Christmas Planner

lovelight77

Hi all 😊

Long term visitor to the Christmas forum over the years and love it. Best place on Boards.

Never posted before so I’m hoping someone might be able to help.

I’m Christmas obsessed like all of you but I’ve found over the past couple of years that Christmas has come and gone before I know it for various different reasons and I just can’t seem to get prepared for it anymore.

I think about Christmas all the time throughout the year and long for Autumn time to come around but when it does I seem to either lose momentum or get overwhelmed with trying to make it the best Christmas ever.

So I’m wondering if I had some sort of Christmas planner going throughout the year with clear goals and action plans in place etc would this help.

I’m not too worried about keeping track of gifts as I’m lucky enough in that I don’t have a huge family to buy for. It’s more for keeping track of food/recipes I’d like, entertainment, places to visit, things to do, decorations, movies, books etc etc

Do any of ye use a planner or could recommend a really nice Christmas one?

I’d prefer to go old school and stick with pen and paper rather than an app as would feel more of a connection to it especially as it’s going to be Christmassy.

Sorry for the long winded post. Looking forward to being a part of this forum ❤️

Day Lewin

I use an old diary, and pencil in the keynote moments as reminders. (ignoring actual days of week)
It has a glittery cover so I can't lose it. And goes on from year to year with occasional additions and memos

EXAMPLES

eg, early November - check cake tins and recipes: review Advent stuff (box in attic)

Mid November - buy stamps and cards. Make pudden.

last week of November - post pressies and cards to New Zealand, USA, etc.

and so on...I also nominate a Decorating Day, and an Icing Day for the cakes and bickies.

1st week Jan - make note of all cards received (from whom) and update addresses.

Its rough and ready but it does the trick :-)

Posy

Welcome, Lovelight. So happy to have you here.

Like Day Lewin, I think Glitzgirl also has something like this.
I am fairly sure that she mentioned before having a folder containing Christmas card addresses, food stock-up list, recipes etc.

I'm sure you could just get a nice ringbinder and do something like that, the glittery cover suggested above sounds good, or cover it with wrapping paper! Or you could use a filofax type refillable notebook.

To Do lists, a page listing the people you have to buy for, and you can tick them off when you're done. I love ticking stuff off.
Making a note for October/early November to book hair/nail appointments/shop for Christmas party outfit and so on if you don't want to be caught on the hop.

You could do a Christmas savings page too. A tenner a week will be a nice five hundred euro by next Christmas!

And you can make a list like 'visit Christmas market' 'attend local carol concert' 'go to town/village Christmas light switch-on' 'meet up with friends for a festive coffee' 'watch Elf/Love Actually/Home Alone'... etc so the time doesn't fly without you doing something for you.

lovelight77

Thank you Day Lewin and Posy :-)

I think that may be the way to go. Make a DIY planner unique to me and get creative with it. Might make that my No.1 goal/task for the new year as too late for this Christmas ;-)

I did a search online and came across a really nice one in case anyone else is interested. Can’t post links so if you Google or YouTube Werndale Christmas Planner you’ll be able to see it. Looks beautiful.

Posy

You'll have to keep us updated now that you're committed!

vicwatson

LL Toy Show date this year? Dec 4th or Nov 27th?

TRS30

vicwatson wrote: »

LL Toy Show date this year? Dec 4th or Nov 27th?

Don't know how early they confirm the date however if had to pick one would hazard a question on the 27th.

DvB

According to my RTE insiders they aim for the period of 21-28 days before christmas, so there's a chance it may be the 4th being exactly 3 weeks before but it could also easily be the week before & be the 4 weeks as both fall into their 'prime time' period. It'll be months before RTE make a decision though.
I'll ask my mates towards the end of the summer, they usually have an idea around then.

Loughc

vicwatson wrote: »

LL Toy Show date this year? Dec 4th or Nov 27th?

I’m guessing the 27th. It’s a guess but I’ll be surprised if it’s the 4th.

lovelight77

DvB wrote: »

According to my RTE insiders they aim for the period of 21-28 days before christmas, so there's a chance it may be the 4th being exactly 3 weeks before but it could also easily be the week before & be the 4 weeks as both fall into their 'prime time' period. It'll be months before RTE make a decision though.
I'll ask my mates towards the end of the summer, they usually have an idea around then.

Ooh interesting. I hope it’s the 27th Nov. Having it midway during the first week of Dec feels too late. I always feel once 1st Dec arrives then it’s full on Christmas mode. I’m determined to have nearly everything done by beginning of Dec this year so I can just immerse myself in all the joy that the Christmas season brings instead of always feeling like I don’t have time to enjoy it.

TRS30

lovelight77 wrote: »

I’m determined to have nearly everything done by beginning of Dec this year so I can just immerse myself in all the joy that the Christmas season brings instead of always feeling like I don’t have time to enjoy it.

The dream! Is my intention every year however never seems to quite work out. Maybe this year

DvB

TRS30 wrote: »

The dream! Is my intention every year however never seems to quite work out. Maybe this year

Same. Even when we everything sorted at home work turns mental & sucks the life out of the last 3 weeks before finishing up. every year I try to step back & take more in but work intervenes. I find the period from Nov1st until around the launch of Christmas FM as the most christmassy part of the build up.

Still, will try again this year, you never know work might cut us some slack this time

Loughc

DvB wrote: »

Same. Even when we everything sorted at home work turns mental & sucks the life out of the last 3 weeks before finishing up. every year I try to step back & take more in but work intervenes. I find the period from Nov1st until around the launch of Christmas FM as the most christmassy part of the build up.

Still, will try again this year, you never know work might cut us some slack this time

Same. We’re getting good at buying presents in November but work and personal commitments during the first 3 weeks in December usually results in those 3 weeks moving in a blur.

TRS30

The nature of the business I work in means it is always going to be busy coming up to year end. The flip side is that most if not all clients pretty much shut down over the Christmas/New Year period so getting off then is normaly not an issue (the latter is more recent thing, last 2/3 years so hopefully it continues, even if it does cause the former to a certain extent).

DvB

Yeah, in our area most of our clients close for an extended period (or at least go into skeleton crew operations) so the engineers we'd be used to dealing with tend to be on holidays similar to our own, means you tend to not come back to a sh*tstorm of emails & suchlike though which is great (unlie when taking summer holidays).
But due to them being off as well they look to close out budgets & capex approvals & suchlike before the end of the year so we end up running around chasing our tails for the last 3 weeks or so, & most of the time its for projects that never happen which is even more frustrating!