We are officially 50 days away from Christmas. Can you believe we’ve been talking about Christmas for a month already? The red cups are out, the stores have mini Christmas villages to peruse, and Oprah’s Favorite Things are officially known. The holidays are here, folks.

But have we really done all that much? If you’ve been reading the Christmas Countdown series and participating along the way, you would have: given thought to a decor theme, created and exchanged wish lists with your loved ones, planned any out-of-town travel, organized your holiday calendar (if you’re not already using a full-blown Christmas Planner), ordered your Christmas cards, took inventory of your household goods and purchased any necessary pieces for either entertaining or for overnight guests, created a master gift list, made a budget, started crafting your DIY gifts, and started baking batches of goodies to recipe test, and then freeze. And all that’s been done by accomplishing a few things each week, instead of just starting out now.

I want to give you an idea of how these next few weeks are going to go so you have a clear vision as to how this series may help you. I don’t host Thanksgiving at my house so we aren’t going to go into any detail about it, but we are going to spend the few posts we have left in November focusing on gift guides and decor. I’ll give you a few gift guides next week, and a few the following week, and then it’s Thanksgiving. So the idea is that you’ll have plenty of suggestions for gifts leading up to the major sales before, during, and after Black Friday.

Then on the last Sunday of November I’ll share my Christmas decor. Every year, just like the gift lists exchange, I do the same thing during the weekend after Thanksgiving: I decorate my home for Christmas. I do this because I know my friends and family are home and I can enlist their help with the tiresome tasks, which makes them a bit more fun because we’re all stuck together. It also means I can enjoy the decorations throughout the month of December and worry about taking them down the first week of January. I contemplated decorating ahead of time to share with you where I purchased all of my decor pieces that are from this year (or ones that are still available from previous years) but then I decided that the point of this series is to help de-stress the holidays and it would just add stress to my life to change the program. So it may not help you decorate if you’re like me and want to get a head start, but it may help you organize your decor and give you ideas for next year at the very least. Find pieces you like, give them serious consideration in how they will look with the rest of your decor, and buy what you love. Don’t look at a catalogue design and think you have to buy every ornament on that tree to get the same look. We talked about this in the first post, but it’s important that your tree reflects your personal style because there’s a slim chance it will look the same as the designer’s version, even if you buy all the same “ingredients.” One quick tip: I purchase “filler” ornaments every few years–big box ornaments in red or gold (0r any other color that I can build my theme upon) and then I only have to buy a few different kinds of specialty pieces to create a new theme each year. Look for baubles in different sizes, shades of a color, or textures to give your tree a curated look even before you add your specialty ornaments.

Lastly, I want to talk about gift wrap. Even if you wait until November to purchase gifts, now is a great time to pick up gift wrap because the best stuff goes first. I’ve been a fan of the holiday collections from Sugar Paper since they first came out, and I do believe this is the last year they are collaborating with Target, but I could be mistaken. The new Target collection with Chip and Joanna Gaines (Hearth and Hand with Magnolia) is adorable, though. I’ve added a few pieces of their wrapping paper, bows,  and bags with tissue paper to my cart and I love how they will complement my decor theme.

Here are some of my other favorites from the new Hearth & Hand with Magnolia collection:

And a few Sugar Paper pieces (not from Target) that are amazing for the holidays:

SALES THIS WEEK:

• Saks Fifth Avenue — Take up to 40% off at the Sneak Peak Sale. Ends tonight.

• Kate Spade — Enjoy an extra 30% with code DELICIOUS. Ends tonight.

• Banana Republic — Take 40% off all regular priced items with code BRFAMILY and take an extra 30% off sale styles. Valid until tomorrow.

• Macy’s — Save up to an extra 30% off on select regular, sale, and clearance items and $10 off every $50 spent on cosmetics and fragrance with code EVENT (Exclusions apply). Ends tonight.

• Neiman Marcus — Party Season! Use promo code NOVSAVE for $50 off $200 or $100 off $400 regular priced items.

• Nordstrom — The Fall Sale. Valid through November 12.

Featured Image via ProFlowers