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 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 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 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