The forsts have come and if you missed covering your tender plants, they may have burned some and been frosted back. Do not cut this dead growth off now, (wait until spring since it will protect tender plant parts that are still alive). If your plants are tender, semi tender and not frost damaged, then you can cover them with drop cloth when future cold snaps come and remove during the foillowing day. Spraying one of the frost protection sprays will give you a few degrees more hardiness.
I avoid all this by planting hardy plants so there is no need for fussing over plants when the holiday tasks are upon us. If you plant tender things in containers, you can just move pots to a protected location during extreme cold.
Don’t worry about frost damage on root hardy plants like cannas, gladiolous, etc. They are root hardy in our climate zones where the ground does not freeze. You can still dig them up and store in sawdust in the garage, being careful not to damage the corms, tubers, etc. depending on what kind of ‘bulb’ you have.