I like the idea of a composed Christmas. Whether I think of composure as calm, peaceful, and tranquil or as crafting a masterpiece from various elements I want my Christmas to be composed.
You see, all to often I arrive in January bloated, exhausted, and feeling like I missed Christmas somehow. Instead of spending time experiencing the peace Christ came to bring, I spent two months rushed, hurried, and agitated.
A few years ago I decided there had to be a better way, so I sat down with the kids and we set a vision for Christmas. We decided what was important for us to include in the areas of traditions, diet, rest, parties, worship, and so on. These became the elements we use to compose our Christmas (as in crafting a masterpiece from various elements).
The result has been a few years of composed Christmases (as in peaceful, calm, and tranquil).
In the summer I blogged about planning ahead for Christmas, and I mentioned I would start my own planning/preparing in September.
It’s September. 🙂
In July I encouraged you to sit down and think about what you wanted your Christmas to look like. If you’ve done that, now is a great time to pull out those thoughts and put them into an actionable plan. If not, and the idea of a restful, relaxed, meaningful Christmas appeals to you but often eludes you, please take a bit to read Christmas in July and then come back here.
Quick Note:
I have a great to-do app connecting my phone, iPad mini, and computers. I use 2Do which syncs to all my devices through my *free* Toodledo Account. There are a lot of really good to-do apps out there, though, so don’t change from something that is already working for you. And, of course, you can also use a paper calendar or pen-and-paper plan if that’s more your style.
The point is to have a place to keep track of the things you want to do, when you want to do them, and if you have a feature where you can set things to repeat on a specified interval you’ll be able to plan once and work the plan forever (with easy ability to modify as needed!) it’s extra awesome.
I set my tasks to repeat every year, so although I adjust it every July & September (and as needed along the way), I don’t have to remember the tasks I need to schedule, I just need to check them against the calendar so I don’t end up trying to buy stamps on Sunday or expecting company for the third Thursday in November instead of the fourth.
Your schedule may look quite different than ours because you may include different things, have different traditions, and travel rather than stay at home. I still find it easier to edit than to create, so here’s what our schedule looks like – edit away!
July 25
Set Vision for Christmas, add/delete anything we want to change, review to-dos and make sure the timing is appropriate for the coming season (for instance, last year my husband was on a sabbatical for the month of September, so I either accelerated or delayed September tasks to allow us to truly rest. This year we have a vacation scheduled in November, so I needed to adjust the schedule accordingly.)
September 1
Review tasks for upcoming months, adjust any dates as necessary
September 10
Choose Christmas Letter recipients
Verify addresses for Christmas Letter recipients
Check inventory on envelopes, paper, and labels for Christmas letter, add any needed supplies to shopping list
Make to-do task to buy postage for Christmas letter, including international stamps, on next trip to town
September 25
Print address and return-address labels for Christmas Letter
Address envelopes for Christmas Letter
Put postage on envelopes for Christmas Letter
Plan schedule for Christmas baking
October 1
Decide on people to whom we will give gifts
Decide on gifts for each person/family to whom we are giving gifts
Plan schedule for buying/making Christmas gifts
October 3 (well, in our case, this is a repeating task on Fridays Oct 3, 10, 17, & 24)
We will take different Friday’s to bake/make things like Fudge, truffles, caramels, mint-chocolate covered Oreos, chocolate covered pretzel rods, pretzel treats, snicker doodles, Oatmeal raisin cookies, gingerbread, sugar cookies, butter mints, cream eggs, hot cocoa mix, and peppermint syrup & rock candy. Since it is not yet September 25, I have not yet assigned these treats to any given Friday. Every year we have to decide which of these things we will make and we simply schedule a time to do it so that we have time set aside to relax and enjoy each other in the process.
November 3
Purchase a child friendly nativity set {we are doing this once per year until we have a different one for each of our kids (+ one for us) to take with them when they start their own families, eventually we won’t need this task}
November 7
Write Christmas Letter
November 10
Complete gift purchasing/making
Take picture for Christmas Letter (sometimes this happens later – like last year when we were “late” on a lot of things because we’d taken a sabbatical in September – it’s OK! The schedule is there to help me master my tasks, not to become the master.)
Order copies of picture for Christmas Letter
Decide on date for Open House & get it on the church calendar
November 15
Operation Christmas Child shopping, packaging, letter writing
November 16
Take Operation Christmas Child boxes to collection location
November 17
Print Christmas Letter
Fold, stuff, seal Christmas letters/pictures in envelopes
Create invitation for Open House & write bulletin announcement & select dates to put in bulletin
November 19
E-mail church office with bulletin announcement for Open House with dates to include it in the bulletin
Print invitations for Open House
November 21
Buy annual ornament for each person in our family
November 22
Wrap all presents
Package all presents for shipping
November 23
Deliver/Mail invitations for Open House
Get Christmas decorations down from the attic
Review/Finalize menu for Thanksgiving
November 24
Grocery shopping for Thanksgiving
Clean house/set up guest quarters for Thanksgiving company
November 25-30
Enjoy Thanksgiving & company
November 30/December 1
Decorate inside of house for Christmas (+ admire work with cocoa & Christmas music)
Set up Advent Calendars/Celebrations
December 1
Begin observing Advent
Mail Christmas Letters
Schedule: PopPop’s Crepes, Stargazing w/cocoa, lights drive, caroling, service projects, movies we want to watch, and decide how frequently we would like to attend parties/special events to maintain sanity & restfulness
December 4
Decorate outside of house for Christmas
Sometime in December (depending upon what we decided in November)
Host Open House
December 23
Make & decorate birthday cake for Jesus
December 24
Appetizer Dinner & watch Nativity Story
December 25
Cinnamon Roll Breakfast (invite friends who are alone at Christmas to join us)
Christmas Morning worship (we read the Christmas story & sing favorite hymns)
Presents
Connect with extended family
December 31
Fondue and sparkling sangria for dinner
January 2
Buy birthday cards for next year
Write in Christmas memories book
Re-read Christmas letters & update any addresses
Select & cut down Christmas cards/pictures for next year’s placemat
January 3
Un-decorate & move everything back into attic