How To Plan A Christmas
A special occasion like Christmas is a time for family and food you can indulge in. Let's face it we all let ourselves enjoy food that is a little more decadent than the daily fare at this time of year.
With Christmas fast approaching, planning is important to make sure you have the holidays and festive season covered.
Follow the timeline below to help you stay on track and keep the holidays stress-free.
A Month Or So Out From Christmas
Write a list and check it twice!
This is your time to prioritize what you need to tick off and find out can help you do it.
Some of your tasks should include
- Finalizing presents for your family and friends
- If your family is on a budget consider having a Secret Santa or a Bad Santa present giving to make things easier
- Deciding on what will be on the Christmas menu and who is cooking what. Who is bringing snacks, entrees, desserts, drinks, salads and the meat?
- Start buying pantry staples in advance so you are well prepared for the holiday season.
- Finalize what activities you, your family and friends will be doing in the lead up to Christmas and who is responsible for organising them
- Determine how will you keep the kids entertained during the holidays
- What traditions does your family observe and what do you need to keep this happening?
- Buy an advent calendar if you don’t have one and fill with small presents for each day until Christmas
- Deck the halls … and put up your Christmas tree and decorations
- Oh, and don’t forget to get the kids to send their letters to Santa
A Few Weeks Out From Christmas
- Finalize what else you need for your Christmas shopping list
- Bake any items on your Christmas that you can do in advance and freeze
- Wrap those presents but don’t put them under the tree yet!
- Get the kids involved in planning how to have fun with food.
- Touch base with everyone involved and make sure they have everything under control that they have offered to do to help
- Consider finding where local Christmas lights displays are and visiting after dark to delight the kids.
A Couple of Days Prior To Christmas
- It is time to start cooking what you can in advance.
- Find some ‘me time’ to stay balanced and stress- free leading into the big day
- Take time out with family to get some fresh air and exercise
On Christmas Eve
- It is finally time to put those presents under the tree, but only once the children are fast asleep
- Set the table for tomorrow in readiness to make things less stressful with the chaos of the big day.
- Get the kids to bake some cookies for Santa and put out a glass of milk for his arrival later in the night. (or something a little more potent if you think that is what Santa might like)
- In our home we read ‘Twas the night before Christmas’ to put the kids to bed. What’s your tradition?
Christmas Day
- Make sure you have extra space for cold drinks ready. A second fridge is great but a spare esky or two for cold drinks also works to keep things cold when you have extra guests.
- Make sure that your cooking/heating schedule is in place so oven space is optimized for food at the right time working around when you are hosting Christmas dinner through to what and when you are serving dessert
- Determine when you will serve desserts as there is always a lot of food and snacks so you need to give people space between courses.
- Ask for help - Don’t try and do everything yourself!
- Look over your list and delegate tasks that you don’t like doing to make the day easier for you to manage
- If someone asks at the last minute if they can bring something or do something to help say yes and yes. Be specific as to what they can bring and do so this doesn't make more work for you.
- Designate jobs to each guest no matter how little or big on the day. This could range from napkin folding to serving food.
