Here is a watchlist to help you get started:

This one is ridiculously simple, but incredibly useful. If your ornament strings break or the hooks get lost, just pull the two loops of the paper clip in opposite directions to open it up. Hook the small end onto an ornament, and then push it tight to keep it from falling off.

Of course, all your decorations will need a jumbo storage box (or two or ten) to be properly organized in the off-season. But for the extra special items which are regularly used during the Christmas season, create a decorative way to keep them front and center (on the coffee table, next to the fireplace, or below the tree), to make sure none of your favorite Christmas traditions get missed.

Movies that you have to watch every December, books that get read to your children each year, Christmas games, a special Christmas blanket you like to snuggle under while whatching Christmas movies on the couch, and anything else that has a special sentimental value can be collectively turned into an interactive Christmas decoration.

This can also come in very handy when you are traveling every-other year and want to make sure your family’s special things get included in the celebrations.

Rather than toss cards at the end of the season or stuff them away somewhere where they will never be seen again, punch two holes in the cards and place rings through them. Print the covers below onto cardstock and you can have a book of Christmas cards for every year. Keep these in the box described above to peruse on December nights. It will be fun to see how people change over the years.

You know the sturdy black coated twist-ties that come with electronics. You get them all the time and probably throw them straight into the garbage. Save them in a drawer for Christmas time. They are ideal for fixing strings of lights to garland, or tree branches. The coating makes them safe to use with electronics and the black color actually blends in well with dark pine branches.

One of the biggest downsides of artificial trees is that their branches are so much less “leafy” (“piney?”) than those of live trees. You can easily fix this problem by winding garland through the branches. Save yourself some time and wind lights around the garland before putting it in.

Have you ever unboxed all your decorations and then tried to remember where each one fit best last year? Save yourself this trouble by labeling all your decorations by which part of your home they go in.

Hang garland, lights, Christmas card clothespin lines and other decorations with clear hooks that can easily be removed at the end of the season (or left up mostly unnoticed all year long). You will save your wall plenty of nail holes.

You already have plenty of cardboard boxes around this time of year, no doubt. Put them to use to keep your Christmas lights from getting tangled while in storage. Cut a box open to make a piece of cardboard about the size of ledger paper. Cut it into the shape of a thick capital letter i. Wrap your lights around it to keep them in order.

Bonus: this will also make it much easier to string lights onto your tree. Just unravel them slowly as you go around.

Whether you are writing a detailed note in each card, or just signing and sealing, it will go a lot faster if you are prepared. Preparing Christmas cards can often feel like a chore, so set up all you need in one box so that you can get a couple in each time you sit down at the table. Your box doesn’t have to be fancy, and you can usually fit everything you need into the box that store greeting cards come in.

What to include?

• Recipient List
• Cards
• Envelopes
• Stamps
• Return Address Labels
• Pens
• Correction Tape
• Scotch Tape

If when your child comes home with a homemade ornament, you are incredibly excited to add it to your living room tree, then God bless you! But, if the thought of a tree covered in strings of macaroni and soda bottles covered in green tissue paper gives you nightmares, don’t feel guilty. Just get a miniature tree. Designate it as your child’s own tree and they will be delighted to have ownership of their very own tree.

Whether your child still has a mountain of candy in their Halloween bucket that you don’t want eaten on top of all the cady they will get at Christmas, or you just don’t know what to do with all the leftovers that trick-or-treaters never came to claim from you, those treats can easily be transferred into a reusable Advent calendar.

And if making a gingerbread house is a favorite yearly tradition, go through that bucket early to pick out which items would make it even better (even if you buy a packaged gingerbread house kit, the candies that come with them are not always as enjoyable).

Candy canes are often taped onto cards, used as decorations and stuffed into goody bags. You probably have a ton of them, and most of them are probably broken. Rather than toss them, crush them up with the back of an ice-cream scooper (right in the bag) and:

• put them in hot cocoa for a nice mint flavor
• sprinkle over a bar of chocolate, warm for a minute, then place in freezer for a few minutes to solidify
• save them as an ice cream topping