5 Steps for a Stress-free Christmas Preparation


5-steps-for-stress-free-christmas

Are you getting ready for Christmas, but not sure where to start? With these 5 simple steps, you can make sure your preparation would be stress-free and no rush to get everything done.

1.     Set the budget

To avoid being overspending during this holiday season, you should set the maximum budget you’d like to spend for this year. Make a budget allocation for every activity. For example, decide how much you’d like to spend for the Christmas gifts & cards, Christmas dinner, and Christmas decoration.

2.     Decide how do you want to celebrate

Below are 3 most popular Christmas activities, but feel free to add your own special celebrations. You can have a family event to drive around the town and see the local Christmas decorations, go sledding or build a snowman, or even build a ginger house together. Then, break down each activity into smaller tasks.

Decorate the house

  • Unpack the last year Christmas decorations
  • Buy Christmas decorations
  • Clean the house
  • Decorate the house

Send the Christmas gifts & cards to friends & family

  • Create a recipient list, and then categorize it into people who’ll receive the gift during the Christmas dinner, people who’ll receive the gifts by post, and people who’ll receive the Christmas cards.
  • Ask the recipients if they have a wish list, or you can find several gift ideas for them.
  • Create Christmas cards
  • Buy Christmas gifts
  • Wrap the gifts and put Christmas stamps
  • Mail the Christmas gifts & cards

      Christmas dinner

      • Create an invite list and send them the invitation as early as possible to that they can save the date for your Christmas dinner
      • Create the menu, collect the recipes, and ingredient list
      • Buy the long life ingredients
      • Bake the cookies
      • Buy the fresh ingredients
      • Cook certain recipes early, then keep it in the freezer
      • Pre-order a special menu
      • Think of activities to do during the dinner. You can play some game boards, watch a Christmas movie, or even just sing a Christmas carol together.

        3.     List down what you need to prepare

        Imagine if you’re doing all the Christmas activities from the beginning until the end. That way, it will be less likely for you to miss something. You can write down all the items and tasks into 3 groups as shown below.

        Christmas-planner

        4.     Schedule your preparation into your calendar

        When you put the tasks into your calendar, you can go backward by deciding when you would expect the activity to be finished. For example, if you expect all the Christmas cards and gifts should be mailed by December 20th, you can schedule to finish the gift wrapping by December 18th, therefore complete the gift shopping by December 17th. Leave some wiggle-room just in case there’s something comes up.

        Pro Tips: If you can prepare things earlier such as buying long life foods, liquor, or soft drinks, does it early. Also, prepare a special space for your Christmas goodies on your fridge or other spaces so that it won’t be consumed before its time.

        5.     Follow to your preparation schedule

        Stick to your schedule, check its progress, and make some necessary adjustments. Once you completed a task, don’t forget to mark it. For instance, every time you buy a gift, label it with the recipient name and cross his/her name off the list. To save your time to create the gift tags, you can use Memobird printer to design the gift tags from your phone and reprint it again.

        Pro Tips: Make your preparation fun with an advent calendar that marks countdown before Christmas. It can be a chocolate advent calendar where you can eat a piece of chocolate each day until the Christmas time.