Organizing With Binders, A Christmas Planning Notebook

A Christmas planning notebook is a handy individualized tool to keep your holiday planning organized.

You might need a Christmas planning notebook if:

--You don't know where your holiday decorations are.

--You want to send Christmas cards, but your address book is out of date and you don't know who you want to send cards to, and you don't know where you stored your huge stock of Christmas cards from last year's sales, LOL.

--You regularly do your Christmas shopping AND Christmas decorating in the last two weeks before Christmas.

--The stress of trying to think of what to get for who, what you got them last year, and who should even be on your gift list takes a huge chunk of fun out of the holiday.

--You'd love to craft some of your holiday (and/or special occasion) gifts, but you can never start early enough.

Want me to go on? *cough* I think we get the general idea, right?

Here are some supplies you may want to set up your Christmas Planning Notebook. These are suggestions that are useful but not mandatory.

1. Binder of the size desired; I'm using a 3 ring, 2 inch capacity binder. I picked one of those with the clear plastic covers in front so I could put some artwork in the front and back. I also put a label in the spine.

2. Hole Punch; mine's a plain old 3 hole punch

3. Sheet Protectors; I recommend these to protect your pages from fingerprint stains and from the pages getting dog-eared.

4. Legal pad, steno pad or other paper just for jotting notes on, especially during the time you're setting it up. Or, just some plain lined 3 hole paper in the front of the binder.

5. Pen, pencil, markers, stickers; your preference

6. A clear zip close pouch that has the holes for the binder. You could keep stamps, stickers, post-it notes, coupons, etc in it. This is not required.

7. Paper. You can use any kind of paper you want. Swipe some of your kids' school paper; or use colored paper to print the final versions...it's all up to you. It's YOUR binder. Have fun with it!

Now for the insides! Don't let it overwhelm you. See my notes above in "What to keep in your Christmas notebook" and start slowly by making some notes on what would help you make your Christmas holidays run more smoothly. Think of some sections perhaps:

*Food

*Decorations

*Gifts

*Schedule/Calendar

*Crafts (if you do that)

*Kids

It took me about 2 weeks before I was happy with mine. Every now and then, I still give it a good tweak!

I've always done a Christmas gift list and a craft list. Somehow, I didn't quite manage them well through the year and well, I was a December shopper most years.

For the last several years, I haven't sent Christmas cards (although I keep buying them, LOL).

Not only was I a late shopper, many times the last few years, I was caught wrapping gifts and decorating the tree on Christmas Eve!

Well that was it! Believe it or not, I already had most of the components that I wanted to put in my Christmas notebook - I just never used them and they were EVERYWHERE!

So here's some suggestions on what to keep in your Christmas notebook, just based on what's in mine:

~Christmas Card List (made from the updated address list in your Household Notebook, LOL)

~Christmas Gift List. Personally, I like to keep separate pages. When I was working, I had a page for co-workers. I keep a page for friends. I keep a page for family. And, I keep a page for folks I want to remember at Christmas - the mailman, my doctor, etc.; for you it could be your kids' teachers.

~Holiday Decorations. This could be a section if you like. It is for me! Mine has the location of all the decorations. Notes for any changes or additions I want to make, and a checklist for decorating my home when it's time.

~Stocking Stuffer Ideas. I keep two pages; one for storebought stocking stuffers and one for crafted ones I want to make myself.

~Gift Closet Inventory. I keep a gift closet with items for Christmas, birthdays, etc. I keep the inventory list in this notebook because it's handy here. LOL

~Shopping Checklists. This is so I can take stock of anything I need to get for the holidays. I have a grocery list for the ingredients to my traditional recipes. I have a checklist for gift wrapping items may need (tape, tissue, wrap, bows, etc.).

~Christmas Gifts To Make. I keep this list separate so that I can see at a glance what still needs to be made.

~Christmas Craft Instructions. I made this section for any new crafts I want to make for gifts, so that the instructions will be handy.

~Holiday Party Planner. A checklist for planning parties really helps keep the details under control when the holiday season is swirling around you! I may divide this out soon as my notebook is getting a little thick.

~Favorite Holiday Recipes. I have copies of my family's favorite holiday dishes in their own section in my notebook.

As you can see, it's super easy to individualize your notebook to what you want and need.