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| What is a Holiday Planner? |
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What's the secret to keeping the Holidays bright? A Holiday planner! Command central for holiday planning, a planner is a dedicated, portable place
to keep gift lists, decorating ideas, recipes and Holiday card lists. Using a Holiday planner, you'll save time, cut stress and create the holiday of
your dreams.
Creating your own DIY Holiday planner allows it to grow with you and your family. From year to year, you'll reconfigure your Holiday planner according
to your needs and, each year your Holiday planner becomes more useful and more valuable.
What you'll need:
- A Three-ring binder or notebook
- At least 6 divider pages to set apart the following sections: Calendar, Mailing Lists, Gift Lists, Memories & Traditions, Crafts & Decorations, Menu's & Party Planners, and any more that make sense for you.
- Lined paper for notes and lists
- Clear plastic page protectors to hold torn-out recipes, articles and printouts
- Pocket pages for Holiday cards, printouts or extra forms
- A 3 hole punched manila envelope or Ziploc bag for receipts
Set Up Your Holiday Planner
Give yourself at least an hour of uninterrupted time, an empty desk or tabletop, and some motivation in the form of music, coffee or a holiday movie.
To assemble your Holiday planner, start with the bones: the binder, dividers, pockets and page protectors. Place dividers into the planner beginning
with the Calendar divider at the front of the Holiday planner, because holiday calendars will be the most needed, most consulted pages. Follow Calendars
with dividers of your choice. At the back of the Holiday planner, include page protectors, pocket pages or a punched manila envelope to hold receipts.
Other page protectors or pocket pages will hold printed articles, recipes or tear-files.
File Planner Pages
The Gift and Card lists are self explanatory and easy to find preformatted ones online. RealSimple.com and HGTV.ca have some good ones. I also like to
keep a budget page behind the gift list divider. The Memories and Traditions section is for things like going to see The Nutcracker, or building a
gingerbread house. Here you will create action plans to make sure you fit these in, such as setting a date, inviting those who will be involved, and
getting the supplies you'll need to make it happen. The Crafts and Decorations section holds ideas for homemade cards, gifts, decorations as well as
clear page protectors for magazine clippings and samples. I also use them for pictures I take once I've decorated so that I can remember where and how
I used my decorations from year to year. The Menus and Party Planners section gets freezer inventory, pantry inventory, and holiday menu planner pages
as well as more page protectors for magazine recipe clippings and downloads. Where needed, add blank lined pages for notes or reminders.
I take my planner with me where-ever I go in case I have time to stop and do some shopping while running errands. I also jot down gift and decorating
ideas as I have them so they are captured and never lost. When in the waiting room of the dentist or stylist I get out my card list and write a few
cards or address some envelopes. It's a huge time-saver and I never have a wasted moment. My sister also uses hers to compare prices while out shopping
or browsing the flyers so she can be sure to get the best price when she is ready to buy. How you use your binder is up to you but the more you use it,
the smoother your holiday planning will unfold! Give it a try and let us know how it works out!
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