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Holiday Hacks: Easy Solutions to Simplify the Most Wonderful Time of the Year
Streamline and simplify your holiday season with this comprehensive guide filled with quick tips, easy hacks, and fun DIY project ideas—all designed for the most wonderful time of the year!
While the holidays are a joyous time to spend with family and friends, we all know they can quickly become a hassle if you’re not prepared. Holiday Hacks gives you expert tips and pointers to celebrate in style—while getting the presents wrapped and sorted, the food beautifully prepared, and the decorations on point—all with a minimum of stress!
Holiday Hacks includes over 600 handy tips for everything holiday-related—from how to fill your house with a festive cinnamon scent, to soothing those holiday headaches, to an easy and delicious hot chocolate hack using Nutella and milk. There’s even advice about ornament storage—egg cartons are a great way to keep your small and delicate ornaments safe in their yearly hibernation—so you’ll be ready to go when the holidays roll around again next year!
While the holidays are a joyous time to spend with family and friends, we all know they can quickly become a hassle if you’re not prepared. Holiday Hacks gives you expert tips and pointers to celebrate in style—while getting the presents wrapped and sorted, the food beautifully prepared, and the decorations on point—all with a minimum of stress!
Holiday Hacks includes over 600 handy tips for everything holiday-related—from how to fill your house with a festive cinnamon scent, to soothing those holiday headaches, to an easy and delicious hot chocolate hack using Nutella and milk. There’s even advice about ornament storage—egg cartons are a great way to keep your small and delicate ornaments safe in their yearly hibernation—so you’ll be ready to go when the holidays roll around again next year!
240 pages, Paperback
Published October 2, 2018
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Displaying 1 - 29 of 29 reviews
January 3, 2019
There certainly are some tips that will save you time, money, and aggravation during the holiday season, but many of these holiday hacks don’t specifically apply to just the holidays. I would guess about half of the tips are just general frugal living, while the other half applies to things related to the winter season. Most of the actual holiday hacks apply to Christmas, with a few relating to Thanksgiving or New Year’s.
Here are a few examples of the tips that I didn’t like:
#122 – When buying your food for your holiday meals, keep in mind that in most grocery stores, the cheapest items will be on the top and bottom shelves, not at eye level. (A tip I don’t generally find to be true anyways.) This seems like an everyday tip with the word holiday inserted.
#51 – Too lazy to decorate? Just throw a Santa hat on your leftover Halloween pumpkin. Why bother? A Santa hat on a pumpkin does not make for festive décor. I’d rather do no decorating and just enjoy my friends' and families' efforts.
#121—Try baking your Christmas cookies in a muffin tin. They’ll stay soft and fluffy, and they won’t spread out as thin as they normally would. This must be for a certain type of cookie because I can’t see how to bake cut-outs in a muffin tin?
And a few I did like:
#181 – Out shopping with the kids when they see something they want for Christmas? Snap a quick photo of it for easy reference later. Useful for birthdays too, and not just for kids.
#202 – Want your house to smell like Christmas? Buy a Douglas fir tree. It gives off that festive Christmas tree smell. Even though the tastes of the season may come to mind first, the scents of the season are part of the ambiance too.
#658 -- Start a new tradition that lets Santa Claus take back toys your kids don’t use anymore. Great way to pare down possessions, keep clutter under control, and allow parents to put a positive spin on it.
I did also find a few health related tips that I plan to try. I really want to try this one:
#423 -- Drinking one glass of grape juice can relieve migraine headaches almost instantly. I will be amazed if it actually works for me. There are a few other headache/migraine remedies too so I have alternates to try.
If you are eager to start an exercise routine but can’t afford a gym membership and don’t have any exercise equipment, then I found a hack that will suit your budget and is easy to implement:
#569 -- Doing 7000 jumping jacks burns enough calories to lose about one pound. Spread that over a week, and you’ll lose an extra pound every week. No equipment required, but 1000 jumping jacks a day… they do say repetition is the key to success.
So while I did find some helpful tips, I did have to read through many that weren’t specific to the holidays. Some chapters were better than others and I think the weaker chapters definitely brought down my overall enjoyment and rating. I recommend reading this book in December when you can actually utilize the tips as you discover them.
Here are a few examples of the tips that I didn’t like:
#122 – When buying your food for your holiday meals, keep in mind that in most grocery stores, the cheapest items will be on the top and bottom shelves, not at eye level. (A tip I don’t generally find to be true anyways.) This seems like an everyday tip with the word holiday inserted.
