Welcome to the second installment of our “Thinking Ahead Thursday” series on “Christmas in July”! I’ve been sharing some of my tips to get organized and plan ahead for the Christmas holiday season. It’s such a busy time of year that, by planning ahead, we can save ourselves some time and be able to spend more time with our families and loved ones this holiday season!
If you joined us last week, I talked about the gift list and crafts calendar. Today, we’re going to do some more list making, shopping, and other preparations for the holiday season. By strategizing early, we can get many of our chores done in October and November, right before the Christmas season really kicks into high gear!
Make your list and check it twice (a month, that is). Check your gift list and crafts calendar twice a month in order to check your progress. This will help keep your gift buying and making organized and hopefully help keep you sane! You will want to include any birthdays, anniversaries, and other occasions that are before Christmas as well…this will keep you from forgetting someone’s birthday because you were totally focused on Christmas!
List all the rooms you decorate during the holiday season. If you’re super-organized, make a list of all the chores you will need to do to prepare each room for guests and decorations. (At the beginning of the holiday season, our cleaning and organizing is very similar to spring cleaning!) Let’s use our kitchen as an example.
Late October / Early November:
- Clean out and organize kitchen cabinets.
- Box up food we won’t be using for Second Harvest Food Bank.
- Wipe down & clean kitchen cabinets.
- Clean out & organize refrigerator.
- Clean out & organize freezer.
Mid-November:
- Unpack Christmas dishes & glasses.
- Wash Christmas dishes & mugs in dishwasher.
- Take everyday plates & mugs out of the cabinets.
- Pack everyday plates & mugs in boxes & store in garage.
- Put clean Christmas dishes & mugs in the cabinets.
- Clean oven.
- Wipe down kitchen countertops.
- Sweep & mop kitchen.
List any special decorations /projects you do during the holiday season. I have a Christmas village, but because we’ve travelled over Christmas the past few years, I haven’t gotten it out in three or four years. I’ve added to my village, so there are miscellaneous pieces in different Christmas boxes, but I haven’t actually set up the village. In October, I’ll be going through all our Christmas boxes in the garage, and hunting out my village pieces. I’ll gather them in one place and take stock of what I have. I’m even going to try to make a master list of the pieces I have in my village. Who knows? If I feel really spunky, I might draw a sketch of how I’m going to lay everything out!
There’s so much you can think about and do now to help you prepare for Christmas! If we keep at it and “think ahead” now, we’ll have much more time to spend with our families this holiday season! What are some things you do in October and November to ready for the holiday season?Please join me again next week, as I share my checklists for our home, and we talk about how we can start preparing in advance for our Christmas menus!







