In 1994 I worked for our church in the programming department. We decided to create a Christmas program that would run for three weekends before Christmas in an outdoor venue. It was called "A Christmas Journey" and was a recreation of the village of Bethlehem. As you can imagine, this endeavor called for hundreds of volunteers. I was the person that organized the volunteers.
I quickly realized that I would need to be organized in my own little family Christmas as well. I started working on a chart to keep track of my personal shopping, budget, etc.
As the years went by ("A Christmas Journey" grew to involve literally thousands of volunteers, a village that we built from the ground up, and included food vendors and local performers by the time our last performance was held in 2000) I kept tweaking my chart until I came up with the final version that worked for me. It really does work for me because I've been using it for more than 20 years!
It is extremely simple. I list the names of each family member at the top of a column. For the grandkids, there is a four gift limit. The yellow rows are for stocking stuffers.
I shop for Christmas year around so I will create my 2018 chart on 12/26/17. As I buy a gift I write it on the chart along with the $ amount. When I wrap it I highlight it. When I've reached the budget amount for each person, I stop buying for them!
Now that there are so many people in our family, I've started keeping the charts as an easy guide to what I've purchased for them in past years. It keeps me from buying the same Pig themed kitchen utensils for Jessica year after year, haha!
When I buy gifts I bring them home and wrap them. I also affix the gift tag. I then store them in tubs in the closet until Thanksgiving. The day after Thanksgiving I get all of the gifts out and put ribbons and bows on them and under the tree they go.
As you can imagine, by the time I pull them out at Thanksgiving I have no idea what is in each package. This is where my list is a life-saver. I don't have to know what's in them, because I know from my list what I've wrapped.
I feel like I've used a lot of words to try to explain what really is a simple method.
There are also several holiday organizing sites on-line. I recommend
Organized Christmas. The site provides printables, advice, a countdown plan, and much more.
I also must tell you that for the past two years I have used a free app on my phone to keep track of my purchases. It's definitely secondary to my chart, but it does come in handy.
I'm always on the lookout for new organizing ideas, do you have a great Holiday organization tip to share?
