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Oct 27, 2013

Organized Christmas 2013: Get Organized



Goodness, I’ve been busy! I would go into full detail, but my busyness is all work and all top secret for now :). Busy or not, I have a very real Holiday situation on my hands. Not only is Halloween just days away, but the Christmas Countdown started tonight. This is not a drill! 

I’ve had my mind on the holidays since July (see Organized Christmas in July and Organized Christmas in September) so I’m excited to move full force into the Christmas Countdown. This six week program breaks down holiday tasks into weekly themes: 
  1. Get Organized
  2. Reality Check
  3. Gifts and Giving
  4. Get Cooking
  5. Decorate
  6. Celebrate
For the next six weeks I’ll be busying myself with tasks, projects and daily readings. This is the first week which means we will be getting organized.



The goal for this week is to gather all the tools I’ll need for a successful Christmas Countdown. As with every week there is a checklist, binder instructions and purchase suggestions:

On the Checklist Per Our Needs
  • Follow the daily readings on OrganizedChristmas.com. This is one of my favorite aspects of the countdown. Nothing but helpful and inspiring messages to get me through my planning.
  • Assemble a binder for holiday prep and print this week’s printables
    • I have a special section in my home management binder reserved for The Holidays.
  • Review holiday values with Husband
    • We both agreed that we wanted to spend less on gifts, do more around town (Christmas movies!!), and eat better food – not obligation food. I felt better when we admitted that maybe I didn’t need to make 10 different kinds of cookies this year. The goal is to eliminate pressure wherever we can.
  • Start a master gift list
    • Started this in July
  • Begin a Christmas card list
    • I assembled most addresses last year, and just reprinted the list. I’ve been updating it when need be.
  • Create a Christmas planning center
    • I have a Christmassy candle and tiny Christmas tree that I put on my desk when planning. I also downloaded a Roaring Fireplace app for my tablet, and play the Jazz Christmas playlist on Songza. It’s a very festive workspace!
  • Complete the holiday spruce-up worksheet and schedule to-dos
  • Find cat sitters for holiday travel
  • I added:
    • Finalize the Christmas card plan
    • Print a Thanksgiving dinner planning printable and start planning
    • Look into special Holiday movie screenings and add them to our Calendar
To Buy
  • Order Christmas cards
  • Stamps

It’s going to be a busy week!

Outside of Christmas planning I’m pretty excited about the week. Halloween is four days away so we’ll spend the next few days watching our favorite Halloween movies and eating our favorite Halloween treats. On Halloween night we’ll join some of our favorite people to play games (probably Gloom!) and watch even more movies. We’re thinking about contributing Plan 9 From Outer Space. 


I mean it’s just too ridiculous. How could we not?