#51 – Too lazy to decorate? Just throw a Santa hat on your leftover Halloween pumpkin. Why bother? A Santa hat on a pumpkin does not make for festive décor. I’d rather do no decorating and just enjoy my friends' and families' efforts.
#121—Try baking your Christmas cookies in a muffin tin. They’ll stay soft and fluffy, and they won’t spread out as thin as they normally would. This must be for a certain type of cookie because I can’t see how to bake cut-outs in a muffin tin?
And a few I did like:
#181 – Out shopping with the kids when they see something they want for Christmas? Snap a quick photo of it for easy reference later. Useful for birthdays too, and not just for kids.
#202 – Want your house to smell like Christmas? Buy a Douglas fir tree. It gives off that festive Christmas tree smell. Even though the tastes of the season may come to mind first, the scents of the season are part of the ambiance too.
#658 -- Start a new tradition that lets Santa Claus take back toys your kids don’t use anymore. Great way to pare down possessions, keep clutter under control, and allow parents to put a positive spin on it.
I did also find a few health related tips that I plan to try. I really want to try this one:
#423 -- Drinking one glass of grape juice can relieve migraine headaches almost instantly. I will be amazed if it actually works for me. There are a few other headache/migraine remedies too so I have alternates to try.
If you are eager to start an exercise routine but can’t afford a gym membership and don’t have any exercise equipment, then I found a hack that will suit your budget and is easy to implement:
#569 -- Doing 7000 jumping jacks burns enough calories to lose about one pound. Spread that over a week, and you’ll lose an extra pound every week. No equipment required, but 1000 jumping jacks a day… they do say repetition is the key to success.
So while I did find some helpful tips, I did have to read through many that weren’t specific to the holidays. Some chapters were better than others and I think the weaker chapters definitely brought down my overall enjoyment and rating. I recommend reading this book in December when you can actually utilize the tips as you discover them.
December 3, 2018
Interesting but how to recall when you need them?
January 6, 2023
A quick read that contains very few useful tips. Most of this book should be common sense.
January 16, 2024
As cute as the cover is, most of the hacks are common sense. I only felt there was value in a small handful of hacks. The worst one was the hack that said to put ice in your washing machine and fill with drinks for an extra cooler when you run out of space. Seriously? That dropped it down a star for me.
March 26, 2024
So there were a few good hacks in here, but mostly this is good for a laugh 🤭.. I laughed so hard I cried at putting lights on an old tomato cage and hanging ornaments on it in place of a tree.
June 13, 2020
This is a quick read and there may be two or three things that you'll learn but there's lots of repetition and, for me, many hacks that had me thinking, "That'll never work!" (Like to clear icy sidewalks use item X mixed with WATER... or "instantly removing" price-tag stickers with vinegar...) Lots of dubious health hacks. "Pineapple is 5X more effective than cough syrup." Also, from a migraine sufferer, lots of migraine remedies that are so bogus.
November 17, 2021
There are a few things that may be helpful, but most of this are random new age-y "tips" you'd find on social media. Drink juice to cure a migraine and use a used green tea bag to fix chapped lips. And most are not holiday-specific.
I don't tolerate using terms like "detox" or "toxins" frivolously and this book uses them like that. I guess I should have expected that with a book that uses "hacks" the same way.
I don't tolerate using terms like "detox" or "toxins" frivolously and this book uses them like that. I guess I should have expected that with a book that uses "hacks" the same way.
April 2, 2019
Some good tips, but a few are repeated twice, and most of the weight loss section is incorrect.
December 29, 2019
whew boy. maybe 5 good & interesting tips in here, and it assumes a lot about the reader.
December 20, 2025
Sample hacks. Make your house smell amazing by boiling orange peels with 1/2 tsp of cinnamon and 4-5 cups of water over medium heat. Old Pringles can makes perfect cookie gift box by wrapping the outside with wrapping paper first. Keep your gravy in a thermos to keep it warm for your dinner. Also old aluminum foil and plastic wrap boxes can be used for gifting cookies by just wrapping them in festive paper. To make fluffier white rice add a tsp of lemon juice to the water before you cook it. Write your Christmas list all year long to avoid wondering what you should ask for Christmas. Most stores will price match. Putting a small amount of 7UP in a poinsettia's soil will preserve it for much longer. Blow bubbles outside when temps go below 32 degrees and they will turn into ice bubbles. The Along the Way app will let you know about cool attractions you can see on any road trip. The cheapest time to book a flight is 6 to 8 weeks before you travel. Use rubbing alcohol on wiper blades to keep them from freezing to your windshield. When family is all together during the year take a family picture and use for Christmas card. Store bobby pins in Tic Tac container. White wine will take out a red wine stain. Raise your hands above your head to stop coughing uncontrollably. Make a to do list as simply writing things down you feel less stressed. Drop a raisin in champagne that has gone flat to make the bubbles again. For a hangover drink Pedialyte. Pact is an app that pays you for working out and punishes you for missing out on days. Spicy foods make you more satisfied with smaller amounts of food. A gift card with less than $10 on it is legal1y required to give you the rest of your balance in cash. Cheap after the holidays are gift sets, cars, food and candles. You can sell gift cards on GiftCardGranny.com. Do your New Years resolution for 21 days and by then it is a habit. For every one foot of tree height you need one hundred lights, 9 feet of garland and 20 ornaments.
