Hi friends, so far in this Organized for Christmas weekly series, we have tackled the following:
Set up and organize the gift planner app (or paper version) with list of names to buy gifts for along with appropriate budget for each. Find it HERE.
Set up and organize gift storage space. Find it HERE.
If you haven’t had a chance to do either of those tasks, go back and do them now. I promise, you’ll be so glad you did. Our goal here is to set ourselves up for an organized Christmas now so we can savor the season later. Leaving everything to do in December will only lead to chaos, overwhelm and frustration. We don’t want that so doing some advance planning is key.
We need to be intentional in the weeks leading up to the holidays. And the reason I keep referring to “holidays” plural is to encompass the Thanksgiving holiday on November 24th in the US. Here in Canada we already celebrated Thanksgiving in October so it’s a little easier for us here as we only have the one holiday to focus on at this point.
Assignment #3: Holiday Planner
So today’s task is all about setting up a holiday planner or a Christmas planner whichever you prefer. We are taking organization to the next level here my friends. You are going to be so organized this year you will be giddy with delight 🙂
It doesn’t have to be complicated or take a long time to set up. It’s just a matter of gathering some essential printables to have ready to go when you need them. Luckily there are so many great free printables out there to make our lives easier and I’ll provide some great links for you below.
I have used a Christmas Planner for years and once you have it set up then you can just re-use it year after year. I’ve shared mine on the blog many times before. In addition to my planner pages, I like to keep all my Christmas recipes in mine so I don’t have to search all over the place for them. It makes it quick and easy to reference them. Having everything organized in one place is such a beautiful thing.
This Week’s To Do List
Purchase a binder and dividers:
Get yourself a binder. I like this one (affiliate link) because you can slip a cover and spine printable behind the plastic.
Also grab yourself some dividers (affiliate link) so you can keep everything nicely separated and organized.
Print off holiday planner printables:
I finally have free printables of my own to offer you. I hope you find them helpful as it includes 27 pretty planning pages to help you keep on top of it all.
Update: grab your 2017 Holiday Planner Printables & Calendars right HERE.
Okay, so first thing we need…calendars! Print off November and December calendars using the link above.
These printed calendars will be for recording all the little things that we need to take into consideration.
I know most of us write on our calendars the big events like Christmas parties, potlucks, parades, shopping dates, etc. but what many forget to take into consideration are all the little details that are attached to each of these big events. It’s the little details that bog us down, making us feel scattered, forgetful and rushed off our feet.
You can read more about the process of calendar planning in a detailed post I wrote last year.
A Simpler Season
Finally I highly recommend the A Simpler Season ebook (affiliate link). It’s not free but it’s currently on sale and you get all of this with it:
- creative ideas for celebrating Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s
- over 150 pages of content: ideas, recipes, and inspiration for planning a special holiday season with your family
- 70+ printable pages: evergreen calendars, to do sheets, inventories, and planning pages
- games and activities to do with the kids
- 24+ family activity cards to print and do over the month of December
- printable recipe and gift cards to help you make edible gifts
- a variety of family devotional ideas to explore with your family
- a list of children’s books to enjoy as well as extension activities to do with your children after the reading
- family-friendly recipes for the each of the winter holidays
- questions to get you thinking about how you really want to spend your time this year
- easy downloadable format in pdf or on kindle
Start filling in the blanks:
Whew now that we’ve got our printers working up a storm, it’s time to start filling in the blanks where we can. For this week try to do maybe 10 minutes a day or a form a day. Keep your binder where you’ll see it and be reminded of it. You are already way ahead of the game and I hope you are already feeling a little less stressed about the approaching holidays.
You’ll notice I didn’t go too much into menu planning for the holidays. I’ll be getting into that in a little more detail in upcoming weeks.
How many of you are keeping up with your Organized for Christmas tasks?
- *Please note that affiliate links are included in this post to make it easier for you to find what is being referenced. A small commission is made should you purchase product using these links, but this is at no extra cost to you. As always, any and all opinions are genuinely my own – or the author, in the case of posts by my guest contributors. Thank you!*
Carol Darden says
I downloaded the app and am really enjoying it. Once my daughter’s family moves out this weekend, I’ll set-up the place for the gifts I’ve already bought and have stuffed in several places….
I have never used a Christmas/Holiday planner, but I’ll check it out. Thank you for the help in not getting overwhelmed.
Laura Wittmann says
Carol that’s so great to hear! So glad you are liking the series, thanks for sharing!
Tonya Driggers says
At 50yo, I’m feeling in control of the holidays for the first time ever! Thank you! =)
Laura Wittmann says
Yay! Thank you so much for taking the time to write a quick comment, I so appreciate it. And I so happy that my series is being some help to you. Whoot!
Mary says
Great Resource for planning Christmas! 🙂
Laura Wittmann says
Thanks Mary!
Mary Johnson says
Our big holiday event is when we volunteer at a local restoration village for their candlelight nights event. So all is based on when they have same. This past year was 12/26-30 – it takes all our time. We make dinner for Christmas Eve and eat out – Asian buffet – for Christmas Day and New Year’s is no big deal. I used to make dinner for both families for Thanksgiving (25 years) but no longer do as we had bed bugs and won’t have anyone in the house any longer as we can’t afford to have them again. So either we go to the same Asian buffet or I cook dinner – real waste of time and effort.