A Simple Holiday Plan on Paper... Thanksgiving Through Christmas

You know that feeling in the middle of October when the store already has Christmas trees up, and suddenly you feel late for a holiday that’s still ten weeks away?

You’re not late. October is actually a really good time to start.

Plan the holidays on paper in four parts: a timeline from now to December 25, a Thanksgiving menu and hosting list, a gift list with a budget for each person, and a simple Christmas week plan. Keep it all in one place, leave room for a few quiet moments, and let an empty page stay empty.

If you’d like those pages already made for you, Get the free holiday pack. If you’d rather use a notebook you already have, everything below works on plain paper too.

I’m Mindee, a former Kindergarten teacher and homeschooling mom of three girls; and if you know me, you know I LOVE Christmas. For me, Christmas starts after the last trick-or-treater walks away from the front door. I snuggle up with my husband and kids, turn down the lights, turn on the fireplace and play Bing Crosby’s “White Christmas.” From there, it’s game on: Great American Christmas TV shows playing in the background, family traditions, and a whole Christmas school unit on a Christ-Centered Christmas, including serving those around us in need.

So, take a deep breath, grab a pencil…

And let’s begin.

A timeline from now to December 25

Break the season into four stretches and give each one a short job; that way you only ever have to look at the next few weeks, not the whole season at once.

• Mid to late October: pick three priorities for the season, decide who you’re hosting (or whose house you’re going to), and write down every person you’re buying for.
• November: Thanksgiving week comes first. Once the leftovers are put away, start on gifts in earnest.
• First half of December: ship anything that has to travel (check your carrier’s holiday dates when you get there), send cards if you send them, and add one tradition at a time.
• Christmas week: essentials only.

That’s the whole timeline, and it fits at the top of one page.

Your three priorities are yours to choose. They might be “host Thanksgiving,” “keep the gift list on budget,” and “one quiet evening at home each week.” Write whatever is true for your family this year, not what you think a holiday is supposed to look like.

Thanksgiving on one page

Put the whole Thanksgiving plan on a single page: who’s coming and what they’re bringing, the menu, a shopping list built from that menu, and a cook-ahead schedule.

• Guest list and who brings what. Write the name, then the dish beside it, so nobody shows up with the third pan of rolls.
• Menu. Every dish you’re making yourself.
• Shopping list, built from the menu. Go dish by dish and write down what each one needs; it’s how you avoid the Wednesday night run to the store for one can of pumpkin.
• Cook-ahead schedule. Three short lines: two days out, the day before, and the morning of. Pie crust and cranberry sauce can go on the first line; the turkey goes on the last.
• Notes for next year. How much food was left over, what nobody touched, what you wish you’d started sooner.

That last one is the Kindergarten teacher in me talking; a few notes written in November make next year’s plan a little easier, and you’ll be so glad you have them. [MINDEE: whether she usually hosts Thanksgiving or travels, and one real thing she’d jot under “notes for next year”]

A gift list with a number beside every name

Write the names first. Then a number beside each one. That’s the whole gift plan, and it fits on one page.

Picture a gift page with eight names down the left side and a number beside each one: your kids, your husband, both sets of grandparents, a sister, a teacher. Before you buy a single thing, you can see the whole season at a glance.

Then give every name four little boxes to check off as you go:

• Idea
• Bought
• Wrapped
• Given

The number is what does the heavy lifting. When one person’s line says 40 and you’ve already spent 55 by the first week of December, you see it while there’s still time to adjust the rest of the list; not in January, when the bank statement comes. [MINDEE: optional, a real moment a per-person gift budget helped her; cut if none]

If you have more than one child, decide early whether their numbers match. It’s SO much easier to settle that on paper in October than on Christmas morning, when someone’s pile looks a little smaller than a sister’s.

Christmas week, kept simple

For Christmas week, write down only the essentials day by day (travel, meals, gatherings), make one written plan for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, and leave the rest of the page blank on purpose.

Christmas Eve and Christmas Day get their own little plan because those are the days everybody asks, “What time are we…?” Write down when you’re leaving, what you’re eating, and who is where. That’s enough.

And then leave white space. The magic of Christmas lives in the unplanned parts: the extra hour in pajamas, the cookies that turn into a flour fight, the drive to see the lights that nobody scheduled. [MINDEE: one favorite Christmas Eve or Christmas week tradition at her house]

If you’d like a few quiet, Christ-centered moments that week, keep them small:

• Reading Luke 2 together
• A candle at dinner
• A carol before bed
• One act of service as a family

Church materials and your ward’s plans come first; these are just little extras that fit around them. And since a new year of Come Follow Me starts right after the holidays, here’s how I’m getting ready for the New Testament year.

If some of these never happen, that’s okay. A blank page is not a failure; it’s room. (I said the same thing about scripture study in a Come Follow Me routine when you’re already behind, and it’s just as true in December.)

Do you need a separate holiday binder?

Not necessarily. A holiday binder is a good approach, especially if you keep recipes and Christmas card lists from year to year; but if you just need this season handled, a few printed pages are enough.

There are a handful of ways moms do this, and every one of them works for somebody:

• A DIY binder with tabs for recipes, card addresses, gift lists and traditions, added to every year.
• A printed holiday planner you buy ready-made, with the pages laid out for you.
• A free printable you download and print at home.
• A single one-page timeline taped inside a cabinet door.

If you love pulling out the same binder every October and adding to it, keep doing that! It’s a wonderful thing to hand down. If the idea of building one makes you tired before you’ve even started, give yourself permission to use a few pages and be done. You know your family best; pick the one you’ll actually open.

Where to start this week

Start with the gift page. Tonight, write down every name you’re buying for, and put a number beside each one. Then sketch your four-line timeline at the top of another page, and you’re further along than you were this morning.

The rest can wait for its turn. Thanksgiving gets its page in November; Christmas week gets its page in December.

If you’d like everything laid out for you, Get the free holiday pack. It’s a free printable PDF with a cover and Thanksgiving, Christmas and Gifts sections, about 26 pages, and we’re giving the whole holiday section away this first year. From here on, the holiday pages live in the book, made to order and printed around your year, and you can build yours whenever you’re ready.

However your season shapes up, I hope you leave a little room in it for the quiet parts. Those are usually the ones we remember.

Happy planning, mamas!

-Mindee

A note from Mindee: my family makes The Kept Year, so take my enthusiasm for our planners with that in mind.