way, don’t forget you can get my eBook Keep the Happy in Your Holidays: 21 Ways to Save Time, Money, and Your Sanity This Christmas Season FREE with pre-order of my book Slaying the Debt Dragon! Details here.).
Paper Keeper with Toilet Paper Roll
Storing wrapping paper can be a chore. Ours always gets wound out and wrinkled. Enter this simple hack that probably won’t require you spending any money at all. Cut a piece of aluminum foil into a square about 2 inches longer than a toilet paper roll. Then cut a slit down the middle of the cardboard tube. Wrap the foil around the tube and then voila, you have a paper keeper that will keep your paper in place.
Shave Chocolate for Hot Cocoa
Who doesn’t love a cup of piping hot chocolate topped with some whipped cream? Want to impress your friends with your culinary genius? Dig your vegetable or potato peeler out of the utensil drawer and use it to shave chocolate off the edges of a candy bar. You could even do this ahead of time and freeze the shavings so that they’re ready for your drink at any time.
Make Snow Slime with borax, glitter, and glue
Here’s some snow your Frozen loving kiddos will never want to let go of. Spend an afternoon together making and then playing with snow slime. It only requires four simple ingredients – school glue, borax, glitter, and water. Find the full recipe here.
Use Dental Floss Garland
Want to go all classic this holiday? When you string your popcorn or cranberry garland, swap out your thread or yarn for wax coated dental floss. It slides into place more easily and has a sturdier construction, guaranteeing you won’t have cranberries rolling all over the floor.
Tape Holder
There is nothing worse than losing your place on a roll of packing tape. You can use a simple household object like a penny or the tab that holds your bread packaging in place to keep your tape from becoming stuck to itself. Pull a new piece of tape out, cut, and replace the tab time and time again.
What holiday life hacks do you use to keep things from getting out of control in your home? How do you keep your Christmas merry and bright? I’d love to know in the comments.
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