You’ve made a list and checked it twice, and all that’s missing is a workshop full of elves to tackle all of the cooking, cleaning, decorating, shopping and wrapping. Since Santa isn’t sharing his little helpers, we’ve come up with simple tricks to make this holiday season easier and a lot more affordable.

SPEND SMARTER

1. Surf for deals – There is nothing more exciting than finding a cashmere sweater on sale, right? Duplicate that thrill using online coupons. Sites like www.couponcraze.com, www.coupons.com, and www.goodshop.com offer printable coupons for thousands of retailers. You can find such deals as free shipping and 20 percent off online purchases. Another way to find discounts online: Google “sale” or “coupon code” along with the name of the item you want or the store where you want to shop.

2. Get discounts at spas – Think it’s too expensive to purchase spa gift certificates for your mom, sister and best friend? You might be surprised. Find out what discounts are available at www.spafinder.com. Even if no discount is published, many spas are willing to negotiate the price of their services if you buy a package deal. Just make sure to speak to the spa manager.

3. Budget for everything – It’s easy for costs to creep up when you don’t keep track of miscellaneous holiday expenses, such as postage, cards and wrapping paper. Start the season with a budget for the small stuff as well as gifts and entertaining – and keep track with a holiday budget worksheet, which can be downloaded from www.frugalliving.about.com.

4. Give from the heart – Creating a unique gift doesn’t have to involve baking or a handmade IOU certificate. Consider these alternatives: For your spouse, make a CD of romantic songs and design an album cover at www.cdbyme.com. For young children, personalize a storybook with their names, ages and other details at www.dhchildrensbooks.com. For close friends and family, make a photo calendar at Snapfish or Shutterfly.

5. Downsize your gift list – Rather than buying gifts for everyone on your list, plan an old-fashioned Secret Santa exchange. Have everyone pull one name from a hat and buy a gift for that one person. Agree on a budget in advance so gifts don’t get too extravagant.

6. Redefine wine – Good wine doesn’t have to come with a hefty price tag. You can get some great quality wines in a box, such as Black Box and Banrock Station, available in most wine shops. Don’t want guests to see the box? Decant the wine into pretty pitchers and tuck the boxes out of sight. Or, serve a wine-based punch.

KEEP YOUR COOL

7. Get organized – Spend an afternoon creating a comprehensive calendar that includes parties, religious services and doctor appointments. Your calendar should also include dates to bake cookies, mail gifts and the annual Black Friday sale at the mall. Once all your important dates are marked, you can see if you are scheduled to be in two places at once and make plans to deal with the schedule conflict.

8. Lighten your load – Instead of lugging gifts across the country in shopping bags and suitcases, ship them. It will be one less thing to worry about during an already stressful time. You may want to put gifts in unsealed gift bags in case the post office or delivery service has to inspect the packages.
 

9. Establish a theme – Make gift giving a simpler affair by choosing a theme for all your presents. Declare it, “The Year of the Books” and buy a romance novel for mom, a travel book for a jet-setting friend and picture books for the kids. Themes are great for parties, too. Sites like www.orientaltrading.com and www.birthdayinabox.com offer themed invitations and decorations that’ll make it look like you spent months planning the perfect party.

10. Get delivery service – Go online to eliminate some of your errand-running this season. Depending on where you live, you may be able to have your groceries – everything from meat and dairy to fresh veggies – delivered right to your door for a small fee by Peapod or Netgrocer. The U.S. Postal Service online makes life similarly convenient. Go to www.usps.com to order stamps, which will be delivered to your mailbox, or to schedule a package pickup right from your door.

11. Hire help – Sometimes it’s worth splurging to make your life easier. Hiring professionals to install Christmas lights, for example, will allow you to spend the afternoon enjoying family time instead of checking and replacing burned-out bulbs. And a professional cleaning service, if only before or after a holiday event, can take a potentially unpleasant (and exhausting) task off your to-do list.

FIND MORE TIME

12. Host a cookie swap – Instead of buying ingredients for several different types of cookies, and then spending days in the kitchen baking each type, keep your ingredient list simple and host a cookie swap. Make 10 batches of your famous chocolate chip cookies, invite 10 friends to bring over 10 batches of their favorite cookies, and trade. You’ll have plenty of cookies to serve throughout the holidays as well as a great afternoon with friends.

13. Make an appointment with Santa – Photos with Santa are an important tradition for many, but who wants to wait in line for hours? Avoid the long lines at the mall – and the excruciating search for a parking spot in the midst of the shopping rush – and make an appointment to have the kids’ photos taken with the big guy. Photo studios all over the country offer Santa photos by appointment. Schedule a time first thing in the morning, so the kids have less time to get their holiday clothes wrinkled and dirty!

14. Rethink holiday dinner – Imagine sitting down to a holiday table brimming with all of your favorites – turkey, stuffing and cranberry sauce. Now, imagine only having to cook one of those dishes. It can happen if you host a potluck. Ask Mom to make her famous stuffing and have Aunt Georgia make her blue-ribbon pumpkin pie.

15. Pick your priorities – Instead of trying to follow too many time-honored traditions, hold a family meeting and ask each member what tradition is most important to him or her. By skipping the less-meaningful events, like caroling in the cold, you can spend more time on the ones your family really does enjoy – like driving around the neighborhood to see the holiday lights.

16. Plan a huge party – Believe it or not, it’s easier to plan one large party than to host individual festivities for the family, neighbors and the bridge club. You’ll have only one RSVP list to manage, one whole-house cleaning session, one major shopping trip and one afternoon prepping hors d’oeuvres in the kitchen. (And your party will be the talk of the town for the rest of the year!)