Why You Need a Christmas Planner This Year and Every Year

Ditch the screen fatigue and social media overwhelm. You can clear mental clutter this holiday season with a Christmas planner. Touch paper and build a holiday planning guide to help Future You.

You know how it goes. You open your phone to jot down an address for your Christmas card list and that leads to reading notifications and a text from your sister with a link which leads to hopping on Instagram to see the funny thing she sent which leads to an Amazon ad for some cute holiday decorations and before you know it, you don’t remember why you are holding your phone in the first place.

The address is completely forgotten.

As helpful as technology can be, it can easily lead you down a few too many rabbit trails. Simplify this year’s Christmas planning (and next year’s too!) by building a Christmas planner. 

My current Christmas planner has been my happy place for nearly a decade. It’s where I keep my gift records, budget tracker, recipes, menus, and cookie baking dreams. Rather than getting lost in the internet when life is so busy, my binder allows me to get straight to the work of making my holiday goals a reality.

After years of spinning my wheels, staying up way too late wrapping gifts, forgetting what gift I bought for which kid, and losing special family recipes, I learned how important it was to deck the halls in a way that blessed me and my family, rather than letting the holidays deck me.

What Goes Inside a Christmas Planner?

While Google will show you plenty of pre-made printed planners and spiral notebooks, I’ve found that building a custom Christmas planner inside a 3-ring notebook with dividers allows me the most flexibility. I can remove and add pages whenever I like, crafting a family document that serves you for years.

(If you really want to use digital planning you can do the same thing within a PDF annotation system like GoodNotes, Notability, Kindle Scribe, or OneNote.)

Here’s what you might include in your Christmas planning binder:

• Master Calendars: While you may have a dedicated calendar system for every day, keeping printed calendars for November, December, and January in your binder keeps you off the internet and focused on your holiday planning.
• Christmas Card Lists: I know that you may have a digital address book, but a printed copy backup isn’t a bad idea to have. It can help you remember who you sent cards to and you can make notes of whose cards you received in return. (Plus, it keeps you from opening your phone to find an address and getting distracted!)
• Meal Plans and Holiday Recipes: Each year I host a large Thanksgiving dinner. I love being able to access all the recipes in one spot and to physically keep notes about changes I make or how a certain dish was received. Rather than racking my brain to remember how many pies I made last year, I can just check the binder. My Thanksgiving and Christmas meal plans change a little bit from year to year; keeping notes all in one place helps me to shop the sales effectively and save substantial money.
• Gift Lists: There are lots of people to buy for, and I like to remember exactly what I gave each of my kids from year to year so that I don’t accidentally repeat a past gift.
• Budget Tracker: We’re not made of money! Keeping all your seasonal Christmas expenses in your Christmas planner gives your clear pricing information from year to year as well as an active tally as the season progresses.
• Holiday Traditions: This is also the perfect spot to log your family’s favorite traditions so you don’t forget them in the hustle and bustle. I’ve got notes about our favorite holiday movie lists, our go-to Christmas read alouds, and which cookies we bake. You might also include patterns or instructions for Christmas crafts that you do each year.
• Debriefing and Notes for Future You: I do a journaling session at the end of each holiday season, debriefing on our experiences. What stressed me out, what would I do again or differently? Keeping these in your binder is a notice for future you and can be so helpful for future Christmas planning.

How to Build Your Christmas Planner

Here’s how you can assemble your notebook if you’re just starting or improve on your existing Christmas planner. Get a 3-ring binder and some dividers. (A red binder and holiday patterned dividers makes things super festive!)

Then warm up the printer and add these goodies:

The Holiday Success Kit 

This holiday planning guide with printable workbook pages acts as the foundation for your entire binder, a starter kit, if you will. It contains calendar pages, activity checklists, and meal planning worksheets that walk you through every aspect of planning your year-end celebrations, including those everyday meals of December, because you still gotta eat!

My favorite part is the reflection questions. I work through them every year and consult my answers from the past. Not only does this clear the mental clutter, but it also helps me focus on what’s most important in our family’s holiday season.

The Budget Holiday Prep Pack

These companion worksheets are a fast track to planning all the holiday things, including priorities, bucket lists, expenses, gift lists, budgeting, ways to save, things to clean, and all the things to do that I might forget about.

Currently, you can grab the workbook pack and its 1-hr on-demand masterclass for just NINE BUCKS. Yes, $9. The Budget Holiday Prep pages serve as the CliffsNotes to my Christmas planner.

Meal Plan Advent Calendar

I am a sucker for an Advent calendar and the meal planning ones are my faves. Consider grabbing one of the four editions and slip it into the back of your Christmas planner. You can unwrap a cozy weeknight dinner plan (complete with ingredient substitutions and shortcuts!) every day of December leading up to Christmas.

They are available in PDF and printed formats. Order the printed ones early so you get the shipment before December 1st.

Let your Christmas planner be your holiday brain. Set up a dedicated notebook home to hold all the information you’re going to need these next few months.

Kick Off Your Christmas Countdown Today

You don’t have to wait for the binder supplies to arrive from Amazon; you can start your holiday planning today. Print out my free, one-page timeline – The Merry Map – and get started simmering your Thanksgiving and Christmas plans right now.

Drop your email address below and I’ll zip it straight to your inbox instantly.

This post was originally published on November 26, 2015. It has been updated for content and clarity.