Don’t wait until December 25th to celebrate Christmas – start counting down on December 1st with this creative “Countdown to Christmas” idea — it’s a cross between an advent calendar and a mom’s to-do list. By getting the kids involved, you’ll tackle some of your must-do tasks and have fun celebrating Christmas all through the month of December.

How it works:

Find a central location to start your countdown. We use the front room mirror, which displays the words “only (SPACE FOR CARD) days til Christmas”. Each morning, I put up a piece of coloured cardstock with the number of days left til Christmas written on the front. On the back is a surprise – sometimes just a gift or a fun activity, other times a gift/task combo. The kids take the card down after school or on Sat/Sun morning and we do what the card says. (Hint: Have your cards ready the night before so you stick with the countdown!)

What goes on the cards? Be creative and choose activities that are fun for the kids and the family and mix in some tasks that are fun but need to get done. Here’s a list to help you get started.

• Go look in the fridge (leave glasses of eggnog with candy canes for stir sticks).
•  We’re going to decorate the family Christmas tree tonight!
•  Today we’re baking cookies for Santa (good for weekends, and you get some baking done!).
•  We’re going on a Christmas lights, hot chocolate & popcorn drive (that is, a drive around town to look at lights, then home for popcorn & hot chocolate).
•  Go look under the Christmas tree (where there’s a new holiday movie for everyone to enjoy.)
•  Go look on your bed (where there’s a simple holiday craft to make together).
•  Let’s find out how many Christmas books we have. (Get the kids to pullout all of the holiday titles, put them in a basket and pick their favourites to read now.)
•  It’s Christmas cards night. (Do it assembly-style so everyone can help, then off to the mailbox – another task done.)
•  Grab your coat and boots, we’re going to see a holiday movie at the theatre!
•  Let’s surprise a neighbour with a plate of cookies.
•  We’re making bird treats to decorate the backyard tree.

Once you get started, you’ll see how much the kids look forward to their daily surprise and how much you’ve accomplished. Most importantly, your entire family will have a longer and more enjoyable holiday season.

Watch beginning December 1st when I share how we’re celebrating the holiday season.  I wish I could share photos from last season but my computer crashed and I lost them - if you don’t backup your photos — go do it now!

If you have any ideas to add to our list please share them with me!

Helen

For those of you who have been following along, you may have the holiday season wrapped up - if so, congratulations!  If not, you are not alone.

My goal was to be ready by December 1st but life gets in the way sometimes and it did… so I still have a list to complete and thought I would challenge all of you to join me in a December Dash.  From now until next Friday - lets get as much done as we can so there is still lots of time left to enjoy the holiday season.

Lets map out what we need to do and then make a list that is doable.  Some of us have extra busy days during the week so we will need to tak advantage of the less busy days and…. maybe consider getting up extra early for a week knowing the payoff will be HUGE!

Christmas in a Nutshell….

Gifts: Buy and Wrap

Food: Buy, Prepare, Store

Decorations: Outside, Inside and the Tree!

Festive Gatherings: Concerts, Parties, and Outings

Connecting: Cards, Letters & Emails

OK, grab a piece of paper and make a list of what your Christmas requires.  This is a good time to consider what you love and what you don’t like at all.  Drop the stuff you don’t like.  Don’t say yes to invites if you really don’t want to go.   Don’t bake more cookies than you need and don’t feel obligated to buy more or bigger gifts than necessary.  Food shopping can be scaled back if you think about what you really eat and focus more on the fun and less on the food!  Make the recipes you LOVE and take advantage of the ready made that will work in a pinch.

Now, I can’t tell you what to do or when to do it but I will say that you can get a good chunk of your list done if you challenge yourself and bread the day up into themes.  Don’t go to bed until you have something done!

So - in keeping with my weekly routine…

Friday (TODAY) is family day.  I know I have the countdown stuff to finish up - you know the chocolates the kids get to each at breakfast all month long!  So my goal for today is to get the advent chocolates and the other countdown surprieses I have planned for the kids  ready before I go to bed.

Saturday is my baking day.  I am fortunate that I did our baking a few weeks ago while visiting my mom (I did hers at the same time) so that is all in the freezer.  I do however, have some gift baking to finish so that is on my list for tomorrow.  When that is done I just have to put the labels on and they are ready to go.  I have picked up my cookie tins and have the sitting ready when my husband takes them, filled, to his office.

