Doing Christmas with Discipline and Creativity

Everyone has their holiday.  My husband is batty for Halloween.  One of my best friends and her husband lover St. Patrick's Day so much that they gave birth to their child on that day.  And I live for Christmas.

It turns out Christmas is one of those places where I can happily marry creativity and discipline to create something amazing.  Here is what I do.

I have a list.  It is a Google spreadsheet, actually.  It lists all of the tasks that I do each and every Christmas... a countdown for the kids, card, cookies, making ornaments for the kids, planning the party, making gingerbread houses together, etc.  This is the discipline.  While the activities stay the same each year, the details change as I pick a new theme for each year.  This is the creativity.

Having a list of tasks that get done every Christmas keeps me from realizing on December 23rd that I forgot a gift for Uncle John.  It keeps from realizing on December 26th that we never did our annual drive down this one street to look at the Christmas lights.  It keeps me from waking up at 2AM realizing that if we don't bake Christmas cookies the very next day, there won't be time.  The discipline of the list allows me to truly enjoy all of the great Christmas activities.

In September of each year I decide on this year's theme and pull up the spreadsheet to start designing the particulars of each activity.  This year out theme was Japan.  Our countdown to Christmas was made of origami cranes that sat on our mantel.  Gifts were wrapped with origami paper strips and paper blossoms.  Our Christmas card was a picture of the girls sitting in a cherry blossom tree.  Get the idea?  I just enjoy the creative part for a while.  I see something that inspires me and I record it in my spreadsheet.  I also have a Pinterest board to capture ideas.

After I spend a few weeks coming up with the design ideas and recording them in my spreadsheet, I pull together a schedule to complete each item.  Some things I start to do in October and some I leave for closer to Christmas.  I plug everything into my existing task list but you can certainly just put dates in the spreadsheet and work from that.  The key is to spread out the work so it is enjoyable, not overwhelming.   I also create a shopping list for supplies that I will need and when I need to buy them.

Providing myself some discipline so that I have the freedom to embrace my creative side makes Christmas a "ho, ho, ho" for me instead of a "bah humbug".

YOUR TURN:
Pick something you do each year .. a holiday, a kids birthday party, a dinner party ...and create yourself a reusable list of what tasks need to get done. Then allow yourself a period of time in advance of the date to just gather ideas and brainstorm.  Later, filter out your ideas and come up with a schedule and a shopping list.   See if you don't feel a little more joyful and excited about your event!