Holiday Planning: Christmas Gifts, Christmas Cards, and Decorating
"I wanted to bring joy to other people and decided the holidays were as much a matter of organization as they were a matter of the heart. The two work together. Organization during the holidays is an expression of the heart."
-Marcia Ramsland
What is your biggest holiday stress?
Lots of things might come to mind, but let's look at the most common sources of holiday stress and how to overcome them.
1- Gifts: Organize Your Gift Giving
This is probably the first area to tackle because so much of the holiday celebrations revolve around opening gifts at Christmas. So gift giving is one of the biggest stressors of the season.
Create a regular form to write down the people that you plan to give a gift to, and then use it from year to year. The more organized your records, the less trouble you will have thinking of new gifts to purchase.
Begin by making a chart with five columns and list:
1 - Name: each person you plan to get gifts for
2 - Gift Ideas: ideas of what you want to give
3 - Budget: the dollar amount you plan to spend
4 - Bought: what you actually get
5 - Wrapped: wrap early and write where you hide it.
Check off the last column with a flourish in red pen when your gift is all wrapped
and ready to give!
2- Cards: Send a Holiday Greeting
The key to getting Christmas cards out in a timely fashion is finding a system or style of cards that works for you. Here are four styles from which you might like to choose:
1. The traditional Christmas card. Buy boxed card sets to communicate your message in your style. Keep it simple by choosing one design for the year.
2. The traditional Christmas card, plus a letter insert. Save the time of writing the
same thing over and over by typing a half-page or full page of family news to insert in the card.
3. The photo Christmas card. Share your favorite highlight of the year with an attractive photo of you and/or your family. If a picture is worth a thousand words, then this Christmas card is a winner.
4. The family Christmas letter. Pull out all the stops to include photos and updates for
family and friends. This is another winner for keeping in touch.
If you choose a style that’s comfortable for you, you’ll be more likely to keep doing it. Friends will thank you for keeping in touch too!
The key is to look at "THE 4 Week Plan" and figure out when and how you are going to purchase, address, and send them. Write it on your calendar now.
3- Decorations: Set-Up Early
Check "The 4 Week PLAN" in Simplify Your Holidays and decide when you are going to put up your Christmas tree AND when you are going to take it down! Usually it is best to put it up on one of the first two weekends in December. Enjoy it early and all month… but not much longer than December.
As one lady put it, “For the Holidays it’s always too early to start…
until it’s too late to begin!” Decide when you will do the above three
Challenges. You can easily get them done if you note what day of the week works best for each activity at your house and how long they take.
That makes the following years so much easier!
FEATURED CLIENT STORY of the Week:
One lady just told my girlfriend she “…just finished all her Christmas shopping” – and it was the last week in October. My girlfriend said, “How did you do it?”
“Simple, I just followed all the tips in Marcia’s chapter on “Simplify the Holidays” in her book. It gave me a step by step plan I followed. Now I can leisurely wrap the gifts and enjoy the season.”
This is the Holiday Notebook I talk about in my book, Simplify Your Life: Get Organized and Stay that Way! This is a customized plan you can follow year after year to make the holidays easier.
Marcia Ramsland is well known as "The Organizing Pro" for her practical skills and tips to manage busy lives. She is a speaker, author, and media guest expert appearing on TV, radio, and in national magazines for her popular books Simplify Your Life, Simplify Your Time, and Simplify Your Holidays (Thomas Nelson). Visit her website, www.organizingpro.com for free tips.
|