December 29, 2019
This book was a really quick read during a power outage. I needed something easy and quick that I could read by firelight and not worry about getting interrupted often. This was just the ticket. I had picked it up at the library before Christmas, but didn't have time to read it then. Might have been a little more handy to read before the holidays though.
There's a handful of helpful tips in here that I hadn't heard, but mostly pretty common sense ideas. It's like reading an extra long BuzzFeed article of life hacks. Many just had the word holiday or Christmas added to make them fit the theme of the book, but were just generic hacks. I think the most useful section was the one about health during the holidays. I'll probably try to add a few of those into my life moving forward. Again, not holiday specific, but the tip that doing an extra 7,000 jumping jacks in one week will burn one pound worth of calories is notable and adding in 1,000 jumping jacks a day is an attainable goal.
There's a handful of helpful tips in here that I hadn't heard, but mostly pretty common sense ideas. It's like reading an extra long BuzzFeed article of life hacks. Many just had the word holiday or Christmas added to make them fit the theme of the book, but were just generic hacks. I think the most useful section was the one about health during the holidays. I'll probably try to add a few of those into my life moving forward. Again, not holiday specific, but the tip that doing an extra 7,000 jumping jacks in one week will burn one pound worth of calories is notable and adding in 1,000 jumping jacks a day is an attainable goal.
September 21, 2019
Easy and great and useful ideas for the busy holiday season.
A few hacks I use or want to use are:
628 "when cleaning up after Christmas try following the 'get one, give one rule: for every time you retrieved as a gift, try to throw out or donate an old one. This will keep your house at the same clutter lever.' " pg 221
This next hack I would like to make it a program and do it with the teens at the library.
Hack 639 "start the new year with an empty jar and fill it with good things that happen. Every time something good happens, write in on a piece of paper and put it in the jar. On the following New Year's Eve, empty it to see all the awesome stuff that happened." - p 225
This book would make a great gift too!!!
A few hacks I use or want to use are:
628 "when cleaning up after Christmas try following the 'get one, give one rule: for every time you retrieved as a gift, try to throw out or donate an old one. This will keep your house at the same clutter lever.' " pg 221
This next hack I would like to make it a program and do it with the teens at the library.
Hack 639 "start the new year with an empty jar and fill it with good things that happen. Every time something good happens, write in on a piece of paper and put it in the jar. On the following New Year's Eve, empty it to see all the awesome stuff that happened." - p 225
This book would make a great gift too!!!
November 9, 2020
Useful for jumpstarting your own holiday planning
Maybe half of these hacks (remember when they were "helpful hints from Heloise"?) are specific to winter holidays, and most of those I'd already learned about from lifestyle and mommy bloggers--with much nicer aesthetics and the reassurance that those bloggers actually tested their tips, rather than saying they *should* work. The number of "cures" for migraines was borderline offensive, because if relief really was as simple as drinking grape juice, would millions of us still be suffering?
I only took a few notes from the book, but thinking "ohmygod my ideas are so much better" was good motivation to begin preparing for the holidays. It jogged my memory of things I wanted/needed to do, so there's that.
Maybe half of these hacks (remember when they were "helpful hints from Heloise"?) are specific to winter holidays, and most of those I'd already learned about from lifestyle and mommy bloggers--with much nicer aesthetics and the reassurance that those bloggers actually tested their tips, rather than saying they *should* work. The number of "cures" for migraines was borderline offensive, because if relief really was as simple as drinking grape juice, would millions of us still be suffering?
I only took a few notes from the book, but thinking "ohmygod my ideas are so much better" was good motivation to begin preparing for the holidays. It jogged my memory of things I wanted/needed to do, so there's that.
November 19, 2020
A lot of basic tips that I’ll be surprised if it’s the first time you heard of it. A lot we’re not geared to the holidays more specifically for Christmas.
Overall, there are some good tips/hacks just not enough new useful ideas for me to rate this more than 3 stars.
