Get Ready for Christmas with the Christmas Countdown

christmas countdownWhat do you really want for Christmas? More time, more joy, and less stress? A calmer, more centered holiday celebration is easy with the Christmas Countdown!

The Countdown is a free six-week Christmas organizing plan from OrganizedChristmas.Com. By breaking Christmas preparations down into small, easy-to-take steps, the Countdown gives you a holiday headstart for a stress-free Christmas season. List, gifts, decor and food--you'll be ready for Christmas with time to spare.

Follow The Plan: During the Countdown, we'll follow a six-week organization plan from October 21, 2007 to December 1, 2007. Goal: to complete holiday planning and preparations by the first weekend in December.

Six Weekly Themes: Each week has a special theme to focus Christmas organizing.

Week by week, we'll zero in on gift-giving, take charge of holiday budgets, organize Christmas cards, plan holiday meals and decorate for the holidays. Find each week's assignments at the weekly themes pages:

Daily Messages: Each day during the Countdown, you'll read an inspiring daily message on front page of our site. Daily messages bring a dose of inspiration, the day's assignments, links to checklists and printable holiday planner forms, along with recipe, gift and craft ideas for a jolly holiday.

Print A Holiday Planner: During Get Organized Week, we'll begin printing more than 50 printable forms, calendars and checklists and build a personal holiday planner to streamline holiday cleaning, cooking, gift buying, and decorations. Use our pages to journal holiday memories, organize preparations and track gift-giving.

Friends and Fun: You won't prepare for Christmas alone! Share recipes, gift ideas, holiday decoration tips and fun with the interactive community at Organized Christmas Message Boards. With message boards, recipes, gift suggestions, craft ideas and holiday tips, you'll make merry with friends as you prepare for a stress free holiday season.

Ready? Use the links below to Count Down ... to the best, most stress-free Christmas you've ever had!

What's the Christmas Countdown?

Christmas CountdownChristmas. The holidays. Chances are, those words send happy images straight to your heart!

Children's faces, breathless with wonder and delight. Shining lights on a beautifully trimmed Christmas tree. Delicious scents of fresh cookies and hot cider. A bounty of gifts, wrapped and beribboned. The cheerful hubbub of family members gathered from far-flung homes.

problem: stress and the holiday season

To those happy images of Christmas, many add another: stress! For these people, the holiday season adds a whole new set of challenges and chores to already-busy lives.

Shopping for gifts. Wrapping gifts. Mailing gifts, and having a nice long chat with the other sore-footed folks in line at the Post Office.

Preparing holiday meals that require two extra ovens, three extra hands and every serving dish in the house. Baking enough cookies to provision the entire National Football League.

Bedding down houseguests in their choice of Little Mermaid or G.I. Joe sheets--no matching pillowcases--and setting the firstborn to guard the doors of jam-packed closets from curious visitors.

solution: think christmas--all year?

Some propose a solution for Christmas organizing: plan, shop and bake for the holidays the year around! Christmas carols warble in the heat of July as they pull a batch of sugar cookies from an immaculate oven.

Christmas Year-Rounders buy their gift-wrap in January and they remember where they stored it, come December. They craft tree ornaments in February, knit sweaters in July, and have their freezer stocked with goodies by October, at the latest!

Then there are the rest of us, who just can't get with this admirable plan. We wince when Christmas gift-wrap hits store shelves in July. Each and every January, we promise to spread gift-buying over the year's 12 months, but each November, we open that special "gift drawer" to find a single jar of home-canned peach salsa, a pair of slightly melted handmade candles, and two freebie watches acquired with cereal box tops.

Are you one of us? Don't be ashamed! We love the holiday season, really we do. But for one reason or another, we simply can't find our holiday spirit outside the holiday season. We resist the Christmas Year-Round approach, recognizing that the preparation, as much as the celebration, is a component of a joyous holiday.

We just wish we had a little more time!

answer: a joyous and organized holiday

Be of good cheer! It is possible to get organized for the holiday season without thinking "Christmas" 365 days a year.

Our Christmas Countdown is based on six years' observation of the actual holiday preparations of hundreds of families. By tracking the rhythm of the weeks before the holiday season, the Countdown provides a day-by-day road map to follow for an organized holiday.

In the six weeks between the last full week of October and the first Saturday in December, we will organize, decide, budget, buy, prepare and celebrate in a natural cycle designed to bring us to the height of the season in a calm, unforced way and without making holiday preparation a year-round preoccupation.

