My chosen image for today represents smoothing out a path I have previously made. Today’s post will be a pretty quintessential “list for success” sort of deal. It’s nearly Christmas and if you’re still running around, come back and read this on the 26th or something. Do what you gotta do now. This post is for reflection on this year and preparation for next year.

Alright, get your notebook out, it’s time to write a list.

Now, some of you may have done this before. This year was my first year being in charge of seasonal festivities because I’m the woman of the house (now that I’m married), so it has been a time of experimentation, failure, and success. I encourage you to join me in writing down what you did this year, failures and successes, to come up with a schedule next year that allows you to slow down and enjoy everything that comes with the holidays.

My successes:

  1. I got all the presents wrapped days before Christmas
    I believe this is because I had done most of my Christmas shopping before Thanksgiving (I have NEVER tried that before), and decided to start wrapping with Smister on Thanksgiving night.
  2. I had Christmas pictures taken once we had a good snowfall
    I didn’t put this off because snow looks its best when it has just come down, and doing these things sooner than later is always a good idea.
  3. I ordered online gifts to extended family in time
    And had them sent to different family members so the gifts could be wrapped! My grandparents and aunt and uncle live close to each other so that works out pretty well.
  4. I wrote “holiday season” instead of “Merry Christmas” on our cards
    Don’t get me wrong, I dislike when people say “Happy Holidays,” but I figured that by the time folks got our Christmas cards it would be between New Year’s and Valentine’s Day…

My failures:

  1. For Thanksgiving, our little chicken wouldn’t thaw
    Our oven was too small for a turkey (tiny house!) so we got a chicken, but couldn’t get it to thaw for hours and had to do a cold water treatment (rookie mistake). We finally ate for the first time that day around 4:30pm, haha!
  2. I ordered Christmas cards late
    I designed them in Canva.com (my favorite website, I think!) just over a week before Christmas. They actually arrived before Christmas which was great, but I stayed up until 2am last night trying to address as many of them as I could, and I know that the non-local ones will not be on time.
  3. Waited on baking cookies
    I started baking them yesterday for our Church program, which is on Sunday. Unfortunately burned a number of them, I think because I’m not used to baking with gluten anymore, they have been cooking faster than the gluten-free cookies I’ve made for me and Smister.
  4. I put out the word too late on our church Christmas program
    In other words, I told folks today, and it’s on Sunday. But to be fair, that was due to Covid messing up our December meeting schedule, haha.
  5. I sent out Christmas party invites too late
    A couple folks responded, but I don’t think that the majority of invitees even saw my Facebook event in time. I believe I only threw it together one week before the party.
  6. I didn’t come up with Christmas gift ideas for my local extended family
    We covered Smister’s family, but not mine, whoops!
  7. I blogged late before Christmas
    I try to post every Tuesday… Not the end of the world though!

I’ve decided that since I don’t usually do well with regimented schedules (especially for fun holiday tasks), I will portion my “to-do’s” by week (not by day). Here is my rough schedule for next year.

  • Two weeks before Thanksgiving: Make decisions about any homemade gift ideas
  • Week before Thanksgiving: buy food, go Christmas shopping
  • Week of Thanksgiving: thaw the turkey or chicken early, wrap gifts, send Christmas party invites
  • First week of December: take pictures for cards, design and order cards, decide on gifts for extended family or neighbors, schedule blog posts for the month
  • Second week of December: throw Christmas party, finalize making or buying gifts
  • Third week of December: mail Christmas cards, bake cookies, deliver local gifts, decide on New Year’s plans
  • Week of Christmas: go caroling, visit family, relax

Where did you fall? Did you have more successes than failures this year? Or did you learn some great tips for next year? Sometimes the best way to avoid burnout is to just take on fewer projects. I have even heard of some folks no longer doing Christmas trees because they ended up being more of a hassle than they were worth! If you find yourself stressed out today, or exhausted beyond belief this Saturday, ask yourself what you could say no to or do differently in the future. Then make a list and stick it in your ornaments box for next year. 😉