There may be affiliate links or adverts within this post. This means that by purchasing a product through this link, I will earn a very small commission. This is of no extra cost to you, and you are under no obligation to buy. All opinions about any products are my own and I only recommend products I am passionate about. We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites. For more information please visit our 'Disclaimer' page.
For me, this is the time of year that I start to take preparation for Christmas seriously. I have lists to make, budgets to work out and then when I’m going to get a chance to buy all this stuff when I have two children that are permanently attached to me for a minimum of 5 days a week.
Updated for 2020
Let alone working out when I can buy certain things depending on my financial situation that particular week.
There is so much to think about that I have to start planning early. To help combat this, I plan my weeks considering these 9 points that I am sharing with you lovely lot
I know that for many of you, this is a very similar story. We don’t want Christmas to be stressful, Christmas shopping can be enjoyable and the day should be magical and filled with fun and love. That’s why I am using the ultimate Christmas planner that I created.
After years of planning and having a million lists in a million different places…and then losing them a million times, I realised I need something to help my preparation for Christmas easier. I decided that I wanted to have everything I needed in one place. I created all the pages that I knew I would want, so I hope there is everything you need in it as well.
The ultimate Christmas planner is free for you all to download, use as many or as little pages that you like, as long as it helps to keep you organised and the stress to a minimum it has done its job. Did I mention its free? Click below to download your free ultimate Christmas planner.
9 Tips for your Preparation for Christmas
The ultimate Christmas planner includes two handy calendars so you can glance at your month of preparation for Christmas in 1. It also includes blank daily checklists so that you always know what you have to do each day for your stress-free holiday planning.
Make the 3 essential Christmas lists first.
You can read my full post on everything you need to consider first when figuring out your preparation for Christmas shopping, Christmas dinner, gift buying etc.
Related: 3 essential Christmas lists you NEED to make first here.
Think about time frames.
when do you think you will have to start your preparation for the Christmas holidays? This will ultimately affect when you start and when everything else slots into your planning.
What food can you prepare in advance?
Are you baking? are you making stuffing? lots of food dishes can be prepared or prepped waaaaay in advance. So as long as your freezer permits. Utilise it! this will save you precious time as Christmas day nears and life seems to get more and more hectic.
What will keep and for how long for?
Once you’ve figured out what you can prepare in advance, you will see what foods will keep. You can always stagger your food buying so that you don’t have to store things for longer than you need to. What about craft items or flowers?
Are there any dates out of your control?
This could be postage dates, or dates that family have decided to descend upon your home (usually without much prior warning) make sure you pencil these in so that you can work other things around them.
Plan some stuff around when the kids are home to involve them.
If you have children, then you know that you can’t just be running errands and getting jobs done all day every day. You need to make sure you do Christmassy things with your kids and family as well.
This felt Christmas tree is bound to keep them occupied while you cross some things off your list
BONUS TIP. This can always help you achieve some of your tasks. Can they help with baking? Could they make the Christmas cards? Try being creative with the Christmas activities, you may be surprised at how much you manage to cross off the to-do list.
Related: 10 Easy Homemade Christmas Decoration Ideas your kids can Help with.
What can you streamline?
Are there tasks that are well suited that you could do at the same time? Are there offers on at particular times in certain stores that could streamline your budget?
Your preparation for Christmas doesn’t have to mean that your darting from one place to another every day. maybe you could set yourself one destination and try and get as much done in that place as possible? Spend a day dedicated to online shopping. Streamlining will become your friend and save you a bunch of time.
Do you need to pre-order food?
All the major supermarkets offer a pre-ordering service so the preparation for Christmas dinners, parties and boxing day can be covered easily and quickly. Be warned though, this may save you days and maybe even a week of time, but it will cost you. It is often cheaper to make things yourself and be able to hunt down the best deals.
Pre-ordering food doesn’t always mean from supermarkets, this goes for your butchers as well. They offer much better quality meat and often, much better prices. Butchers are also armed with the knowledge of how best to cook the meat they are selling you. Or, why don’t you try Amazon Pantry? That way, you can streamline your online shopping and Christmas Dinner Shopping into one, how handy!
Do you need to collect/deliver things?
when will you need to collect the food or gifts you’ve ordered? Do you need to deliver any cards or gifts to people? are there collections or deliveries that the children can’t be with you for, this is just another thing to consider when your preparing and planning for the big day?
Is there anything, in particular, you make sure you do to plan for Christmas? let me know in the comments.
Save this post for later or for when you start to plan Christmas using your favourite image below.