Up until recently I was so unorganised around Christmas time. I’d leave things til the last minute and would panic buy on the pay before Christmas. I’ve even been known to be doing shopping on Christmas Eve! Then, about 3 years ago I decided enough was enough and did some searching on the internet to become a bit more organised over the holiday period.
One of the first sites I came across was Organized Christmas. I already used the Organized Scrapbooks site for their printables so decided to check out the site. They, at the time, had two choices for holiday organisation – Christmas Countdown and the Holiday Grand Plan. I went with the Christmas Countdown. It’s a 6 week workshop starting in October and finishing on the 1st December, designed so you’re organised and can relax and enjoy the holiday season come December. Each week is assigned a theme – get organised, reality check, gifts & giving, get cooking, decorating and celebrating. And there’s the printables to help you stay organised and less stressed.
The first year I followed along a bit half heartedly but the following year I followed every step and was ready for Christmas (minus a few small gifts) by the end of November. A huge bonus as I was a new mum. Last year I followed along again, a lot more loosely, picking and choosing what worked for our family.
This year I’ve decided to check out some other systems to see if I can find something that is really me.
I’d seen The Organised Housewife’s Christmas Planner last year about half way through doing the 
Christmas Countdown. I bought it last week and have printed it out and added it to my Inner B organiser (thanks to Tina for the awesome idea of adding extra sections to my organiser).
I’m loving supporting an Australian mum and I love how this planner isn’t centered around American holidays (sorry to all my US readers but I really don’t need to know about celebrating Thanksgiving lol)
There are lots of great checklists and planners and the graphics are too cute. It’s actually making the planning process more fun. A couple of planners that aren’t relevant for me this year but may be useful later.
If you want to know how to put your Christmas Planner together you can always check out this post. And you can buy your own copy of The Organised Housewife’s Christmas Planner here for $14.95 (Australian dollars)
The boring bit – I’m doing a series on Christmas (again) this year. You can follow all my posts here