Christmas Planning Ideas

Do you enjoy all the planning and build up to Christmas or does the festive season leave you feeling frazzled? The secret to a stress-free Christmas is to start planning and organizing ahead of time - even in November!

Melissa Michaels of "The Inspired Room" has just started her series for Christmas, and she advises thinking about what is important and meaningful for you at this time of year and then planning from there. There is a lot of wisdom in being deliberate about what you choose to do (and what you plan NOT to do!) during the festive season. Having a big picture plan that helps you prioritize will go a long way to preventing that frazzled feeling in the New Year.

Another helpful site is Emma Marie Designs "15 Days to an Organized Christmas". She has a free Christmas Planner that includes everything you need to do and think about before Christmas as well as 15 days of blog posts to guide you through the process.

I also like "The 36th Avenue" for their list of  Christmas traditions which includes a list of scripture verses to read by candle light in the 24 days leading up to Christmas. Another of our Christmas traditions is to use the Jacquie Lawson electronic advent calendar in the count down to Christmas.

This year I have made a Christmas "To Do" list ahead of time, with a time line for doing different things so that I can spread out all the things that I would like to get done. This is a rough plan of what I think I would like to do:

By End of  November 

• Make Christmas Cards
• Update address list
• Write in cards and address envelopes
• Set a Christmas budget for gifts and festivities
• Write a list of gifts that I would like to give at Christmas
• Plan what shops I need to get to to buy gifts or supplies to make gifts with
• Set up advent calendar for my daughter with tiny chocolates and scripture verses
• Finalize plans for Christmas supper/lunch

By early December

• Post Christmas cards
• Finish making handmade gifts
• Christmas gift shopping done
• Put up Christmas tree while listening to suitable "Christmassy" music

By Middle of December

• Complete gift wrapping and make tags
• Make star biscuits or fruit mince pies for neighbours
• Carol Service tea duty organized
• Buy ahead ingredients for Christmas supper/lunch
• Make paper angels 

By Christmas Eve

• Set the table and make a center piece
• Finish prep for Christmas supper/lunch

Christmas Day

• Attend Christmas Church Service
• Relax and enjoy the day!

What are your essential "To Dos" for Christmas? Do you like to plan ahead or are you more of a last minute kind of person when it comes to the festive season?

My Top Three Tips for Staying Organized

If you are struggling to stay organized or to get organized you are not alone! With each new season of our lives come new challenges and different organizing strategies and solutions need to be found. Being organized is definitely a process as well as a mental habit.

Photo by Angelina Litvin

My top three tips for staying organized even if you are feeling overwhelmed:

1. Use a diary/planner/bullet journal and keep all your appointments and to-do lists in one place. Having scraps of paper here and there can make it difficult to keep track of everything - so centralize them all into one place.
2. Have a place for everything and put items back in their places. Where you would first think of looking for something is probably a good place to keep it. If it is too difficult to put something back it might mean you are keeping it in the wrong place. Make everything you use regularly easy to access and to put away again.
3. Try to keep surfaces clear. It is so much easier to clean (and also to relax) if you are not confronted by piles of things on various surfaces. If things are piling up it is a sign to do a clean up. If you need to do a major organizing session some good advice is to use the  PROCESS method by the Organizing Junkie. She goes through some logical and helpful steps to take when doing a tidying project - big or small.

What are your top tips for staying on top of the chaos?  Do you have any tried and tested ways to stay organized?