Organization Ideas for Getting Ready for Christmas
A few weeks ago, I asked on Instagram what help I could provide during the holidays and one of the biggest requests was ideas for tracking gift buying, wrapping, and budgets!
I’m definitely not an expert on this but I opened a question box and responses came FLYING in!
Many of you really ARE experts at this!
I hope these suggestions will make your holidays a little smoother and easier!
Specific Apps and Programs: There are so many great apps out there that can be useful during the holidays. Make gift lists, wish lists, budgets, track purchasing, wrapped gifts, ordered gifts, stocking stuffers and so much more with some of these apps and programs!
- Christmas Gift List Tracker
- Santa’s Bag app (my assistant, Analese, has used this one for years and loves it)
- Trello app
- Gift Guru app
- Giftster app
- Holiday Docket from The Lazy Genius. This is a $15 ebook containing a workbook with seven practical steps to help you celebrate the holiday season.
- Digital Christmas planner from GoodNotes. This Christmas planner includes a budget, planning, decoration, gifts, activities, checklists, parties, meals and menus – it really does have it all!
Lists:
- Use Notes on your phone to keep track of everything. You can lock the note, which I didn’t know.
- Make Amazon lists for every family member. This is handy because it shows you when prices drop!
- Create a Word doc and share it with your spouse so you can each add ideas.
- Create a Google or Excel Spreadsheet – a very organized follower said this “(use) new columns each year so you see last year’s. Color code what has been purchased, cost, and have a new tab each year. Also a tab to track what I tell different relatives when they ask for kid gift ideas, so no doubling up.”
- Use a notebook and don’t let it out of your sight! Purchasing one with pockets is extra helpful for keeping track of receipts.
- Have family members create wish lists on a Pinterest group.
- Make a holiday binder with gift lists, what has been purchased and what has been wrapped.
- Save Instagram stories/ideas to camera roll. I would further this idea by adding these photos to a hidden album. My kids are constantly wanting to look at pictures and I don’t want them to see my ideas.
- My Pilgrim’s Life has a free holiday planner you can easily print out to use with your kids.
- Join the Do Save Give from Holiday Prep Club. This one is a paid membership and has everything from to-do lists to early access to their gift guides.
Gift Organization and Gift Wrapping:
- Designate and label a shopping bag or box for each person and add items in said box as they are purchased. This was the top answer for gift organization tips!
- Get the same neighbor/teacher gift each year. The gift we do every year for teachers is gift cards. All about that here!
- Finding hiding spots for gifts can be tricky. Some of the suggestions were empty luggage, one closet that is off limits and using your black Costco totes that normally hold Christmas decorations.
- This personally wouldn’t work for me, but someone suggested to not wrap until everything is purchased. I am a wrap as you receive kind of gift giver!
- Assign each person a specific wrapping paper, which means you don’t have to worry about gift tags! I’ve also heard people doing this and not telling the kids whose paper belongs to whom, keeping it a fun mystery until Christmas morning!
- Taking photos of all of the gifts you purchase for each kid, make a hidden album and add them to the albums as you go.
- Have a specific wrapping day during the week. On that day of the week, set up a wrapping station during and wrap what has been bought.
- Outsource all of the wrapping to a high schooler or babysitter! This sounds like a really fun way to make money and a job my girls would love!
Scheduling:
- Have each family member pick their #1 must do. Once the calendar is made, nothing else is added! A great way to make the holidays special, but not get burned out.
- Have a strict timeline – lots of people suggested to finish shopping on December 1st and have nothing arriving past December 15th, allowing for time to soak in the holiday season! I would love to be on this timeline!
Gift Formula: I have a whole post written about different gift formulas here – but here were a couple of the Christmas gift rules mentioned.
- Want, need, read, Santa and stockings
- Something to read, something to wear, something to play with
Do you have any other tips for getting ready for Christmas that you would add? I would love to hear!
These are great! I’m a wait-to-wrap person because I tend to overbuy and then have some returns to balance everything out. My favorite tradition is to have a wrapping party. After kiddo’s bedtime, I invite all my friends over one evening and we set up tables in my basement and play a Christmas movie on the projector. Some come to wrap, some to just hang out. But it’s one of my favorite evenings.
Thank you loved this article so many things to think about love the one about finishing by December 1 I’m really gonna work on that one this month so glad I found you. I love reading your stuff.