Tips for an Easier Thanksgiving (and more enjoyable one!)

We've barely put away the skeletons, and it's already time to move on to Thanksgiving. Some of you have even already put up your Christmas decorations!

Thanksgiving is a time for family, gratitude, and delicious food, but it also marks the beginning of end-of-year stress. With decorating, house cleaning, meal planning, grocery shopping, coordinating with relatives, figuring out travel plans, kids out of school, plus still juggling work and our regular to-do list, it's too much for any one person today.

Here are quick tips from our Sherah team of personal assistants - who are all moms too - to help you have an enjoyable and easier Thanksgiving.

Leverage More Hands to Help with House Cleaning and Preparation

There's the cleaning before guests arrive and the cleaning after. Both are exhausting on top of everything else you're juggling. If you can afford it, go ahead and book house cleaners in advance to come before the big day.

Don't want to pay extra? Enlist your kids and even their friends to help. Kids can help quite a bit when incentivized with quarters, leftover Halloween candy and a movie night with pizza in the not so distant future. Even at the end of the Thanksgiving day, incentivize kids to walk around the house and pick up trash and dishes.

Make life easier and purchase paper and bamboo plates and utensils. Put extra trash bags in the bottom of your trash can so the next clean one is there at your fingertips. Stock the bathrooms with extra toilet paper. Little things will save you on the big day.

Lean into Technology for Meal Planning and Shopping

Yes, Thanksgiving is all about traditions, but you can still use AI to meal plan. Simply input your family's preferences and even what ingredients you have and don't have. It will provide a menu, recipes and a shopping list for you. It can even plan out exactly what time each item needs to go into the oven to hit your table on time and steaming hot.

Services like Amazon Fresh also provide meal planning tools. Just go to the Recipes link, search for your favorite side, find a recipe, then click to add ingredients to your cart. Voila! Be sure to double-check your pantry for any staples you already have. Have everything delivered to save time.

Keep those Relatives Busy as Bees

Spending time with family can be wonderful and challenging. To minimize the stress, keep them busy and out of your hair.

Before it's time to dig into the delicious food, ask people to go outside and kick a soccer ball with the kids. Ask others to set the table, take out the trash, check the cleanliness of the bathrooms, fill up the water glasses. People like to help, so put them to work!

After the meal, send a group on a walk out in the neighborhood or on a scavenger hunt. Plan a friendly game of touch football or Uno. Have a couple of board games like Scrabble or Checkers already sitting on a table.

Keep the Kids Occupied and Grateful

Kids make everything more fun, but also more hectic. Again, put them to work and keep them busy and out of your way. Beforehand, even the little ones can help with folding napkins, cleaning up, vacuuming, and taking out the trash. Throw a bunch of soccer balls, footballs and chalk on the front lawn and sidewalk, and off they'll go!

Kids also love to think about Christmas and Hanukkah. Have them write up their wish list while they're all together to share with relatives. They can also count up the money they earned that day helping you and vote on which charity of their choice they are going to donate their earnings to!

Hosting can be a challenging but rewarding experience. With these quick tips, we hope you stress less and enjoy it more.

Happy Thanksgiving to you and your turkeys!

If you'd like Sherah to help you with any part or all of your holiday planning, our team is always here for you.

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