My Organised Christmas 2014

That's it, Christmas is over for another year.  But just for reference for next year (or if you need to start planning in July) here's the list of everything I did in the run up to the big day.

I loved sharing the excitement with Cate over at Me Add Three and her
Christmas Countdown.

Plus huge thank you's to Izabela Peters, Lapland Mailroom and the Portable North Pole for their gifts this year,

Follow the links as I post them below to keep up with my planning (where I will be following Organized Christmas as it applies to me, however I may throw in some extra things) and let me know how you are getting on with yours.  Are you super organised or a Christmas Eve shopper??

Christmas Planning Week 16: Maintenance Week

It's sooo close we can almost touch it and, if you're like me, no matter how organised you feel you're not. Yes my Christmas shopping can be ticked off, My vodka is on order for delivery on the 22nd and the ibuprofen is ready for the 26th.

I've wrapped most of the presents (and bought far too much as usual) and the chocolate tub is only half full  .... but the housework... well that's taken a bit of a back seat.

This week is all about Maintanance ......... making sure the rooms are organized, tidy and ready and finishing all the little jobs.

There are now 11 days left until the big day to get things done in .... here's how mine will plan out.  I am going to print this off and stick it up/ write it in my diary so I can check on my progress/ outstanding things.

Of course I also have a blogging schedule to add to this.....

Christmas Planning Week 15: Finish-Up Week

It's now or never, there's only 2 more weekends to go before the big day.  I'm now in a proper sorting and organising mood as I only have 9 days of no work (ohhh on that note I only have 7 more days of work.... YAY)

I've wrapped the presents that need posting, just got to sort out all the cards this week and mail everything off.  

I love the idea of delegating chores to the kids, Ben seems to be in a very helpful mood at the moment (wonder why?!)

I'm flying on the organisation front.... but sadly lacking on the sorting and cleaning.  In fact I've wrapped almost everything and working on Christmas Eve hamper.... must add a box to my shopping list.

Our elf and his friends is here and having a great time (I'll try and pop a post up about it) and the 24 books of advent is going down a treat (again post to follow).

Christmas Season is well and truly in full swing with Ben's Christmas play at school tomorrow and Noah's next week.  Our trip to Santa is planned for the 21st and I'm super excited.

Let's take a look where I'm up to.....

Christmas Planning Week 14: Decorations

Don't know about you but this week is defiantly the kick start week for decorating our house.

We spent Saturday putting up our tree, no tinsel this year, I can never get it to look as good as my mum used too and this year it looked even worse.  However we've put the addition of sweeties strung up with ribbon instead.

I'm not happy with it tho, it looks really bare and naff... going to look out for a nice 6ft bushy one when they get reduced for next year I think.

Christmas Planning - Week 13: Dining Room

4 weeks left.... where has the time gone?  


This week has been a bit quieter on the Christmas front, mainly because I had an interview (didn't get the job.... pfft ... their loss - wasn't my dream job so not all that bothered.).  


Still got 2 pressies to get and about to get an Albelli voucher to make my grandparents their photobook.... that's this afternoons job so I can get it ordered.  I did make one in Photobox but it was expensive and rubbish compared to this type.  


We have at least decided on Morrisons for our Christmas crockery and I'm going to make sure it is packed away safely so it can come out year on year and become traditional.   (post to follow soon)


Tree is due to go up next weekend and at the moment I still cannot get in the cellar to get to any of the decorations and stuff so that's on the list for this week.  


I also really want to get the playroom finished so we can use it as storage over December. It still needs prepping, papering and painting. 

Christmas Planning - Week 12: Attic Storage

Eeekkk - it's only 5 weeks until Christmas.  I've had a very very productive morning sorting out all the Christmas stuff and making room for it all.   OK so I emptied the cr4p out the airing cupboard/ wardrobe (in my room) and threw it on the bed then put the Christmas things in santa sacks (see this post) and put them into the empty space.
As for the things that are on the bed, well I'm hoping the magic faries will find them a home if I leave them long enough .......... what do you mean they won't ........ bugger.

