YOU CAN Celebrate an
Organized Christmas this Year!

Ready, Set... GO!

An organized Christmas is a joyous, calm and memorable one.

When most people, especially parents, are asked what their goals are for their family's holiday celebrations, many come up with some combination of the following:

• reduce holiday stress
• save money
• create cherished memories
• spend more time with friends and family
• infuse the season with meaning

In order to celebrate an organized Christmas, we have to start somewhere, and this is the place. Living in a four generation household has taught my family the absolute necessity for being organized in everything. The holidays are certainly no exception!

This first section is where we will gather together all of the information needed to create an organized Christmas. I will show you how to put it all together to make the season more meaningful and enjoyable for everyone, while making it more relaxed for you!

So - have a look around. (Simply click on the sub-headings or the buttons at left to go to the specific section you need.) After that, we'll sit down together, and start making this a truly organized Christmas! There will be links to lots of helpful tips and resources in each section, so don't worry!

So... Ready? Great!!

Let's get started!

Christmas Wishes

The very first thing we need to do, before anything else, is to find out just what everyone wants this holiday season.

I'm going to show you how to get everyone thinking about the meaning of the holiday, and what should be included (and excluded) in your celebrations. I'm not talking about presents here, but about getting to the values and feelings every member of the family associates with the holidays.

Many times, an organized Christmas often requires clearing some space on the calendar. I'll make this as painless as possible, though!

You'll be doing some of your own soul-searching, too.

Sharing your own ideas and asking questions will get the ball rolling and help you get a handle on just what the perfect holiday should be like for your own family.

I'm going to show you how to compare this information to what is already on the calendar, and how to reconcile the two.

If there are conflicts between what everyone wants and what is already scheduled, you'll find ideas on how to solve some of those sticky situations.

Sometimes, compromise is the only way to save the day, and we'll help with that, too!

Its not all about Christmas morning - there are values we all want our children to understand and develop, joys we wish to share with our family and friends, and memories we wish to create and cherish.

Celebrating an organized Christmas will help us to accomplish these goals as well!

The idea is to make the entire holiday season special to each member of the family in a personal and intimate way. Christmas wishes give us insight into the people we love and live with everyday, bring us closer together, and make all of our relationships more full and satisfying. What could be more important than that?!

Christmas Lists

Yes... List, lists and more lists! Boring? Possibly. Tedious? Probably. Necessary? Definitely!!

Christmas lists are essential to an organized Christmas. If your holiday plan is your road-map, then your lists are the exits you need to take along the highway! They will show you

• what you have done
• what still needs to be done
• where to take short-cuts
• when to call out for help

After you've figured out what everyone wants, you still need a lot of information. The first sets of lists are the boring ones. We'll show you how to create different lists for cleaning and chores, grocery lists, and other 'to-do' lists.

From there we will move on to the gift lists, decorating lists and so on. Each family member will have a couple of their own lists to do, and there will be lists for the family as a whole as well.

Your Christmas lists are at the heart of an organized Christmas. They will keep everything moving smoothly and happily along, eliminate some of the chaos, and keep everyone on the same page.

The very best part of lists, though, is not the organization value, but the sense of accomplishment that comes with each task being completed. Be sure to build in some rewards for a job well done!

Custom Search

My Grandmother always did her 'Spring Cleaning' in both April and October. Her house was always spotless. Unexpected visitors never bothered her - she was always ready for anything.

Gram always seemed so calm and happy, and she always had time to sit and talk with a neighbor or play games with me on the living room floor. Looking back, she never seemed to be rushed or harried during the holidays, either. My Grandma Marie was the queen of the organized Christmas!

It is impossible to really enjoy yourself if you are continually worried about the way your house looks. Clutter is distracting, and detracts from the holiday decorations.

Having to clean the kitchen every time you need to cook is not only a bother, but wholly unnecessary.

Keeping after the kids to get their rooms clean is - well - we all know. We're going to not only get the whole house ready for the holidays, but we're going the help you keep it that way!

With a little creativity, Christmas cleaning the house for the holidays can actually be a joy. After it's clean, keeping it that way will take a fraction of the time you expect, and it will be easier to get the family's help.

Making it fun in the first place is a trick in itself, but we're going to see if we can't find some ways to make that happen, too.

If you can just do one room per day, you can be finished inside of a week. Since keeping the house clean from this point will only take minutes, there will be plenty of time left in each day for more fun and festive activities, and possibly even for some relaxation time!

Christmas Calendar

I always make two of these. There is one that no one else ever sees. It is where I keep the information on what I've made or purchased for each person on my list, personal observations on the current holiday season, and other mental wanderings each year. It is my own personal Christmas diary!

The second calendar is a 'public' one. This is where all of the mundane family engagements are plotted. It also keeps special holiday events on everyone's radar.

There are cleaning, shopping and crafts days listed. Everything that needs to be done each day is right here, in front of everyone!

Nobody gets the excuse that they 'forgot' something, as we all know that we are supposed to check here every single day to see what needs to be done, who is supposed to be doing it, and who we can ask for help when needed.

Your own Christmas calendar will be indispensible to an organized Christmas, too! It will keep the entire family on the same page throughout the season, and will eliminate many of the arguements and stresses associated with getting things done. Its a sort of checks and balances idea. This is the road-map for you to plug all those lists into.

Christmas Closet

I have discovered an idea that I and others call the Christmas Closet. This one single idea will save you countless hours and many dollars over the holiday seasons to come, and we are going to start one right now!

This isn't a new idea, but it has been a part of our household for so long its second nature to us. I am always surprised when people ask what it is, so I've decided to share my ultimate secret weapon!

Whether it is an entire closet, a couple shelves or something in between, I am a firm believer that if you want to have an organized Christmas, you simply must have a Christmas closet!

While we don't have everything in one place yet (that's why we need to create the Christmas closet!!), we can begin the process. By designating a specific area in your home, you will have a place to put every single item associated with the holiday.

For this year, simply designate a central room in the house for the organizing part. Get it all together, and go through everything. Toss or donate what your family no longer wants, then repair and display everything else.

After the holiday, we'll have our closet ready so that everything stays together. This insures an organized Christmas next year, too, and for many years to come!

Christmas Notebook