Year Round Christmas List?

[Centaur Filly]

I keep thinking of a comment Kimberley made about starting preparing for Christmas 09 the day after Christmas 08, and I keep thinking it's really a good idea.

I was wondering if we could have some sort of year-round Christmas prep thread everyone could use to kind of keep track of things in advance.

For instance, I just bought next year's cards during the half off sale at the store. Sometime during this upcoming year I'd like to find a nicely co-ordinating nature stamp. I also want to scout the sales in the next week for wrapping paper, and outdoor decor.

And I need to start a little savings fund because I want a real tree next year.

And I'd love to have some sort of end-of-November card-a-long where we could coax each other into getting cards out early December.

Plus people who craft... especially knitters and crocheters... need loooooong lead-times to get gifts ready. Starting those in January isn't unrealistic.

Maybe reminders to field-test new recipes in July rather than the day before Christmas?

I don't know. Just a thought. What do you think?

[rskmom]

I think it's an awesome idea.

I shop and prep year round. I have a Cmas prep list that starts in September and reminds me of what I need to do. My goal is to be completely finished with shopping by November. This year I spent the week of Tgiving wrapping for the first time, and it was a great way to ensure that I could enjoy the rest of the season without that hanging over me (I DETEST wrapping).

[kermitfan]

Here's the bones of my list, I keep it in The Broom Closet thread for reference. Feel free to swipe!

Decorating
()Prep an area for DD's tree
()DD's tree up

Cards
()Addressing
()Writing
()Stuffing
()Stamping
()Sending

Gifts
()Make social shopping outing dates
()Start master list
()Online shopping
()IRL shopping
()Wrapping

Baking
()Grocery list
()Grocery shopping
()Make chocolates with DD
()Buckeyes
()Shortbread
()Spritz
()Snacks ~ ??

House Readying

Working on HotSpots
()Kitchen counter
()Round table in sitting area
()Buffet

We can get some kind of plan together so we're working and accomplishing together!

K

[EmilyD]

Excellent idea ... I have already decided next Christmas will be different.

[ccoop]

I really need to do this. This year has been a complete disaster. I have 1 child (15) and can't seem to get my act together. Every year I think about getting ahead of the game and some how every year I am further behind than the year before.

I will start this year off with shopping through out the year and keeping track of what I have bought. I used to shop year around and people would end up with twice as much because I didn't keep track of what I bought. I plan on baking in October and freezing it.

This will be a good start.

Cindi

[daboysj]

I have a question. I have always wanted to buy year round, but I am always afraid by Christmas that the person will have bought the thing for themselves, or their tastes will have changed and they won't like it anymore. Has that ever happened? What do you do if it does?

[kermitfan]

For that issue, daboysj, I think the better solution would be to collect the ideas year-round and set the money aside year-round, but buy closer to the holidays. I suppose the exception would be if it one of those gifts that you could re-assign to another person.

(Don't tell Tadpole, but some of her gifts from Scarletwing and MiniMe have been "chosen" for her this way ~ and she totally loves them!)

Here is one of my gift-closet strategies: When I travel to the States, I stock up on smallish gifts for girls Tadpole's age that I haven't seen in Canada. I have a dresser in my guest room and I designate two smallish drawers for storing these gifts. When she gets an invite to a party, we shop from the dresser first and see if we have anything that matches the interests of the recipient. Nothing is so expensive that I get upset if we don't use it the way I intended, some of these gifts do end up going to the school for rainy-recess time or to a toy drive. But, I didn't spend much on them to begin with, so why not?

HTH,
and I guess we should be setting up Holiday Gifts Funds too!

K