The following must each hear or say havdala for themselves:

• Men and boys 13 years old and up, and
• Women and girls 12 years old and up.

You may squeeze a tube of cream on Shabbat, but you might not be able to use the cream on Shabbat for other reasons—consult a rabbi.

Set the Shabbat table with nice tableware and tablecloth.  The custom is to have the table set and have bread on the table before Shabbat starts. 
The tablecloth should cover the table during Shabbat meals, but you may remove and switch tablecloths. Even if you have a beautiful and valuable table, you should still cover it for Shabbat (and Jewish festival) meals.

The intermediate days of Passover and Sukkot (between the first and last days, which are festival days) are called “chol ha'moed.”  Passover has four chol ha'moed  days outside of Eretz Yisrael and five days in Eretz Yisrael. Sukkot has five chol ha'moed days outside of Israel and six inside Eretz Yisrael.
The restrictions that apply to the Jewish festival days generally do not apply to the chol ha'moed days (see below for exceptions).

You may completely open plastic bottle caps on plastic bottles on Jewish festivals (even if doing so will leave a plastic ring on the bottle), as long as it is theoretically possible to dispense the liquid without completely separating the cap from its seal.

As on Jewish festivals, the minimum total volume of Shabbat kiddush beverage that must be drunk--usually by the kiddush-maker (mevareich) but it may even be by several people combined--is a cheekful (m'lo lugmov), as follows:

• 2 fl. oz. (59 ml) within 30 seconds of beginning to drink for d'oraita cases such as Shabbat evening kiddush (as well as first-night Jewish festival kiddush and all havdalas), and
• 1.7 fl. oz. (50 ml) within 30 seconds of beginning to drink for d'rabanan cases such as Shabbat lunch kiddush (as well as first-day Jewish festival lunch kiddush and all second-day Jewish festival kiddushes).

You may take a painkiller on the first day of Jewish festivals if the pain:

• Affects your entire body, or
• Keeps you awake.

Almost all mitzvot may be enhanced by:

• Making them beautiful (hidur mitzva), or
• Observing non-required stringencies (mehadrin).

In addition to prayer obligations (see Women: Minimal Prayer), women and girls 12 years old and up are required to keep these time-dependent positive commandments, among others:

• Candle-lighting for Chanuka (see Chanuka: Candles: Who Should Light )
• Candle-lighting for Shabbat, Jewish festivals, Rosh Hashana, and Yom Kippur.
• Havdala (say or hear) after Shabbat, Jewish festivals, Rosh Hashana, and Yom Kippur.
• Kiddush (say or hear) on the first night (or first two nights outside Eretz Yisrael) of every Jewish festival, and also the next morning.
• Passover (all commandments, including eating matza at the Passover seder).
  Note Because she must eat matza, she must therefore say birkat ha'mazon afterward (so if a woman omits ya'ale v'yavo in birkat ha'mazon at the seder, she must repeat birkat ha'mazon!).
• Megila on Purim.
• Shabbat (For why women must keep time-dependent, positive commandments on Shabbat, see Introduction to Shabbat )
• Shofar on Rosh Hashana.
  Note Jewish women universally accepted upon themselves to hear shofar on Rosh Hashana, but they only need to hear 30 blasts.
• Hearing the reading of Parashat Zachor.

You may not wash or hang up wet laundry on Jewish festivals (or Shabbat).  The halachot for drying laundry depend on whether you use a clothesline or a dryer:
Jewish Festivals: Laundry: Clothesline
You may only take down laundry on Jewish festivals if it was dry before sunset at the start of the festival, and only if you don't:

• Transfer the laundry from one halachic domain to another (hotza'a), or
• Give the impression that the laundry had been washed on the Jewish festival (mar'it ayin).

If laundry on a clothesline is still wet at sunset before the festival, the laundry is muktza and you may not take it down or use it during the festival. This is different from the case of a dryer.
Reason On the clothes line, there is no certainty that the laundry will dry during the festival (it might rain, it might be cold or cloudy...), so the person may not have in mind that it will dry during the festival.
Jewish Festivals: Laundry: Dryer
Laundry in a dryer (even if it was wet at sunset) that was turned on before sunset beginning the Jewish festival (or Shabbat) is not muktza, even if you do not intend to wear it.  You may remove the dry laundry from the dryer on the Jewish festival as long as no light goes on.

Psik reisha d'la nicha lei (halacha whose violation you don't intend and from which you receive no benefit) is not permitted.
Example
You open the refrigerator door on Shabbat and the light comes on.  This is forbidden on Shabbat and Jewish festivals, even if you don't want or need the light. 
However, you may ask a non-Jew to do an action for you that will be psik reisha d'la nicha lei.
EXAMPLE
 You may ask a non-Jew to get your jacket from the car on Shabbat or a Jewish festival, even though a light will go on, but only during the daytime; if it is night and the light would be needed to find the jacket, you may not ask.