Sunday is my shopping day.  I am always amazed at how you can start shopping early but still find yourself with a long list.  I am going to look at my list and decide if anything can be dropped.  I can’t afford to buy it all this weekend but I am going to get the tricky stuff out of the way and the following week I can finish up the easy to find items.  I am also looking ahead to the items I may need for the holiday season - anything that will keep can be picked up.  The stuff that spoils can go on my list and be purchased closer to Christmas.

Monday is my wrapping day.   Yes, I have stuff to wrap, more than I want but that is life.  So, me and my DVD are hanging out on Monday so we can get the gifts wrapped and put into bags.  I have to pick up some black garbage bags.  I reuse them each year and last year the bags had done their job and now need to be replaced.

Tuesday is my ME day.  I don’t really have any projects that I want to have done for the holiday season so I am going to take this day to do the final decorating in the house.  If you haven’t decorated yes consider picking a day and doing it all.  Then put the boxes and bins away and you are done!

Wednesday is my catch up day.  Considering this entire week is a catchup week I will simply put something into this day that will let me get caught up.  I know that I have some junk here and there so I will make it an anti-clutter day.  I also have some tomoato butter to make for my Dad so I will put that on in the morning so it can be jarred before I go to bed.

Thursday is my organization day.   This is the final day of the December Dash - and the plan will be to look at my list and not see much left.  I can easily plan what we need to do in December (parties, outings) and the final grocery list for the holiday meals.  If you still have a lot left on this day take advantage of a few minutes and make a master list of what you NEED to do and make it a goal to get as much done before you go to bed.  Stay up late if you have to - you’ll be glad you did.

So - are you in?  Lets DASH our way to enjoying December.

Go NOW!

Whether you have been getting ready for the holiday season for several weeks or you are just joining us today  - you will be happy you are on board the get ready early train!  My overall plan was to be ready by now but I have learned that it is just not possible - focusing on the end of November is more realistic and I have modified my plans to correspond with my old goal date.   Of course my week is the same, I just have a few more to get what I need to do done so why not join me….

Mondays - this is my wrapping day and I hope it will be your wrapping day too.  Most of us have time on the weekend to shop so Monday is a good day to regroup and get what you have purchased - wrapped and put away.  If you are just getting going you should check to see what you have in the way of wrapping supplies.  If you need anything and can afford the purchase and the time - go out and pick up what you need so you can steal away a little time tonight after the kids are in bed.  If you have been saving gifts for awhile and have a stack - pick a really great movie and spend the evening wrapping. Wrapping in November is so much nicer than wrapping on Christmas eve!   Get it done - if you have a gift in your house WRAP IT!!!!

One thing I would like to say for anyone who has missed it or is just joining us - track your gifts.  DO NOT sign a gift with a special name if you think there is a chance that someone might see it - I remember finding a gift and I was heart broken!  Instead, leave those gifts and you can quickly go through them on Christmas eve when you pull out your bags of gifts.  When you track the gifts you should have a master list of who you are buying for, what you have bought or will buy and something that tells you if the purchase has been made and if the gift is wrapped.  I like to use stickers to identify specific gifts - sometimes I want the kids to open something first or last and the sticker helps me when I get to the putting the gifts under the tree stage.  Just make a note of what the sticker looks like and make sure you don’t double the sticker!  Do not use stickie notes - they can fall off and leave you wondering what is what.

One other thing to note - keep an envelope for all gift receipts and make a note on the actual receipt so you can easily find it if you need to return or exchange after Christmas.  Keep the envelope somewhere safe - I like to keep mine in a pocket of my gift wrapping centre.  For those of you who missed it, this is a photo of what I use.  It is just a garmet bag (thanks to flylady for her advice several years ago) and the pockets help me to organize the things I use: tape, scissors, tags, bows and ribbons and the tall rolls or paper, tissue and bags.

Good luck with your wrapping - you will be really glad you got it done - so do it tonight and post your success to inspire others!

It’s week two already! If you are just joining us don’t worry - the point to my countdown is to get things done early - not to be perfect or put pressure on yourself!

