This article is part of the Carnival of Natural Mothering hosted by GrowingSlower, Every Breath I Take, I Thought I Knew Mama, African Babies Don’t Cry, and Adventures of Captain Destructo. This month’s topic is Incorporating Natural Into the Holidays. Be sure to check out all of the participants’ posts through the links at the bottom of this page.
I prefer a simple Christmas season. That doesn’t mean we do only a little – nope, we decorate, participate in activities, and enjoy cooking, baking, and gift giving. But we only do the things that make us happy and focus our hearts where we want them at Christmastime. For us, that means Christ and family.
I’m a big believer that a simple Christmas requires forethought and planning just as much, if not more, as an out-of-control Christmas. Here are some planning resources to help you prepare for Christmas on your family’s terms:
24/7 Moms gives you ideas for creating a Christmas binder. They also provide 12 weeks of Christmas planning ideas. Before you commit to these ideas, check out some of these others…
Life as Mom offers a wonderful free Christmas planning ebook, A Simpler Season.
Organized Home gives you two different options for Christmas planning – a 6 week version, and the Holiday Grand Plan. Personally, I love the latter, but I’m an extreme planner – it makes me feel happy and peaceful to make lists and over-analyze. Whether you, too, are slightly crazy, or you function in a more normal place, there are loads of fantastic printables on this site.
Last year I highlighted some of my favorite specific pages for my Christmas planning binder. Check those out here.
The popular FlyLady offers a unique premise – pretend you are leaving for a 3-week cruise on December 1st, so you have to complete all your Christmas prep before then. Check out her resources.
Mommy Footprint has solid information and ideas regarding a greener Christmas.
All Our Days offers this great idea – plan 12 days of gifts to bless your spouse leading up to Christmas. I love this one, which is new to me this year. I’m pondering how to implement it in our lives.
What resources do you love? Do you have any tips for planning an intentional family Christmas?
Ooo, I really like FlyLady’s idea to have everything prepped by December 1st. I’m a typical last minute shopper so that would be an amazing deadline to reach.
I like that, too! It would be so much less stressful to have everything prepped before the activity madness starts!
Thanks for linking up these great resources! I’m a fan of Fly Lady too, so I think I’ll try pretending we’re going on a cruise too. It might help me say no to the events that threaten to take over the holidays. Each one is small, but the preschool, elementary school, library, church, and neighborhood all have their own events that add up to too much.
Oh, yes, I agree! This time of year especially. They’re all small events, and they’re all good events, but they may not be the best option for our family. It’s difficult to discern what we should say no to – and my kids aren’t even old enough yet to voice their own opinions!
I’m a big fan of the FlyLady though I had forgotten about her plan to have everything done 3 weeks early.
This year, I’ve been using 100 Days to Christmas from ListPlanIt. So far, I’m very happy with it.
Barb, did you have to purchase the ListPlanIt plan? I have one from them I got for free when I purchased a bundle, and I really like it, but for this post I tried to avoid linking to anything that had to be purchased. I haven’t yet found a purchased system that beats the free systems. But I’m a mix-and-matcher! I have pages from several different plans in my binder.
I love the FlyLady Holiday Prep emails. They offer a great way to tackle it all without being overwhelmed. Thanks for the other resources too!