Tag: planning

How Many Days Until Christmas

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Are You On The Christmas Countdown?

Once it comes to the end of August each year, some people starting counting how many weeks or even how many days till Christmas. Of course, 2020 is going to be very different for many people: no Office Parties and kids may have started thinking about what they might like for Christmas, but in many households, Christmas expenditure will have to be cut back severely!

If your household is still able to celebrate and you need to know how many days until Christmas, you can see that on the Xmas clock in the top right hand corner of this page.

https://www.merrychristmascountdown.com

Preparing Ahead

If you like a big Christmas each year, you may have already started preparing as soon as the previous Christmas is over: recording what went well and what needs to be improved and starting to store decorations and the tree away ready for next year.

If you cook your special Christmas meal only once each year, it’s important to note down the cooking times and temperatures, the ingredients and any special items you include. It’s so easy to forget to buy that special ingredient or the particular temperature or cooking time needed for your turkey or special recipes but you usually remember them at the time you need them, so write them down then in your journal.

Getting Ready

Have you made a list of all the things you need to do? The cards to send, presents to buy and wrap, guests to prepare for? You can get a download list of things to remember and budget for here.

Secret Santa

Many work places hold a Secret Santa event each Christmas, where each worker draws another person’s name from a hat and buys them a present within a given budget. No one knows who buys which present for which person. Some families, especially large ones, make use of Secret Santa each year to cut down on overall expenditure and allow each person to receive one bigger gift rather than many smaller gifts.

 

35 Weeks To Christmas Day 2017

Christmas 2017

Christmas Day 2017 is on a Monday and there are 35 Sundays to go before we reach Christmas. It doesn’t sound so long until we get there, huh? Maybe now is the time to start planning if you want a stress free Very Merry Christmas this year.

Spring

It’s spring in the Northern Hemisphere at the moment (April) and conifers are dropping any extra pine cones. The earlier ones are small, the later ones are larger. If you want pine cones for your decorations, then now is the time to collect them. It’s easy enough to carry a plastic bag with you if you are walking anywhere near pine trees or even put a few in your pocket each time you are out. Store them in an open bowl to make sure they are dry and you will then have your own pine cones to add to a pot pourri with cinnamon for a Christmassy smell nearer the time or you can get gold paint or craft glue and gold glitter and decorate them ready for use around the house. Both ways of using cones are useful, they don’t cost much and you can use them as a children’s craft if you want to keep the kids busy on some weekend or just enjoy the decorating yourself!

Watch a Pine cone decorating Video

Some people are highly creative and there are a great many ideas for using pine cones in the video below!

Ugly Christmas Jumper

If you are a keen knitter and like the idea of creating your own Ugly Christmas Sweater, then now is the time to start collecting ideas for a pattern and costing out the wool. If you are not a knitter and can’t persuade anyone to knit for you, then you will be able to find Ugly Christmas Sweaters on line to buy nearer the time. It would be good to start saving for it now, if budgeting might be a problem.

Awesome Practical Inspiration Now Christmas Is Over

Excellent Practical Ways To Actually Recover Quickly From Christmas

Christmas is over, gone, past, finished and done with – for this year! But what about NEXT Christmas? Did this Christmas go with a bang for you? Was it the best ever? Could it have been better?

I am not talking about your personal world because things can happen that we can do nothing about, that we can’t plan for and heartbreak can happen at any time. But if your Christmas plans did not work out, if your home looks like a garbage tip, if you were stressed out to the max, along with your credit cards and you are not looking forward to a long January with very little in the bank and big bills waiting to be paid then let’s look and see whether we can do something NOW to make sure NEXT Christmas goes more like the way you would like it to.

Easily Work Out What Went Wrong For You

Holiday depression and post holiday depression are very common, especially during and after Christmas. There can be many triggers; loneliness, family rows, the time of the year (the cold and dark), feelings of alienation from what is going on, etc. If you feel depressed – whether post Christmas or just generally depressed – please seek medical advice. There are many ways these days of helping people with depression and you shouldn’t just get told to “pull yourself together”! Please seek help now.

Totally separate from health concerns, there are many common themes to post-Christmas upsets, rows and annoyance over what did or did not happen. While it may not be possible to change what has happened, it is certainly possible to start planning now, so that next Christmas will be better. Ignoring it means setting yourself up for a repeat of what you did not enjoy this time round. If you want next Christmas to be better, start planning now, to ensure a better Christmas for you and your family and friends.

Overspent

Overspending at Christmas is a common complaint AFTER the event. If you have overspent, then you need to get your finances back into good order and THEN start planning for next Chrsitmas

Not enough Money

The old saying is that “you can’t make a silk purse from a sow’s ear”, that is, you must make do with what you have. That’s old advice but still sound. When our finances dipped, I told my kids NOT to buy me a Christmas present, after all, I actually had everything I needed and I definitely didn’t need something to clutter me up further! I also told them that I would spend less on them at Christmas, to account for getting no present from them 🙂 and also told them I would spend more on them on their birthday, which helped spread the financial load. I also told them that there was a financial limit and that they could have their present in cash if they preferred. They did! I also set a limit on what I would spend on the grandchildren, so they all had the same.

Planning Disaster

There are lots of areas that can be planned and prepared well ahead of time and with a good calendar and perhaps a journal or diary, it’s possible to have a stress free Christmas if you want it, with no planning disasters. Of course, that doesn’t guarantee no natural disasters but you cannot do much about those.

Not Ready In Time

Christmas comes on the same day each year – surprise, surprise, so a countdown can help get everything planned and managed in good time.

Home looks Like Disaster Zone

After Christmas, it can take some time to take down the decorations and the house may look bare without the tree and the lights but a bit done each day soon gets it completed. Packing everything away carefully will make next Christmas a lot easier.

Family and friend Rows

Unfortunately, holidays at all times can be marred by family rows, especially if fuelled with alcohol. If you find Christmas spoilt for you EVERY year, maybe it is time to consider NOT inviting the offending family member?

Important Revealed Here – How To Have An Awesome NEXT Christmas

Next Christmas starts here. I will be sharing storage, clearing and planning tips with you to help make next Christmas even better.