1. I start a gift idea list all year long. When I see or think or hear of a good gift for someone I jot it on a piece of notebook paper that I keep tucked in my household binder. I also finds this helps with the "I wants" I hear from the kids. All year long when they ask for something I will say "ask for it for Christmas or your birthday!" which leaves me with many great (usually long forgotten) ideas.
2. When I am ready to start shopping I get a little more organized with that idea list and divide up a fresh sheet of paper-each child and Jeff and I get a little square and then also a relative/friend square. I write down what I'm going to buy and check it off when it is purchased.
3. I don't worry about absolute fairness because then I would go insane. I don't want my kids to concentrate on that either-just to be happy with what they have instead of comparing. And also teenage gifts can cost way more than baby gifts. Of course, I round up in my head who might need something a little extra or I might take a gift out to save for a birthday to give a general overall feeling of fairness.
4. I buy almost everything on-line. What I can't/don't buy on-line I try to compress into the least/fast amount of errand running. I am almost never alone at a store, and errand running with little ones is just the last thing I ever want to do.
5. I keep almost all the gifts in my closet in these numbered bins (one for each child and Jeff and I share one) way high up. Our closet is off limits during this season. (I hide bigger items in special hiding places.)
6. About 2 weeks before Christmas, I do a general re-assessment of the gifts to see who needs what, and mostly for just peace of mind because I get a little nervous about it. I just did this yesterday and found that Isaac has only one gift (he needs clothes and he needs to not have his mom pick them out) and I have a few odds and ends to pick up here and there. Matt needs to go out with me to get basketball shoes, and I have one more gift to buy Andrew.
7. I also make sure that all my teacher gifts are wrapped and ready early, and I like to have all outside-the-family gifts bought and ready also. I like to get those "out of the way" because they are important to me and can weigh on my mind.
8. I have done wrapping in two ways-little by little starting about two weeks before Christmas and all at once in one day when I'm complete-depending on my time constraints with babies and toddlers. Either way, I will admit it's about my least favorite thing to do, and Martha Stewart would be ashamed of my presentation. I do spend a little more time wrapping outside-the-family gifts but still then-pretty simple.
I have to admit that as simple as I made that all sound, sometimes it all seems overwhelming to me-usually right before the season, some time in mid-November, I have a moment or two where I experience a general freak-out in my head. But then I calm myself down (usually with the help of a large bar of chocolate and re-reading this post and this one) and realize that it really is all about my attitude. I can approach it all as work and hassle and stress or I can approach it all as fun and exciting and an awesome way to show the people in my life how much I appreciate and love them-I guess that's called the "Christmas spirit". I choose the second because life is too short and although these years for me are so busy, I know one day I'll miss them.
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ReplyDeleteI have a panic moment a couple times each Christmas season. There is so much to keep track of. Thanks for the reminder it's all in your attitude. And about wrapping... My mom has 10 kids and almost 20 grankids, so she came up with a great way to cut down on the time and cost of wrapping presents. You can read about it here
ReplyDeletehttp://www.raisinglemons.com/holidays/green-christmas-wrap/
Hope that helps!
Have fun with the wrapping. I know it can be a chore but one of my fondest Christmas memories is of the gift wrap contests with my dad. We would be wrapping gifts and somehow it would become competitive like I wrapped that one faster, or I matched up the pattern on the back. We laughed alot while doing the gifts and it went by fast. Plus the gifts were expertly wrapped! I miss those days.
ReplyDeleteI do things almost exactly this way, except my closet bins are a jumble over everyone's gifts, not one for each person. But it works for me!
ReplyDeleteMary, momma to 10
Yup. Me too. All of it, except the wrapping - I go to a friend's house, we drink wine and listen to Christmas music until the middle of the night and I can wrap gifts without stressing out about someone walking in on me. It's a fun night that I look forward to.
ReplyDeleteLove your bins in the top of the closet. How I would love to get myself organised where I felt in control at Christmas time. I always seem to be rushing and trying to fit in a million things. Big ideas, so little time. I did use your black board check list last year though.
