Countdown to Christmas – 30 Days Left

I don’t know what your Christmas season calendar looks like, but mine gets filled up very quickly with many events between family, friends, and church.  It seems that we have something Christmas related going on every weekend starting the week after Halloween.  We have the typical family Christmas gatherings that begin around Christmas and stretch right into January.  Ephriam’s (Churchpunk in training #1) birthday is also in December, so that adds another event to the busy season.  There are typically a few other parties that we get invited to with friends from church and work that we try to work into our schedule.  We also try to go to parades, light displays, visits to Santa, and many other cool seasonal events that are numerous between Thanksgiving and Christmas.  On top of all of the events that fill up our December very quickly, there has to be time to prepare for these parties and gatherings.  And by preparation I mean shopping.

How do you get it all done in time for all of the events and still enjoy the holiday season?  How early do you start your Christmas shopping and preparation?  Officially, I start Christmas shopping just after Halloween.  I take my mom shopping for a whole day usually the first or second weekend in November.  Unofficially, I have my eyes open for gifts year round.  I like to save money, so I am not ashamed to buy Christmas gifts for people when I can find good deals.  So my advice is to start early.

I know that many people get tired of the commercialization side of Christmas appearing in stores earlier and earlier every year, but in reality, many people have started Christmas shopping long before Thanksgiving.  I start looking at my calendar early in October to figure out when the typical family gatherings will be, when to get our Christmas tree, and when to plan our shopping trips.  Faith (The BEAUTIFUL Mrs.) and I always take at least one day together, kid free, to do major shopping mostly for the kids, but also for anyone else on our shopping list.  We get a live Christmas tree so we cannot get that too early in the season or it will dry up before Christmas.  That is the day that we pull out all of the Christmas decorations and go Christmas makeover on our house.  We plan these days out in advance so that we are able to enjoy them.  Please take warning not to make your expectations too high because you can plan all you want, but don’t go Griswold when things don’t go as planned.

I hope that you are able to enjoy your holiday events this year.  Planning out the season and starting early will ease some of your Holiday stresses.  Leave your tips for Christmas preparation in the comments.