Did it just occur to you that you have gifts to buy and cookies to bake and oh crap! You're out of tape! Here are my favorite last-minute holiday hacks to make your Christmas less stressful!

Giveaway: $100 CVS/pharmacy Gift Card

Hanukah is over but I know for most of you, the holidays are just beginning. If you are a busy person (working, parenting, living, breathing), Christmas can tend to sneak up on you. Maybe you didn’t hear Jingle Bells start playing over the loudspeaker at the supermarket all the way back in October and it’s just dawning on you that you’ve got presents to buy, cards to send out and 5000 cookies to bake. It happens!

While I can’t snap my fingers and wrap all your presents, I can give a few last minute tips to solve common problems of holiday procrastinators.

12 Last minute Holiday Hacks:

1) You’re in charge of dessert for your sister’s holiday shindig and you don’t have the time to spend all day in your kitchen baking when you’ve still got presents to buy. Forget handmade. Buy store bought sweets and upgrade them with easy peasy fixings. You’ll get applauded for your creativity instead of your baking skillz, but that’s just as good!

12 Last Minute Hacks for Holiday Procrastinators

2) You’ve spent all night wrapping gifts and have a few left when you run out of tape. You’ve already ransacked the drawers for packing or medical tape but still came up short. What to do? Find some stickers! If your house is anything like mine, you’ve got tons of them with a potty training chart somewhere.

12 Last Minute Hacks for Holiday Procrastinators

3) If it’s wrapping that you ran out of, use old newspaper or magazines. If you haven’t bought a hard copy of a newspaper in ten years, you can even wrap gifts with a piece of fabric, a scarf or a tea towel.

4) You finally took a good picture for your holiday card but if you order online and wait for them to be delivered, it will be way past Christmas. To get everything out the door on time, order your cards online at CVS/pharmacy and they’ll be available for same day pick-up! CVS has hundreds of customized photo card templates to choose from and you can upload photos from your camera roll, your CVS photo account or straight from Facebook or Instagram. I ordered the cards below and they were ready for pick up in under two hours! Doesn’t get any faster than that.

If you are running behind on your holiday cards, here's a tip for you: You can create customized photo cards at CVS/pharmacy online for same day pick-up! My cards were ready in under two hours! "12 last minute holiday hacks" at the link! #CVSholidayhowto

5) Oh no! You just found out Aunt Sally is coming to your holiday gathering and you didn’t get her a present! What to do??? REGIFT. I’m sure someone has given you a pair of gloves or a festive mug or a box of pears within the last 24 hours that you can pawn off to the next lucky recipient. Whoever gave you those gloves was probably regifting them to begin with anyway.

6) If you forgot to buy gift tags, wrap each kid’s gifts with a different wrapping paper. That way little Timmy knows all the reindeer themed paper is his and little Judy knows the snowflakes are hers. Saves time on writing cards too.

7) If you’re afraid to break out the good glasses for your holiday party but still want to use something festive, check out this ridiculously simple Santa upgrade to plain old red SOLO cups.

12 Last Minute Hacks for Holiday Procrastinators

8) If you are light on stocking stuffers, I suggest finding items right in your own house. Oranges make great stocking stuffers, as do new toothbrushes, character Band Aids and leftover Halloween candy.

9) If you forget to get gifts for your nieces and nephews, call your sister or brother before you make an emergency run to the mall. It’s very possible they forgot too. This year my sister and I made a last minute arrangement to exchange old toys instead of buying new ones. The kids really don’t know the difference and it saves time, money and most importantly— SPACE!

10) Did you run out of places to put the Elf? Try this one.

12 Last Minute Hacks for Holiday Procrastinators

Image source: Imgur

11) If you’ve got extended family coming over and realize you’ve got pics of one Grandma framed on the mantle and not the other, save face by buying same-day photo prints at CVS/pharmacy. Last thing you want is a family member to feel slighted for under representation in your home. You can print photos from their website or you can even do it on-the-go from the CVS/pharmacy mobile app while you’re picking up last minute rolls of toilet paper or something. Talk about multi-tasking!

12) If you don’t want to spend all day cooking a turkey, consider deep frying it. It takes about 45 minutes and it’s great entertainment. If you’re afraid you’ll burn the house down, I recommend ordering take-out Chinese. That’s what the Jews do!

GIVEAWAY: $100 CVS/pharmacy Gift Card

To enter to win a $100 CVS/pharmacy gift card, share a story of your biggest holiday fail below. Whether it was a dog who ate the tree or a forgotten gift, let me know in the comments below!

You must be a Mommy Shorts subscriber to enter and the winner will be announced on December 30th, 2015.

Winner update:

Congrats to Sydney H.! Please contact pam@mommyshorts.com to claim your prize.

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This post was sponsored by CVS, but all thoughts and opinions are my own.