If you stick your fingers in your ears at the mention of Christmas anytime before November, you might just be missing out. You don’t need to be scouting for spruce trees or organizing your ornaments, but keeping Christmas in mind a number of months before it arrives can be helpful for your schedule, your stress levels and your bank account.

So what can you do to get ready for Christmas, without going so far as to start decorating? Try these simple ideas that will get you started without going overboard.

* Start looking at the calendar. Holiday parties fill peoples’ schedules up all too quickly, which means that if you neglect to plan yours until the last minute, you might not be able to get all your guests to come. You can lay the groundwork for your party by picking a date, designing invitations online at sites like Vistaprint.com, and pulling ideas from magazines and blogs about what you’d like your party to look like and what kind of foods you want to serve.

* Shopping has no season. How many times have you gone out on a Christmas shopping mission, only to find yourself struggling to remember exactly what someone said they wanted months ago? You can eliminate the struggles of shopping by buying early. If possible, make notes on your phone or keep a notebook with you to jot down ideas. Plus, if you start early, you can take advantage of many of the sales that happen in the months before holiday shopping kicks off.

* Get your greetings in order. Does the mad rush to the post office the week before Christmas get you stressed? Then it’s definitely worth your time to start creating your Christmas cards now. Begin by sorting through the snapshots you’ve accumulated over the year, from vacations, school activities, parties and simple everyday activities, narrowing down your favorites. On websites like Vistaprint.com, you can create Christmas cards using a number of photos, or if you’ve got a full dozen that you love, create custom photo calendars. There are surprisingly low rates available, making it a reasonable option to send to your family and loved ones.

* Save up. The sales that are available on everything from clothes to Christmas cards in the months before the holidays are a good place to start paring back on the amount you’ll spend on Christmas. However, other expenses will certainly come up, so it’s a good idea to save a little extra and designate it specifically for use over the holidays.

You might need to pay for plane tickets (always extra pricey at the holidays), hotel rooms, food, decorating accessories and last-minute gifts, and it’s better to not add the extra stress of being short on cash when the time comes. If you start early enough, put money away little by little, you can have a nice bit of financial padding built up in time for the holidays.