Yup you read that totally right, I have already started planning Christmas 2018, in fact, I started planning it on Christmas day 2017.
I have always been massively into the season and all the magic that it brings but having children amplified that by about a million, I am usually the first in the village with their tree up and I start to stalk the shops from the 1st November and can literally spend hours walking around them looking at the displays.
I wanted to share with you the reasons why I start my planning so early and how it’s benefitted me in the past. Now don’t get me wrong this isn’t a full-on planning session where I work out my dinner timings and start writing my shopping lists, but it is a way that I keep all my information together and add to it through the year.
For all the fancy Christmas planners I have had and set up I found that the system which worked best for me is this Filofax notebook, the bullet journaler in my is so proud!
I start by taking out all of the old information that will not be relevant to the next year, things like flyers for markets or events that we enjoyed, I make a note of in my planner (these things are usually on around the same time each year) and then chuck them in the recycling. My main things that I do this early on is to add in a page for what went really well this year, things we enjoyed doing and things that didn’t work so well. I also keep a list of where the elves have gone to hide and anything I’d like to change up for next year. Don’t forget to include a page to add in any new decorations you’ve brought in the sale and of course a list of any presents you purchase through the year.
Each of my 3 children have their own page and I mark down through the year anything they ask for/show interest in at friends houses or toy shops and every time they mention it I put a little star next to it in my book, by December it’s easy to see what toys they really would like and things they have only mentioned once then forgotten about.
