Part of the key seems to be doing almost everything possible ahead of time, especially the gift shopping. We really got into it when we had family overseas to whom we had to ship packages by October.

We leave a few things to do so we can "get into the spirit" but won't be crucial if something comes up to stop us. The boys and adults also choose a new ornament each year. To keep this from becoming an unmanageable amount of ornaments, we "hive" frequently--when a young person we know is going out on his/her own, we give them a box of ornaments (as well as other stuff of which they have zilch and we have too much).

I didn't finish my last post, which should have said I bought DD Aus' recommended light.