Holiday Calendar

Do you realize that Christmas is just around the corner? Do you have a plan to help you be organized this year? Well it is not too late to help reduce stress during the holidays and one way of reducing holiday stress is to have a Holiday Calendar. Your Holiday Calendar will serve as your road map for the upcoming season and contains five steps to help you prepare for your journey into the holiday season.

Your Holiday Calendar is one of the most important aspects of holiday planning. There are many software programs available to print out customized calendars with and I highly suggest using one. This type of software will allow you to input reoccurring things like your sister’s birthday (and can even tell you how old she will be that year!) as well as when lay-a-way payments are due and when the kids get out for the holiday break. Calendars with personalized dates on them also make great gifts that everyone loves! Even though I personally love my computer calendars that I can print out - whatever type of calendar you have will work as long as there is space to add your events. Another tip is to use colored pencils and give different activities or people a particular color.

There are five main steps to making your Holiday Calendar. The first step is to write in all birthdays, anniversaries and other dates that are set in stone like when the kids get out of school, any birthdays and anniversaries. These are the dates that never ever change - if you know you always have a get-together at your in-laws the Saturday before Christmas put it down - chances are it is not going to change.

The second step is to evaluate where you are in your Christmas projects. Projects would include things like making handcrafted Christmas gifts, ornaments and other items that require fore thought to get them done. You need to schedule time on your calendar to work on these plus mark the “due date” for these projects to be done. Do not forget things like wrapping gifts because that is a big project!

The third step in preparing your Holiday Calendar deals with your activities during the holiday season. Does your family always go to a certain special event every year no matter what? Well go ahead and call now and find out what the date and time is for this year (you might even want to ask them if it is already scheduled for next year too!). Most places have big events scheduled months in advance. Do not worry about seeming silly calling this early - just explain to them you are preparing your Holiday Calendar and they will most likely marvel at how much you have it all together!

The fourth step to your Holiday Calendar is marking all your Christmas related items. Make yourself a list of all the things that need to be done during the holiday season and make sure they get a date on your calendar not only to work on it but also for completion. This includes things like decorating your tree, mail Christmas cards, mail Christmas packages, due date for the Angel Tree gifts, getting the kids Christmas clothes bought and pictures scheduled. All these little things creep up on you and will make the holidays seem much more stressful if you have not planned ahead.

The last step in preparing your Holiday Calendar is to look and see what dates are left and plan your parties and get-together’s. Wouldn't’t your friends be surprised if you called them in October and asked them to mark their calendars for a cookie exchange in December? Of course you will still have to send out formal invitations several weeks before the event (and do not forget to mark on your calendar the date to buy and send those invitations!)
By this time you will know if you will even have the energy during the holiday’s to plan a fun get-together or just accept invitations from others and sit back and relax!

Now that I have given you 5 steps to preparing your Holiday Calendar there is one thing you should not over look - in order to help your stress during this holiday season you must actually do what is on your calendar! Even by accomplishing one or two of your tasks on your calendar will help the stress of the holiday. I hope that I have inspired you to get your calendar going and tackle this holiday season with a game plan!

You can visit Krisann’s web site at www.christmasorganizing.com for more information about getting organized for Christmas.