How to Plan a Calm Christmas with a Digital Planner
Christmas is easier when it is written down. Most of the stress comes from carrying everything in your head: who you have bought for, what is still to order, when the food shop needs doing. A planner gets it all out of your head and into one place.
Why use a digital planner?
A paper planner works well until you leave it at home. A digital one is on the phone that is already in your pocket.
Our planners open in your web browser on a phone, tablet or computer, so there is nothing to install. Many are hyperlinked, which means you tap a tab and jump straight to the page you want. They are instant downloads, so you can start planning a few minutes after checkout.
You can see them all on the planners and templates page. Each listing shows the pages that planner includes.
Start with three lists
Before you plan any dates, write three lists. Everything else hangs off these.
- People. Everyone you are buying for, sending a card to, or cooking for.
- Money. One total budget, then a rough amount for gifts, food, decorations and travel.
- Dates. Anything fixed: school plays, work parties, last order dates for anything personalised, the day guests arrive.
A week-by-week plan
You do not need to do it all at once. Spread the work across the weeks before Christmas.
Six weeks before
- Set the budget.
- Write the gift list and note one idea beside each name.
- Order anything personalised or made to order, because these take the longest.
Four weeks before
- Buy the gifts that need posting.
- Write and send cards. For family abroad, a digital Christmas card arrives instantly and needs no stamp.
- Book the food delivery slot if you use one.
Two weeks before
- Finish the gift shopping and wrap as you go.
- Plan the Christmas meals and write the food shopping list.
- Check you have enough chairs, plates and glasses for guests.
The final week
- Do the food shop.
- Prepare anything that can be made ahead and frozen.
- Charge cameras and find the batteries for new toys.
- Leave one evening completely empty. You will be glad of it.
Small habits that keep it calm
- Five minutes a day. Open the planner once a day, tick off what is done and choose tomorrow's one job.
- Write down what you spend as you spend it. It is the only way a budget survives December.
- Keep gift ideas all year. When someone mentions something they would love, note it straight away.
- Record what worked. After Christmas, write down what you would do again and what you would skip. Next year's plan is then half written.
Choosing a planner
Pick the design you will enjoy opening, because the planner you like looking at is the one you will keep using. Browse the Christmas planners, choose your favourite and start with the three lists above.