Example hack -
“409: Stuffy nose? Leave a sliced onion near where you sleep and let it sit for the night. Your nose will be clear by the time you wake up.”
Is this more helpful, creepy or irrelevant (most likely wake up not congested anyway in the am).??
Another hack From the cover - will try at some point
“Put a safety pin in your Christmas sweater to banish static cling - instantly!“
Overall, there are some good tips/hacks just not enough new useful ideas for me to rate this more than 3 stars.
Example hack -
“409: Stuffy nose? Leave a sliced onion near where you sleep and let it sit for the night. Your nose will be clear by the time you wake up.”
Is this more helpful, creepy or irrelevant (most likely wake up not congested anyway in the am).??
Another hack From the cover - will try at some point
“Put a safety pin in your Christmas sweater to banish static cling - instantly!“
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 8, 2021
I had already known about almost all of the hacks I read in this book. I did not really read the whole book though, I started skimming when I realized there was nothing I had not heard before. This comes from being old and having read magazines for the last fifty years! Good ideas in the book though, many I already use. Easy to read, good content for each subject, and great for those starting out their lives and needing to get the Christmas holiday done in a timely, efficient manner.
December 29, 2020
Great ideas for handling the holidays, this is for Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's.
I wish i had read the entire book before the holidays but I put it down and moved on to others and didn't go back to reading until Christmas! There are great ideas that I will still use but will definitely be using next year. This book will be handy for all the holiday seasons yet to be.
I wish i had read the entire book before the holidays but I put it down and moved on to others and didn't go back to reading until Christmas! There are great ideas that I will still use but will definitely be using next year. This book will be handy for all the holiday seasons yet to be.
November 10, 2020
This was such a cute book! Christmas is my favorite time of the year and this was helpful! I will say there were lots of things that don’t work for me because I live in Florida but in all it was a cute holiday read! Over 600 hacks that can help you!!
December 2, 2023
Agree with the review that notes this book assumes much about the reader and their lifestyle. Not only are many of the tips common sense, some are simply strange. This was not only a quirky hack book, but it came across
April 30, 2025
If 5 minute crafts was a book 😭
"Christmas wreath looking a little bare? stuff some leaves from your lawn in the sides."
"Holiday plans stressing you out? Try playing a musical instrument for 15 minutes." brooooo
"Christmas wreath looking a little bare? stuff some leaves from your lawn in the sides."
"Holiday plans stressing you out? Try playing a musical instrument for 15 minutes." brooooo
October 16, 2019
Thankfully this was a very quick read. I was hoping for a bit more inspiration. Out of the 640 tips I think I found less than 10 helpful or "new/relatable" to me.
November 30, 2019
There are some useful tips inside this book . Most of it is common sense stuff that you can skip over and finish the 240 page book fast .
July 25, 2021
Enjoyable and rather fascinating. Some are helpful.
December 6, 2021
Tons of tips, but only a few I found to be potentially useful.
December 16, 2021
I wonder how many of these suggestions the author tried.
December 8, 2022
Cute book for holiday tips. I flagged all the pages that could apply. I liked it! It had helpful hacks for everyone!
December 17, 2023
Some good ideas; mostly things I wouldn’t do/try. I’ve marked some ideas to try/share. Some kind of repetitive. Still worth reading, especially if it’s in a used bookstore or from the library.
Read
January 8, 2025Quite a few good tips ... though not sure they'll all work - especially the health related ones.
June 26, 2024
Thought this was a clever little book with some great ideas. Not just for the holidays, but for the winter, traveling, and life in general. I'd love to read some of the other books in this series. Some ideas were totally common sense, or well known, but I did learn a few new things I'd love to try to remember. Chapter 7 on Holiday Remedies was most practical, but I loved a few others, including... 30. Place an upside down Command hook on the inside of your door, tie a ribbon around the top of your wreath, run the ribbon over the top of the door and loop over the hook. 32. Icy doorsteps by no salt? Pour a bucket of warm water with dw soap on them. The soap won't let the water refreeze. 72. Spread whipped cream on a cookie sheet, freeze it and then cut it into shapes with different size cookie cutters. 110. Butter to hard to cut or spread? Use a cheese grater. 217. Wash your hands with toothpaste, to get sticky tree sap off your hands. 32. When the temp falls below 32*, go outside and blow bubbles, and they will magically turn into ice bubbles. 326. When flying somewhere with family, make sure to mix up your clothing between the suitcases, so if a bag gets lost, one person isn't totally out of luck. 632. On your iPhone, in the Reminders app, hit "remind me at this location" of wherever the gift card works.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
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