Christmas is a busy season with a lot to do. Shopping, baking, singing, wrapping, decorating – so much work goes into making Christmas a special time of year.
Often such seasons make us stressed – and we might be tempted to think stress is inevitable. Or, if we want to eliminate stress, we toy with the thought of eliminating holiday traditions altogether.
But Christmas is worth pulling out all the stops. Christmas is worth the work. The point of it all isn’t bright lights in a dark season, but perfect Light, Who entered a dark world. The point isn’t our personal family, but the reality that now we can become part of the family of God because of Jesus’ reconciling life and death and resurrection.
We shouldn’t be stressed out by Christmas. Since we know it’s coming, let’s prepare our hearts and minds and make a plan to do the work of making things festive to the glory of God.
Holiday Interval Plan
Deadlines do motivate and Christmas is a deadline. But going out shopping the day before and staying up wrapping into the wee hours is choosing the path of stress.
Deadlines
Interval planning is my strategy for keeping my head in the game and focused on what needs to be done.
And that’s exactly what we need during the Christmas season: To see what needs to be done and then do it, realizing it’s a short-term crazy-time that we can manage, and allowing ourselves a rest after it’s over.
I like to make my interval plans six weeks long, and so that means starting my holiday plans this week. Now, I’m not starting from scratch – I already have some lists, some ideas, and even a few gifts – but now that the holiday interval has begun, it’s time to go into the zone and make sure I have all of the lists, all of the gifts, and so on.
This first week, we focus on creating the lists.
Week 1: Make Your Lists
A good plan starts with lists. The point of the list isn’t even that you exactly follow it, but that you begin thinking things through and keeping information and ideas outside your head.
So be sure your lists are on paper, not in your head, if you don’t want to be stressed this Christmas
Here are some lists you might need:
- Who to gift to – including teachers or neighbors!
- What you’ll gift, and whether you’ve purchased it and wrapped it.
- What supplies are needed for Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s Day
- Travel plans
- What food is needed for Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s Day
- Are you hostessing a gathering, party, or other event? Get your plans in order.
- Plans for family devotions or advent Morning Time
- What’s needed for decorating
- A cleaning plan for before and after gatherings
- Ensure the calendar is up-to-date and add in any “buffer” or “margin” days for preparations or recovery from events
- Who’s on the Christmas letter list and what supplies are needed and actions required to send a family photo and letter
On the one hand, writing the lists is the easier part of the plan, because it’s not really doing anything or going anywhere. On the other hand, writing the lists is the harder part of the plan, because it’s the decision-making process.
If we make these decisions now, the rest of the weeks will run more smoothly and effectively because we won’t be stymied by decisions to make at every turn.
Another thing to consider as you make these lists is where you will keep them to make them useful.
A list is only useful if you look at it when you need it. Where can you keep your lists to keep them easy and convenient to access? I keep mine in Evernote, but a clipboard or binder might be a better choice for you.
Make your lists and give them a home so you can refer to them and update them regularly.
Week 2: Make Purchases
When the presents are purchased well in advance of advent, you are free from the most common stress of the season (well, after family stress). Get the shopping done and then you’ll be able to decorate and wrap and sing and attend parties without a large task looming over your head.
You will go into advent feeling prepared, not stressed.
I’m a big fan of ordering all I can online so I don’t have to venture out into the cold, browse racks of random things others thought would be cool this season, and mingle in the crowded aisles.
Online shopping can be done with a cup of coffee in the morning before the kids are up or after they go to bed with a glass of wine by the fire.
With Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals coming, we can possibly get our Christmas gift list taken care of at a discount. Sometimes those deals might tempt us to overbuy or get lost in the trails of possibility, but because we have already made our gift lists last week, we can keep track of what we still need, what we’re looking for, and what we don’t need.
Keep those lists handy as you shop. Note what you purchased for whom and see what’s remaining.
As you’re at the grocery store gathering Thanksgiving supplies, you can also grab extra Christmas things since they’re out too.
Often when I shop for my cheap turkey, I also pick up several things for stocking stuffers (candy, gum, tape, stickers) and general December celebration extras (candy canes, muffin papers, extra powdered sugar, red food coloring, etc.).
A tip I picked up from Rachel Jankovic is to store your stocking stuffers in a 2-gallon extra-large ziplock. Label the bag with the name of the person it’s for, and the stuffing is pretty fast on Christmas Eve. Plus, at a glance, you can see how you’re doing. I aim to get it about half-full and then add a can or bottle drink to the stocking as well for bulk.