If you follow the Countdown, will this be the year you scoop your Christmas Year-Rounder neighbor for the newspaper's holiday decorating award? No, and your home won't be mistaken for Martha Stewart's, either!

Accepting life's limits is an essential element of the Christmas Countdown. The Countdown aims to debunk feel-good holiday myths that catch us up in November, only to dump us flat on a cold day in February with nothing but a fistful of credit-card statements to show for the ride.

We won't try to do it all, but to do what is valuable, what is meaningful, and what is central to our hearts, our families and our vision of the holiday.

Ready? The 2007 Christmas Countdown begins Sunday, October 21. Get organized ... and make this the best--most organized--Christmas ever.

Christmas Countdown Bible Study

Christmas is my favorite time of year. I love all aspects of it; the decorations, gift giving, all the food and just the fact that people seam to be more cheerful and kinder to each other. However, a few years ago I felt so strangled by the hustle and bustle of the season, that I felt like I had totally missed the boat on the true meaning of the seasons. As a young, Christian mother, I didn't want my kids to grow up with a superficial view of the holidays. In my honest opinion, you cannot have Christmas, without Christ.

In my search to better prepare for the holidays, I stumbled across OrganizedChristmas.Com. I fell in love with all planning and discussion groups. I am not an organized person by nature, though I try to/dream of being one. When time rolled around for me to host our women's bible study at church, I really wanted to share with them what I had been learning about preparing for the holidays. So I decided to incorporate the Christmas Countdown into a bible study.

I started of by taking the Christmas study from the bible. I chose Luke, chapter 2, because I feel it's the most complete story. I have a copy in my notebook. After this, I took CEO's Weekly Themes and rewrote theme with a spiritual twists.

GET ORGANIZED WEEK: Decide and pray about what you want Christmas to be like this year. Start your card and gift giving lists.

REALITY CHECK WEEK: Read the Story of the Birth of Christ in Luke, chapter 2. Fill out your Family Values Worksheet. Decide what really important enough to make this Christmas meaningful.

GIFTS AND GIVING WEEK: Try to think of ways you can give of yourself. Think of the needy and lonely who may just need a friend.

GET COOKING WEEK: Thank God that you have enough food to eat. Pray that God will give you the opportunity to minister to someone who is hungry.

DECORATE WEEK: As we began to decorate our homes and take notice of all the pretty decorations the fill the stores and line the streets, take notice of your heart. Is it clean and beautifully decorated in order to celebrate the birth of Christ?

CELEBRATE WEEK: Turn your heart towards God and relax. You're organized and you're in control. Enjoy this wonderful season.

How Do I Join The Countdown?

join the christmas countdownHow do you join the Countdown? It's a simple as visiting this web site ... and it's free!

There are three main components to our six-week Christmas organizing plan: a free printable Christmas holiday planner, daily Countdown reminder messages and week-by-week assignments, and the fun and friendship of other Countdown members.

1. Make a Christmas holiday planner notebook

The first step is to designate a Christmas holiday planner: a simple 3-ring notebook stocked with forms and information.

During the first week of the Countdown, you'll print most of the holiday organizer notebook forms, but many people prefer to get a head start. Visit the Countdown forms area of this site.

Begin with the Countdown calendar. It outlines the themes for each week of the Countdown. Add printable monthly planning calendars to your notebook. They'll form the backbone of your family's holiday planning.

Need inspiration as you assemble your notebook? Join with other OC members at the Christmas notebook message board. You'll fine-tune your holiday planner with friends and fun.

Next, become familiar with each week's forms and assignments. Learn more about how the Countdown's six weekly themes will help you organize holiday gift-buying, cleaning, cooking, holiday cards and decorating.

We'll print the remainder of the forms as the Countdown progresses, but many folks like to complete this step ahead of time. Go right ahead!

Thinking about gifts? The Countdown notebook makes a great gift for friends and family members, so we've made it easy to give: next year's dated forms are free for the printing. Print extras for gifts--and next year, get ready for Christmas together!

2. Read daily reminder messages

Each day during the Countdown, we'll post a daily message with assignments, essays, links, recipes, and craft ideas on the OrganizedChristmas.Com home page. You'll read an inspiring message, and find links to the day's assignments, printable forms, craft and recipe ideas.

To read daily messages on the Web, you may want to bookmark our home page, or add it to your Web browser's favorites. We've made it easy with a special link at the bottom right of our home page.

