Everything you need to schedule your Holidays with Christmas traditions and memories all month long.
Everyone wants to have a magical Christmas season. But with life being so hectic, we sometimes find ourselves with only a few days left to do everything we want to do.
By scheduling out daily a little Christmas magic, we can have a relatively stress-free Christmas season.
I started the December Holiday Calendar about 3 years ago, and it has made all the difference for our family.
It is simple to set up your own Christmas Events Calendar.
First, make a list of 25 events you want to experience this Christmas.
You choose your own, of course, but this is our list.
Notice I put them in 3 Categories. 1. Christmas Movies, 2. Scheduled Events, 3. Activities.
Movies are for relaxed nights, Hot Chocolate and Popcorn, and wrapping presents. . . These are also the most changeable nights if something comes up.
Scheduled Events: These are big pre-arranged activities, that either you make it on those nights, or you don’t.
Activities are the other special things that we can do as a family that bring a little more Christmas Cheer into the month of December. (here are PLENTY of craft ideas)
Feel free to print off this numbered list. . . but you can also use a piece of paper.
Then, grab a December Calendar. (here’s mine for December 2022)
And fill in when to do each one. (start with Scheduled Events, then activities, then lastly, Christmas Movies)
Here is our Christmas Calendar from last year in 2020.
Ignore my horrible handwriting.
But as you can see, I wrote in RED the events that are set in stone. And in black, are the things that we can change if we need to. That is why I purposefully made enough room at the bottom of those sections so we can change our Christmas Events Calendar if needed.
Because life happens, and sometimes we need to change things around.
For instance, my husband had 3 last-minute travel days in December, so we switched a few things around so he could be here for the things that were important to him.
Also, you’ll want to be flexible when it comes to being invited to parties and such.
This is what I am currently working with for December 2021:
One of the things I encourage is to host a Christmas Party yourself.
It can be small or big. But when you have a schedule way in the future, you can do one! (check out my popular White Elephant Game)
They key to this working is to make the list either on Thanksgiving day, or the day after. or in other words, at least a week before December.
Also, this is a good time to make a budget for Christmas.
Now that you know your activities, you can list out needed presents/ingredients/decorations/tickets etc. And know what you can afford. AND when you should buy what.
I like to buy as much as possible on a shopping day before December. So I will get the candy for the gingerbread houses, hot chocolate for the movie nights, the paper plates and presents for the Christmas Party, etc. All before our big day.
Of course there will be perishable things, or things that we forgot, so we will still be going to the store plenty of times. But having most stuff beforehand really helps with the holiday store congestion.
I make sure that the list is a family experience. And I put the Christmas Events Calendar on the fridge so that the whole family knows what to expect each day. (it helps keep me accountable).