In addition to buying presents, now is a good time to purchase of stamps and copies of a family picture or Christmas cards if you do an annual mailing.
So this week, do as much as you can to purchase
- Christmas gifts
- General Christmas supplies
- 2-gallon Ziplocs and stocking stuffers
- Stamps, envelopes, family photo and/or Christmas cards
- Advent celebration supplies (candles, a new Christmas book, etc.)
Week 3: Decorate!
It’s time to make the house feel like Christmas!
Now that Advent is here, decorations can be pulled out, lights put up, and Christmas music played. It’s time to begin building the ambiance of Christmas.
Perhaps you haven’t completely finished purchasing Christmas gifts, but if you’ve made a start, you’re ahead of the game. Use this week to finish crossing off your Christmas to-buy lists and also make sure to keep an eye on that calendar so you have what you need for each event coming up.
Decorating is not my strong suit, but I’ve collected a few things and we are faithful in our tradition with our kids of putting up a fresh tree on the first day of Advent.
And, as you rearrange furniture to make room for the Christmas tree, reach high spots for stringing lights, or change out the plain mugs for Christmas ones, it’s a good time to do a little housecleaning as you move things around.
This is also the week to wrap up the Christmas letter project and get them into the mail. One of my favorite Christmas decorations is our bulletin board or fridge front display of Christmas cards and photos that arrive all month.
Happy December! Taking care of all these details this early in the month will help us enjoy the month of festivity instead of feeling frenzied and stressed the week before Christmas.
Week 4: Make & Bake Week
December hits double-digit days and the countdown speeds up this week. It’s time to start making, doing, and baking!
Starting early with Christmas crafting, planning, and all the other holiday related doings helps reduce stress and make the actual week of Christmas less hectic and more enjoyable. If we’re going to focus on actually celebrating and enjoying Christmas with our family and friends, then it’d be a good idea to get most of the work of Christmas done early.
So let’s do it!
If you make Christmas gifts, it’s a good idea to have the goal of getting them finished this week. Then you still have another week before Christmas week to use as a buffer in case there’s an unexpected setback.
It’s a good week to start the Christmas baking. Breads and cookies all freeze beautifully, so you can start now, get a taste of Christmas, but stick most of it into the freezer, then you can pull them out and have calm, collected celebrations Christmas week!
This is also the week I make sure the kids do any Christmas activities or crafts that I’d planned on. It’s easy to think, “Oh, we should do that,” and then it never happens because there is no time set aside for it. This is the week to make sure some of those things happen.
The kids want to dip pretzels into chocolate and decorate them, do sugar cookies, and maybe craft a few Christmas presents for family members. As they get antsy for Christmas, it’s a good time to direct that energy and anticipation toward something productive, and then we won’t be scrambling last minute before parties or celebrations.
You might not finish all your Christmas creating this week, but you need to start this week to avoid the last-minute crunch and stress.
Week 5: Wrap Up Presents & Loose Ends
If the preparations have been made, then as Christmas comes close, you’re actually able to relax and enjoy the holiday and delight in the work you’re doing to make it happen.
By now you’ve most likely purchased and made all your Christmas gifts and it’s time to figure out when to wrap them all. It might mean a few late nights so you know the kids won’t see. I know I have to wrap all the presents after the kids are asleep because overexcited preschoolers tend to spill the beans unintentionally. So I’m planning on a couple late nights and compensating with early bedtimes and sleeping in by the weekend, so I don’t go into Christmas week already exhausted.
Last week was the Make & Bake week, but since most of our making is edible treats that don’t freeze well, this is the week we’ll be making our treats to give as gifts. I’ll also be taking the kids out to buy their presents for each other and for their cousins. They love to save their money and give their own gifts, and that’s a pleasure to be fostered.
They love to wrap the presents they are giving, too. I precut some wrapping paper so it’s more manageable off the roll and then let them have at it with scissors, tape, gift tag stickers, and a pen. They might not be the prettiest presents under the tree, but they were wrapped with love and joy, and that counts so much more.
What else needs to be wrapped up before Christmas week comes? Maybe some more holiday baking? A few more crafted gifts to fit in? Visits with friends planned? A Christmas party, perhaps?
Now is also a great time to read by the Christmas tree in the evening, turn on the Christmas music as the dark creeps in early, and have an extra cup of tea by the fire. It’s the little things that really help us savor the season. Don’t forget to breathe and enjoy.
What will you be doing this week to wrap up your Christmas preparations?