The ideal time to start planning for the holidays with your family is…right now

The weather forecast might still be screaming “summer,” but the calendar betrays the truth: The holidays are going to be here before you know it.

What’s usually billed as a jolly time of year can inspire dread — all the planning, all the spending, all the gathering can be exhausting, especially if you have a large family.

Of course you’d like to put that off for as long as possible, right? Surely these conversations can wait until after Halloween.

But waiting too long can actually make the holidays more stressful — and can put undue stress on the women in your life, who often shoulder the burden of organizing and planning.

One lollygagger who delays in committing to a plan can prevent the rest of the family from booking flights or buying necessary supplies.

What can seem like an annoying text from your sister reminding you to RSVP for Thanksgiving in early October only adds to her mental load in planning a dinner for 20 people.

“There can be an enormous amount of invisible labor involved in making the holiday magic happen, and that labor falls disproportionately on women and caregivers,” Jamila E.

Holcomb , a licensed marriage and family therapist and associate teaching professor at Florida State University, told Vox.

“If one person is coordinating everyone’s flights, planning meals, buying gifts, arranging childcare, communicating schedules, and managing family conflict, this can cause significant stress.

It also makes one person responsible for everyone else’s experience, which is an unequal division of labor.” The pressure to plan the “perfect” holiday isn’t merely logistical.

In our hyper-connected and visible culture, people may feel pressured to orchestrate a high-stakes production that somehow is meaningful, memorable, and Instagram-worthy.

In other words, planning for the holidays can be its own form of labor these days.

To help make the whole ordeal more manageable for everyone — not just the hosts or Type A family members — five experts offered their advice on sharing responsibilities and actually enjoying the season.

Getting ahead of this coordination can help minimize the stress on everyone in a few months.