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for this post, I love finding out how other mums do it. I also do mine online because I hate the queuing and people aren't as friendly this time of year as you would hope. I would also like to add that with this pregnancy (my third) I have suffered from hyperemesis (although it has stopped now) and it was hell. I have never in my life felt so ill. I was sensitive to smells, noise and weirdly bright colours. After already having two children, I thought I knew what morning sickness was but this was something else. I just want to say that a few times during that, it helped to read your post on this subject, it made me feel that actually, this is not forever and as horrible as it is, it's totally worth it so thank you. Kirsty
ReplyDeleteI always come here for comfort and wisdom:) You are so grounded and down to earth, I admire that. I wanted to tell you that I went to the library to check out Mitten Strings For God and I'm LOVING IT! She is wonderful and you are right, what a wonderful parenting book!
ReplyDeleteJust wanted to say thank you for that! Now I'm eager for her new book just like you!
I would love to hear your teacher gift ideas, as these always seem the hardest for me to pick out. Plus the preschool classes have about 4 teachers each - do you buy for everyone or just the "lead teacher"?
ReplyDeleteOh my word did I need this today! I was in slight freak-out mode. I had 90% of my shopping done weeks ago, cards mailed out right after Thanksgiving. I sat back and thought I had forever until Christmas -I was so far ahead of the game!- well, turns out Christmas is next week already, lol! I have yet to wrap. So thank you for the reminder to keep it all in perspective.
ReplyDeleteMy children attend small, private nursery and elementary schools were parent participation is not only encouraged it is mandatory, so we have a very tight-knit community of parents. For what it is worth I'll share what we do for teachers' gifts. We have a class mom that will collect money from us all so that we may pool it together to purchase something as a group. We usually ask for $10 per teacher (or whatever you are able to give) and will get flowers and a Visa gift card. I still have my children make a card to give their teachers and administrators and I will also bake something for each of them with the help of my kids. The kids and I then go around the school and hand out the baked goods and hand made cards. They are so proud of themselves and love to give something they have crafted. Our class gift is presented at our class party.
For our bus driver I give a $25 Visa gift card and a handmade card and baked good.
We have a tradition with our kids that has worked very well for us for a dozen or so years. We give each child 3 gifts representing the gold, frankincense, and myrrh that were given to the Christ child. Those gifts are something spiritual, something educational, and something they need. Then Santa brings them one "fun" thing. It has helped so much to give us a focus of what gifts to get, and has helped our kids focus more on the meaning of Christmas instead of "how many" gifts. I love your system, but thought I'd share that with you too. We actually discussed with our kids this year if they wanted to continue that tradition, or just have us buy them lots of gifts, and they unanimously wanted to keep with our 3 gift tradition. :)
ReplyDeleteMy system is similar but I transfer everything to a spreadsheet. Each year has its own page - I like being able to look back and see what I bought for people (especially my parents) in previous years.
ReplyDelete"I don't worry about absolute fairness because then I would go insane." Made me laugh. So TRUE.
ReplyDeleteNobody wants a CrazyMom during this season, least of all Mom herself.
Isn't online shopping a Godsend this time of year?! How else would I get it done and have any of it be a surprise? I ALWAYS have little ones with me when I am running errands...making it hard to even buy for my husband, because we all know how well most little kids can keep a secret.
ReplyDeleteAnd I'm so glad to know I'm not alone in the mid-November freak out! It's like Christmas just sneaks up on me at that point when it had been months and months away.
Great ideas in this post! Will keep this in mind so that things gift buying isn't such a disaster next year! A previous comment asked about gift ideas for teachers. I am a 4th grade teacher and my wife is a 1st grade teacher. Both of us agree that a gift card to Starbucks is always appreciated. It doesn't have to be expensive! A $5 gift card is enough for the teacher to enjoy a nice, hot drink on a chilly morning before school! Merry Christmas!
ReplyDeleteWriting Pad Dad
Love your attitude. And your ideas. All I can say is Amazon mom is my best friend. On-line everything. Because, yes, shopping alone never happens! xoxo
ReplyDeleteThanks for the reply, Justin! I wrote that comment and then took it down b/c it had my full name on it! Oops! We actually got Starbucks cards for teachers at school and Sunday school and for the bus drivers. With only one child in school we had six cards to buy. I was just thinking ahead to years from now when we will have 20 or more cards to buy! It is good to know that a $5 card is still appreciated. Any other ideas that are even cheaper? We have a looooong list of non-family people to buy for and I was just looking for creative ideas that are low-cost, yet not junk. Merry Christmas, everyone!
ReplyDeleteI love your bin system,simple as it is, I wonder if you can recommend a good place to get bins like that? Trying to organize my closet and it is harder than it should be! Thanks!
ReplyDeleteThe bins are from Target!
ReplyDelete