Welcome!
This is Day 3 of the 21 Days to a Stress Free & Debt Free Christmas. I’m so excited that you are joining me for what I hope will be a really helpful series designed to walk with you step by step through the Christmas season in a way that ensures you keep your sanity and that you don’t overspend.
Today is another important aspect of ensuring you have a stress free & debt free Christmas – organizing your Christmas calendar & creating your bucket list.
Since a lot of stress during the Christmas season comes from having so much to do, you need a plan for your money, but also your time. If you aren’t an organized person by nature, then this may be a challenge for you. But, I promise you that with a strategic plan and a realistic calendar, I believe you can make some great memories this year while keeping your sanity intact. Give it a try, at least this once.
Create Your Calendar
If you do not currently use a calendar or a planner*, then you deserve a medal, but you will need one for the holiday season. You can either purchase one, print one out, or use a Google calendar.
If you already have one, then use what you have. You will need to make sure that your calendar can be accessed by your entire family. At the very least, your spouse needs to have good visibility to it, but older children could benefit from that as well. My husband and I love using Google calendar, since we can share our personal calendars with one another and have access to it at all times on our phones.
It Fills Up Quickly
Sit down with your calendar* and begin to add in any and all activities that you are aware of at this point. Make sure to check your children’s school calendars, church calendars, work social calendars, etc. Ask about any events that tend to be annual that you haven’t heard about yet. Add in everything that you must attend or those where you have already made commitments. This would also be a good time to make decisions about travelling.
Once you have everything written in, see what days are still open. If you find that your calendar is already looking full, then see if you can remove some events. Is everything you listed mandatory? While you may want to attend everything, it may not help you achieve the stress free Christmas that you desire. Please don’t fill your calendar up so much that you have no margin. Be intentional with what events you will attend!
Create Your Christmas Bucket List
Now it’s time to think about specific things that you want to do with your family and friends. We call it our Christmas Bucket List. Think about family traditions that you enjoy and brainstorm some new ideas you might want to try this year. There are lots of ways to make memories with your family, but don’t succumb to the pressure to do every single meaningful idea that you see. Be realistic!
If you have children, I encourage you to consider their energy levels and stamina. There is a lot of excitement already, so don’t tack on all these extra family activities simply because you want them to experience the perfect Christmas. {Hint: It doesn’t exist!}
If you already have a good number of events outside of your home in the evenings, then consider picking some at-home activities for your bucket list. There are so many things to do at home in comfy Christmas pajamas* that might work better for your children who are tired and overstimulated.
Keep your budget in mind when you are also coming up with your Christmas bucket list. Although there is nothing wrong with paying money for some of these things, make sure you included money for those events in either your monthly budget or your Christmas budget. If the money is not available for your bucket list, there are tons of free ideas.
Bucket List Ideas:
Christmas Pageant or Religious Service
Advent Devotions
Tacky Light Tour
Cookie Baking
Christmas Caroling
Ice Skating
Watching a Christmas movie
Christmas Parade
Service Activity or Random Acts of Kindness
Visit Santa
Reading Christmas books together as a family
A Christmas Bucket List by The Frugal Homemaker
Schedule your bucket list ideas
Once you have your bucket list, select your top 3 and add them to your Christmas calendar. If you don’t put a date to those events, then it is likely they will not actually occur. It happens to the best of us – our good intentions often don’t take place unless we schedule them. Your bucket list can be a mile long, but I would advise you to only put 3 of those things on your actual calendar. You may be able to be spontaneous and end up doing more, but I’d stick to no more than 3 to avoid over planning.
How are things going so far?
Let me know in the comments!
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