Today is Wrapping Day. If you have purchased any gifts today is the day to wrap things up so you are not left with a pile of gifts to wrap on Christmas eve! I know - we have all been there and wish we had planned ahead - now is the time! If you do not have a gift to wrap you might want to use the time to work on your gift list if you didn’t get to it last Thursday (my planning day). Think about your budget, who you have to buy for and make a note of each person. If you are a computer savvy person you might want to make a small spreadsheet so you can check off or cross of items as you purchase them.

Another task worth jumping into today is making sure you have wrapping supplies ( we did this last week but you might have got busy and put it on the list…. tackle it today!) Think about what you need and add these items to your shopping list. Cloth bags are becoming more popular as are paper gift bags. Both items can be reused so they are good choices. I also like the big gift bags that can wrap a BIG gift for a child. The bags can be put away each year. Don’t forget tape, gift tags, bows and ribbons if you use them, and tissue if you like to put it into gift bags.

Have fun!

Helen

The weekends are usually pretty busy as I am sure they are for all of you - so I keep weekend pretty simple during my Christmas prep time.  Saturdays is dedicated to baking because it is the day where I have the potential to be at home for longer than an hour.  Each year we bake cookies and jarred cake for gifts and I like to have them all done early - leaving me time to enjoy baking new recipes with the kids.  This year I will be visiting my Mom and Dad mid November so I am going to do all of my shortbread that weekend so I can do my moms at the same time (she is busy taking care of my father and it will be a huge help to her - and when you are making dozens of cookies what is another 10 dozen!)  My recipe freezes well so they can all go into the freezer!    So…. if you have baking to do and your recipe can freeze then I encourage you to carve out a day when you can jump in and get it done - the mess will be put away and you can try one of those recipes you have been wanting to try!

Sundays - well I usually do my grocery shopping between hockey games so I am adding a few things to my list from my master list and will do a little gift shopping on this day as well. I know people who do their shopping in one day each year, go away for a weekend or do like I do - whatever works for you is what you should do.  Just try to do as much as you can early so you are not running through stores and standing in lines at the last minute.

TIP: I keep an envelope for all of my Christmas receipts so returns and exchanges are really easy.  Be sure to write what the item is, at the top of the receipt, so you can find it easily when/if  you need to.

Have fun!

Begins Monday! Yes, I know I am crazy but I just like to have the stuff I HAVE to do done so I have time for the stuff I WANT to do! So, if you are looking to get ready early this year - join me beginning monday when I share my 15-Minute mom approach to getting ready for the holiday season! Anyone who has it all figured out…. well drop by and post your tips so we can all benefit!

Sneak peak… if your holiday decorations and wrapping paper are behind a big pile of STUFF you have to go through… take a few minutes this weekend to clear a path because on Monday you’ll want to make your way to that area of your storage space!

Have a great Thanksgiving weekend with your family!

Helen

This is what arrived at my door yesterday! How cool is that! I actually won something! The set of 3 Holiday Mini Scrapbooks by Colorbök will soon be turned into a keepsake for each of my kids. Emmy has claimed one of the kits as I only need two for what I have planned…. Oh, and if you are wondering where I won this cool little prize, Lisa Bearnson had a little giveaway on her blog and I was one of the lucky winners!

So what do I have planned? Well, like many of you, I have bought ornaments for my kids since they were born. I try to find something that captures who they are at that very moment in time - of course as time goes by the stories are harder to remember so I am going to use these kits to make a booklet for each to go with their box of ornaments. That way when they get older they will be able to see a photo of the ornament and a little story about how it came to be part of their collection. I think I will have to add some paper to the kit but I can easily trace some of my holiday scrapbooking paper - so it should be easy to add to each year.

For those of you who want more info on this project, watch CPO’s Memory Making section for details on the project.

OK, so for more on Christmas… I know that Halloween is still around the corner but a few years ago I decided that I didn’t want to spend my entire holiday season getting ready. That is how my October planning started and this year I will share it with those of you who might want to get ready before the big day - leaving more time for family, friends and fun. My goal is to be ready for the holiday season by Global TV’s Santa Claus Parade which is near the end of November. Even if you are not interested in getting ready that early - you can still join me in getting organized and post comments and ideas to help me and other families improve on their holiday organization plans!

So come back beginning Monday for a daily task and together we will be decorating our trees with Santa and our favourite annual parade!