Your holiday plans are a big project and what better way to keep this information together than a holiday planner !  Your holiday planner consolidates your gifts, decorations, recipes and agenda to one spot for easy access. 

Holiday binder

Choose a 3 ring binder with a front slip in slot.   Have fun creating a front page for your binder to get you in the mood.  You can cut up old family holiday cards or print a coloring page. Label the spine with your label maker so at a glance you can find your binder.

If you prefer, you can create a virtual holiday binder on your computer. Create a folder in your word processing documents with the same categories as subfolders. You can upload this to your smart phone too using google docs!

Holiday Plans

In your holiday planner you will want to categorize with the most important areas for your family.  Start early with a family meeting so you can chat about the upcoming months and what will be most important to everyone.   Use a month at a glance calendar you can post in the kitchen to record the dates.   Keeping it simple, without over committing, is a great start to holiday celebrations. 

For your own use, post on your own calendar your personal "to do's" to accomplish holiday related tasks.  Have a weekly time to review the tasks and assign times to get things done.   

Using tabbed, pocket dividers, create these additional categories. 

• Gift Lists
• Christmas Cards
• Budget and receipts
• Holiday Meals and Menus
• Upcoming gatherings (one divider per activity, such as Boy Scout party, Bible Study party)
• Holiday activities (one divider per activity, Nutcracker Ballet, Messiah Sing along)
• Recipes
• Décor (with pictures from previous year's rooms)
• Traditions
• Church bulletins
• Music (and you can insert CD plastic slots in your notebook too!)

Remember to create personalized categories that work for your family.  This is the spot to collect those loose papers that pertain to the holiday season. 

Here are some additional divider suggestions:

• Thanksgiving
• Advent
• New Years'
• Service projects
• Coupons
• Craft Projects
• Christmas Baking
• Cookie Collection
• Collections
• Christmas Past

A very merry holiday

Keep your planner handy throughout the season. Spend time weekly adding information, using it as a resource, and keeping it up to date.  At the end of the season, gather up and clear out your binder for next year.   This will become a valued resource year in and year out. 

For more information about organizing, visit www.professional-organizer.com, join us on Facebook at Professional-Organizer.com or follow us on twitter @TexasOrganizer.

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