Whilst sorting through the Christmas stuff I made one bag pressies and one bag Christmas Eve hamper/ things I may need before Christmas (such as festive jumpers and t-shirts).  I also listed them all on an excel spreadsheet with cost and savings.

Christmas Planning - Week 11: Garage/ Storage

Payday has been so I'll be heading to B&M to get the lovely Christmas Crockery and towels I saw, and of course will feed back to you.

I treated myself to the Yankee Candle Advent Calender while it was a bargain at £16 in Clinton Cards (used a 25% off voucher) and again there'll be a post about that coming up too.

So this week on Organised Christmas is Garage/ Storage week.  As I don't have a garage I'll be tackling the cellar and digging out the Christmas things ....... then trying to work out where to re-store it in time for the big day - queue boxes everywhere lol.

Christmas Planning - Week 10: Kitchen

Woops, anyone trying to follow my planning along with Organized Christmas may have noticed the elves creped in last week and covered the wrong rooms.  So the next few weeks may not be in quite the same order.

This week is Kitchen Week (for me anyway).

Christmas Planning - Week 8 and 9: Guest Room and public spaces.

sorry sorry sorry, I may be having an organised Christmas but the rest of my life is completely disorganised.  It also doesn't help that the site I base my posts on (Organized Home) has a glitch or a virus or something and constantly throws me to an 'update Adobe Flash" page with an instant download.  Please delete this download as I am concerned it's a virus as I've gone thro the proper adobe site and should be up to date yet it's still showing up all the time.

Anyways I battled round it and thankfully (as I'm soo behind) there's not a lot to add to my list.  I'd like to say check the website for the full lists but.......

Of course weeks 8 and 9 are also Halloween prep so they have some great ideas for getting you organised there too.  We don't do Halloween massively here so I'll not be covering it in this post.

I have sorted out the boys letters from Santa already though thanks to Offiical Lapland, check out my post and competition here.

If Halloween and sweets are more your thing then I have a Spooky competition from Swizzles live too, here.

Christmas Planning - Week 7: Guest Room (AKAcatch-up week for me)

Oh my gosh the weeks are going far to quickly (10 Sundays left).  It's Ben's birthday on Friday so I've been a little pre-occupied and my organised Friday was once again taken up with yet another trip to Meadowhell!

On the plus side while I was queuing in the Lego Shop for one of his presents the people in front let me have their points.... it wasn't like they were spending much .... only £150 (that's £15 in Lego points)!  Someone will be having a fantastic birthday/ Christmas I said... and they explained it was for a 28 year old :)  Just shows kids don't grow up they just get older.

Christmas Planning - Week 6: Kids Rooms

Pfft just got back from Tesco.  Where they did, eventually have in the green Rowntree sweetie boxes ... back up to £5.   Needless to say we didn't buy any as when we looked you could fill it with an assortment of various jelly's for the same price (same quantity, if not more).  So instead I will be utilising a spare tub I have and in the next few weeks stocking up on various goodies to fill it.


What have I accomplished this week,....  I've made a start on the boys Christmas gifts.  I was frantically racking my brain to try and remember what it was they wanted.  I'd like to avoid more toys... then I remembered they were after Tablets.  Which I was quite happy with as it may mean I reclaim some TV and Ben would not be constantly asking for my laptop.   Annoyingly the really great deal I had seen is no more (typical) - I don't want to spend more than £50 so it's going to be one on offer, a 7" screen is fine.     I am reluctant to buy online as I bought one from amazon at the beginning of the year and it was faulty.... it was replaced (after a fuss) with another faulty one and I e eventually got my money back.
   I am now considering getting them 1 to share (and of course then mummy can borrow it when we go on holiday).  :)   So if you see any great offers please let me know.

Christmas Planning - Week 5: Bathroom Week

A little late (sorry) but it means that I can bring you my new hashtag a week early (so not all bad than) .... let me introduce #MistletoeMonday.   Organised will return to Sundays again this weekend and Mondays will be full of festive ideas, treats, and exciting reviews to get you in the mood.  After all there is only 87 more sleeps.

