It seems I always have more ideas than time to do them, especially during the holidays.
One year, I had all these special crafts and projects planned to do at Christmas and before I knew it, the day had come and I barely had my Christmas cards sent out. Not anymore! Today, I want to share with you my tips for how I get my special holiday projects accomplished during life's busy schedule so that you can enjoy that Inspired holiday you are longing for.
Here's what I do...
5 TIPS TO AN INSPIRED HOLIDAY SEASON
1. I keep all my craft books and holiday themed magazines from year to year and they are categorized on my craft room shelves by holiday; so all the back issues of Martha Stewart Living Halloween, taste of home fall, etc are all together, in one place; Christmas/winter craft books together, etc...
2. I pull them out MINIMUM the month before (I've been known to pick our holiday projects several months in advance) and limit myself to picking out THREE-FIVE things (no more) I want to accomplish for that holiday. These go on one list. The ones that in my heart and mind are "must do's" or "must cooks"...I make a second list of no more than three things that is my "if time allows" list.The lists include the name of the project, name of book/mag and page number. **Every year we send out Christmas cards and make gingerbread houses so these don't go on my list as in our house they are a given. But if you have a hard time getting these done and want to this year, put them on your list as 2 of your 3-5 "must do' items".
3. I make separate shopping lists for the ingredients or items needed to complete these projects or food stuffs. This way, if I'm walking out the door and think to myself "this would be a great week to make those (insert item here), I can grab that list and have it already for that grocery store trip. These lists are also marked grocery store or craft store (JoAnns or Michaels) and I keep my Craft store coupons clipped to these lists. I clip these shopping lists of needed items to my main list of the projects I have picked out.
4. The projects I pick out vary. Some are for kids some are for me. Some are easy, some are hard. I promise you if you put 5 uber time consuming complex projects on your list, no matter how enticing pinterest makes them look, you will most likely run out of time.
5. (And to me this is the most important)...I do NOT tell my kids what projects I have planned for them or me. That way if life gets in the way and they don't happen, they aren't disappointed because they don't miss what they don't know about. This is important. We don't want our kids grown and saying "Mom always said she was going to make us stockings but she never did". Far better to hear "One year my Mom surprised us with homemade stockings".
Here are the five things I picked out for Halloween this year and I am happy to report we did them all.
1. Pumpkin Patch Trip
2. Make Jack 'o-Lanterns
3. Make Spider Pumpkins
4. Make a flock of geese out of gourds
5. Make Halloween Cookies
Yesterday, my 6yr old said to me, "Mom, this was the bestest Halloween ever". Hooray for systems that work! I hope these tips help you to be able to have your most Inspired Holiday Season yet! Do you have other tips you can share? I would love to read them! leave me a comment with your ideas.
I love the tip of not telling them the plans. For me I need to gather the supplies together before we sit down to the activity. Otherwise I am not motivated to start on it and find all the supplies all around the house. This year I am going to try and set all of the supplies together for the night before for whatever is planned.
ReplyDeleteI love your flock of gourds! Another thing that I have learned to do with all the holiday hoop-la is to clearly separate church/school/family projects...I can easily look for overlap but it helps me keep a clear picture of what needs to be done when.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed your tips...much wisdom in that.
Katie, these are wonderful ideas for planning for the holidays. I'm going to start this afternoon! I consider myself an organized person, but I'm excited to add these tips to my approach. Thank you for sharing them.
ReplyDeleteThose gourds are sure cute!!
ReplyDeleteThanks for linking up with me over at WholeHearted Home this week. I hope you have a wonderful week crafting and preparing for the Holidays with your children.
Last Christmas my best friend gave me a really nice wooden Christmas card. It is color printed to Maple wood veneer and it folds which is super cool, the inside shows the message and the maple wood grain. I found out that a firm out in Colorado called Unique Custom Products made it. I am considering ordering from them this year...check them out if you like wooden items www.stampworldonline.com.
ReplyDeleteOh, how fun!! What a great way of doing it. Thank you for sharing at Happy Family Times!
ReplyDeleteNumber 5 is so important! I learned that lesson as a teacher.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the tips. Your blog reminds me of my list of things to do before Christmas.
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