There are two requirements for Shabbat daytime kiddush: Say or Hear Kiddush Segments/Blessings and Establish a Halachic Meal (kovei'a se'uda):
 
1. Say or Hear Kiddush Segments/Blessings
    You must say, or hear, the Shabbat daytime kiddush segments/blessings and someone
     must drink at least 2 fl. oz. (59 ml) of the kiddush beverage:

• Say or Hear Kiddush Segments/Blessings
  • Torah segment(s): V'shamru bnei Yisrael (even beginning from al kein).
  • Blessing over at least 3.3 fl. oz. (99ml) of drink:
    • Borei pri ha'gafen (if on wine or grape juice), OR
    • She'hakol nihiyeh bi'dvaro (if on other beverage/chamar medina).

• Drink at Least 2 fl. oz. (59 ml) of the Kiddush Drink

 
2. Establish Halachic Meal (Kovei'a Se'uda)
    You must establish a halachic meal (kovei'a se'uda) shortly after saying or hearing
    Shabbat morning kiddush by either:

• Drinking Wine--at least 4 fl. oz (119 ml) of wine (or grape juice) within 30 seconds, OR
• Eating Bread/Mezonot--at least 1.3 fl. oz. (39 ml, or 1/6 cup) of bread or mezonot within four minutes.

Note The second half of making kiddush, “establishing a meal” (kovei'a se'uda), can be fulfilled simultaneously when you fulfill the subsequent, separate Shabbat requirement for “eating a meal” but in that case, you must eat 1.9 fl. oz. of bread.
Note If you make, or hear, Shabbat morning kiddush on any beverage except wine or grape juice, you must also eat at least 1.3 fl. oz. (39 ml, or 1/6 cup) of bread or mezonot within four minutes to establish the kiddush meal. If you do not want to eat bread or mezonot, only drinking at least 4 fl. oz. (119 ml) of wine (or grape juice) within 30 seconds will fulfill all the kiddush requirements. 
Note If you have not fulfilled the kiddush requirements, you may not eat other foods, such as fruit or fish at a kiddush.
Note   Once you have heard kiddush and either eaten the required bread or mezonot or drunk the required 4 fl. oz. of wine or grape juice, you do not need to say or listen to kiddush again if you eat your actual meal later (except if you need to say kiddush for other people who have not yet heard or said kiddush).

Here are some suggestions (they are NOT halachot!) of what to prepare in advance of Jewish festivals. Add or delete to suit your needs!
  
Candle Lighting

• Check candle lighting time
• Set the candles in their holders (and have matches nearby)

 
Set the Table
Set the table, including the challa and its cover
 
Kitchen Preparation

• Sharpen knives
• Tear paper towels
• Refrigerator: Turn off or unscrew lights; disconnect any LEDs or fans
• Turn on blech, stove, oven, etc., for whatever you will need
• Set up hot water urn
• Turn off stove, oven, if needed

 
Food Preparation

• Thaw frozen meat, fish, and other food that might take hours to defrost before being cooked
• Cook whatever can be cooked ahead of time
• Squeeze lemons; do any other boreir-type preparations
• Chill wine
• Open bottles and cans that will be needed on the Jewish festival

 
Cleaning

• Make beds
• Sweep or vacuum
• Dump garbage

 
Clothing

• Do laundry
• Empty pockets of muktza
• For men, set out Jewish festival talit

 
Muktza
Check that nothing you will need is beneath a muktza item
 
Personal Care

• Cut hair and nails, if needed
• For men, shave or trim beard and mustache, if needed
• Tear dental floss
• Tear toilet paper or put out tissues in bathrooms
• Open any new boxes of tissues

 
Electronics

• Set heat or air conditioning
• Turn on or off lights, or set timers for them
• If desired, turn off or disconnect:

• Alarms 
• Cellphones and phones
• Computers
• Microwave detectors
• Other electronics

Any adult Jew, male or female, may say kiddush for him/herself and, as long as he/she still needs to say kiddush for him/herself, may include any other Jews of any age or gender.
Any Jewish male, 13 years old or older, may say kiddush for anyone else, either gender and any age, even if he has already fulfilled his personal requirement of saying kiddush.
Any Jewish female, 12 years old or older, may say kiddush for any other females but not for men, except that on the 2 Passover seder nights, a Jewish female who is at least 12 years old may even say kiddush for men, if the men are not able to say it for themselves. (Women may also say kiddush for men on Shabbat evening).
Reason Any person who is obligated to fulfill the mitzva of kiddush may say it for another person.  It is questionable whether women are obligated to say (or have said for them) Jewish festival morning kiddush.
 

A mourner may not generally enter a hall of joyous celebration and may not eat at any public meal. During the year of mourning for parents, you may not join any public festivities (even if it is not a simcha) that have a meal, including any meals celebrating a mitzva (se'udat mitzva) such as for a brit mila, wedding, or redemption of a son (pidyon ha'ben). After 30 days, you may attend a bar mitzva or a siyum meal, since a bar mitzva is similar to a siyum since the child's parent's commandment to educate his/her child in Jewish education has been completed.
ExceptionA mourner whose child is getting married, does attend the wedding and does eat at the meal with everyone else, even if mourning for a parent. He or she does not need to leave the room when music is being played. To attend the wedding of anyone other than one's child, regardless of who died, a mourner must eat alone and outside the main dining area.