Well after blogging about them we headed to Tesco last week and picked up a tub of Heroes for £4.  I wanted to get a tub of the rowntree ones too but they didn't have any :(  I have now been assured by
Tesco they have them in at my local so think I'll pay them a visit on the way home tomorrow and see if they still do.

Christmas Planning - Week 4: Our Bedroom Week

So the chocolates in Morrisons are definitely back up to full price now so I'll be waiting to see who's next to reduce them or give a great deal.

Did you see my Poundland post?  The boys are very excited to have their advent calenders already.  I need to get my wooden advent calendar out I made last year and see if it needs updating.

The selling stuff didn't sell again last week so next weekend (it's black bin day this week) I'll be throwing or charity shopping stuff to make the space.

Christmas Planning - Week 3: Entry/ Foyer Week

I was really cross with myself when I went into Morrisons today and the sweetie tubs appeared to be back to full price (so I didn't get any), it was only on the way out I noticed the sign was still up saying they were on offer, will have to go back for a couple.   I even resisted the urge to buy the boys chocolate advent calenders when I saw them.

I've managed to empty a box/ rearrange my stitching stash to make an extra Christmas present box but I need more space.  There is only one thing for it, a load of my unsold stuff will have to go to a charity shop to free up the large box!!!  Do I want to give ebay a chance first??? hmmm.....

Christmas Planning - Week 2: Living Room / Question Week

We move on slightly from lists in Week Two and turn our focus to questions questions questions.   It is supposed to be living room cleaning/ decluttering week and as I've not actually done this from last week I think I'd better keep it in.

Couldn't believe it yesterday when I went into Morrisons and they had hugee towers of the Hero, Celebration, Roses, Quality Street and Haribo tubs for £5 each or 2 for £8.  i was very tempted to make a start on my Christmas food storage until I remembered I'd nearly filled the pressie box and hadn't unburied the big Christmas 'stuff' box... which in reality means they would be gone before October :)

Every year I pledge to not buy these but for me they are a BIG part of Christmas.  Last year, I will

admit, we bought the Haribo one but kept it topped up with goodies from other places.... we even found Christmas Haribo (why don't they include that??) Do you buy the tubs??

Christmas Planning - Week 1: Front Porch / List Week

Well Christmas is well on it's way and Week One on Organized Christmas is List Week.  Yup you guessed it, this week is all about making lists, lists and lists to ensure everything runs smoothly.

Check out the printable lists on the above site (I won't be reinventing the wheel), however I will be sharing my progress and would love you to keep me on track and share your progress along with me.

I just need to find me a nice Christmas note book to keep my lists in :)

As I don't have a front porch (which is the suggested focus for the week) I will be concentrating on my front room which is a disorganised mess - mainly as it is currently the storage point for all the lego.

Cleaning/Organising Area:
Front Room and the Front Room cleaning checklist  (once mine is written I will upload to google docs or similar for you).

Christmas Preperations
Print the Holiday Grand Plan calendars for reference.
Make the following lists:
Gifts to be given, amount to spend (include family, friends, etc)  Master lists here and here  I've started and listed everything bought so far (including any savings).  I'd love to list them here but you never know who may stumble across the blog.  I'll let you know after Christmas.... tho there will be a hint in a review later on this month. ;)
Christmas card list - Decide how many cards are needed, which are we making, buying in bulk, ordering?  Master List here
Visits to make - we really don't make any so for me I can cross this straight off.
Parties/Entertaining - we really don't entertain (or go to parties), yay another I can cross this straight off.
Menus for Christmas, New Years, etc
Long-term shopping list/ perishables / decorations/ Goodies - buying in a few every week saves a big splurge just before Christmas.
Favorite Meals of Family members for freezing ahead - our freezer isn't really big enough, it will be 'business as usual in our house.
Create a Christmas planner notebook to organize all this holiday planning into.  I found a lovely 'me' notebook set in Store21 and they were reduced to £1.50.  BARGAIN.

If you want to get ahead of the game there are more printables here.

Updated 6.9.14