This is going to sound crazy. I try to be all ready for Christmas before Thanksgiving.
Advent starts on November 27th this year. That means by November 27th, I actually want to have all my critical prep work done. It makes November a bit crammed– but it pays off once December rolls around.
In order to keep myself on track, I’ve turned my November to-do list into post series!
1. The Books
I individually wrap all our Advent/Christmas books that have been in storage since last year. (Some people use adorable little crafty tags. I just write the date on the present with permanent marker.) First I match books with their coordinating feast days (a book about St. Lucia on December 13th, for example). Then I fill in the gaps with the rest of our Advent/Christmas book stash.
Our kids take turns opening a present each day of Advent. We also wrap all our Christmas movies as well. This costs nothing (I get paper bags at the grocery store leading up to the wrap session) but is a huge source of excitement. It also allows us to savor the books in our collection we only see this time of the year.
2. The Cards
Growing up I loved when the mail arrived leading up to Christmas. Photocards were starting to be a thing then, and it was so fun to see how families changed and grew from year to year. That’s probably why photocards are a big deal for me.
This year I tried something different. I used picmonkey to design my own, then just had them printed as regular prints– not photo cards. They look fine as far as Christmas cards go. For the price I paid for them, though, they look awesome!!!
Last year I wrote a Christmas letter to go with it, and we’ll see if this year I can whip one up as well.
3. The Gifts
Our “to-buy” list is actually really short. We do small gifts for our kids for St. Nicholas’s feast day as well as a small family gift for Christmas. Other than a few other little gifts here and there, we don’t have a lot to buy. Best parenting advice for gift giving: start small. You can always increase your gift giving without your kids complaining. But it’s reeeeeeeally hard to decrease.
4. The Feasting
There’s a lot going on during the Advent and Christmas season. Rather than try to plan Big Things for every feast day, we focus on a few favorites. I tend to have grandiose ideas, get overwhelmed, and end up doing nothing. This is me living my truth, folks. Based on my personality, it’s much better for me to have a handful of feasts completely thought out before the season even begins than to over think and end up under-doing.
There are many resources available for liturgical living during this time of year. Once again, I’m easily overwhelmed. During some seasons of life, just lighting the Advent candles and reading our special books are all we can manage. Other years, I find coloring pages or crafts. We’ll see how this year goes. I am hoping to dream up some sort of family fun for December 30th- the Feast of the Holy Family. Maybe a game night?
Are you in? Can we get all our prepping out of the way in order to be able to breathe this December?!?! I hope so! (Get it? Hope? Like the Advent theme? Too much? Okay then.)
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Gift giving gets out of hand so fast. I’m thankful we have just one. October to December is our gift giving time and we don’t really buy much outside of that.
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I love this! I got close to being finished last year and was really wanting it to happen this year too but then I had to go and decided to participate in #buynothingnovember. BUT I’ve been thinking about making exceptions for photo cards and the last of the Christmas gifts because I don’t want to lose my mind in December. (I totally was planning on doing the same thing for photo cards! So much cheaper!) I get pretty overwhelmed trying to do all the things too, so we keep it simple for the most part. Maybe we’ll actually keep up with the Jesse Tree this year….
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“buynothingnovember” is such a good idea. I’m hoping I can get a rain check and do a “buynothingdecember” if I play my cards right instead. 🙂
I really like the idea of the Jesse Tree, but we’ve never been able to get through it.
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I am all about preparing! I share your love of He photo card. It’s sometimes the only photo the entire year that includes all of us. I make sure to save a copy in each of their baby books too.
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I’m in! But I also say that with a huge dose of humility, knowing that since this is only really the second time that I’ve tried to enter in to Advent with my family I know I may only get through half of my (as of yet, nonexistent) list before the 27th.
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Yay! I’m all about the low expectations. Even if all you do is cross one thing off your (as of yet nonexistent) list, that creates just a little more space in your Advent. Let’s do this!
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This is great! I’ll be linking to this in Part 4 of my Advent Series. I feel like this sums up how I feel about getting ready for things so the fun can just be fun!
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Great! I look forward to Part 3 and 4! 🙂
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This is the second (or third) time I have seen reference to wrapping books – although, I like the idea that you use what you already own!! I may have to keep that in mind for next year!
And, I love photcards along with a letter! It is so much fun to see how families evolve, especially when our network grows so much every couple years, as we move!
Do you have “favorites” you prepare annually, or does it depend on “what sounds good” that given year?
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Right now we have juuuuust the right amount of books (and movies) for the Advent and Christmas seasons. If we accumulate more, we’ll get rid of some of the less interesting titles. 🙂
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Wow! You really go all out! I’m just like you, though. I’m all or nothing, so I always need to be very organized. Merry Christmas!