3. Join the fun!

You won't be counting down alone! Our interactive Web site makes it easy to make friends on the

Six Weekly Themes to a Simpler Holiday

The Christmas Countdown is organized around six weekly themes. Each theme breaks down holiday preparations into small, do-able steps:

Get Organized
Reality Check
Gifts and Giving
Get Cooking
Decorate
Celebrate

There's method to the sequence of the weekly themes. Take a good look at the first two: Get Organized and Reality Check. No sniffling sentimental sappiness here! These are good, upright, honest themes, designed to organize your planning, bring you face-to-face with some uncomfortable realities, and lay the calm hand of financial restraint upon your decision-making.

Because these themes fall early in the holiday season, there will be plenty of time for sentiment, provided you've laid the groundwork with some stern hard choices.

The middle themes cover the two largest tasks of the season: Gifts and Giving, and Get Cooking! These are workmanlike themes, designed to get you over the hump with gift selection and holiday cooking. Get Cooking! week is also designed to help you prepare for Thanksgiving Dinner during the following week.

The final themes reflect more abstract Christmas virtues: Decorate and Celebrate. They're intended to flow along with your planning and preparation, and bring you right up to the brink of the season, organized, prepared and ready to celebrate. Decorate! Week falls during the American Thanksgiving holiday, a time when many families begin holiday decorating.

No tasks are assigned under the Countdown after the first Saturday in December. By that time, the holiday season is about to enter full swing. The Countdown is designed to bring you to this point organized and ready.

After the holidays, we'll conclude with a debriefing on the first Monday in January. As we store decorations and ornaments, we'll track what worked, what didn't, and what changes we would like to consider for next year. If we've bought gift wrap or decorations at after-season sales, we'll record it. The debriefing gives us an opportunity to wrap the season with a big red bow, and begin preparing for the next Christmas season with a clean slate and a good heart.

An organized holiday. A simpler holiday. A holiday that honors and celebrates the deeper joys, those gifts that can never be purchased with cash.

Ready? Get organized for the holidays, and make this the best Christmas ever with the Christmas countdown.

A Note From The Author

Welcome to the Countdown! I'm CEO, your author and guide. "CEO" is short for Cynthia Ewer, Organized--and it's not just a nickname, it's a job description. As editor of OrganizedHome.Com, and author of Houseworks: Cut the Clutter, Speed your Cleaning and Calm the Chaos, I've helped thousands of people find their way to better home and personal organization.

On the Web since 1998, the Christmas Countdown is my special guide to control Christmas chaos, cut holiday stress and get organized for the holiday season.

Over the years, I've come to learn the rhythm of the holiday season as lived by thousands of real families, families just like yours.

I know that many of us don't think seriously about holiday preparation until the last full week in October. When we do, it's with a sense of panic. I know that most of us are searching for holiday craft ideas in November, even though the stores sold out of Christmas craft kits back in July. I know the pressure of the first week in December, when everyone, even the most die-hard procrastinator, must get serious about preparing for the holidays.

That's where the Christmas Countdown comes in. Each autumn, I?ve watched--and written--as our collective online thoughts turned to the holidays. Some of the Countdown essays have been published online in various forums since 1993.

In 1997, I previewed selections from the Countdown with over 300 Readers in a Reader's Circle. 1998 marked the Beta Test of the first online Countdown: a Web-based interactive six-week program of preparation for the holiday season.

In 2006, more than 470,000 visitors came to this site to get organized for the holiday season. We hope you'll join us this year for information, inspiration and support as we get organized together to simplify the holidays.

The Countdown isn't a trim and tidy system devised for a picture book family by an "expert" who was born color-coding her spice rack. It's not a plan for Christmas perfection or lavish Christmas excess. You won't astonish your critical sister-in-law, win an award for "Most Decorated House" or appear on "Good Morning America" with clever gift-wrap ideas if you follow this guide.

Instead, the Countdown is designed to ground readers in reality. It aims to bring you, day by day, closer to a calm, rewarding holiday season that celebrates your family beliefs and values.

Join us! You'll be in good company--to get organized for the holiday season!

2008 Christmas Countdown Calendar

christmas countdown calendar

Click for printable page

Get Organized Week

Planning for Christmas with the Christmas CountdownWelcome to Get Organized Week!

The first week of the Countdown is a time for planning and calendars and lists, for setting our values and our course. As we break down holiday preparations into small, simple steps, we'll sketch out the outline of the holiday season to come.

This week, we begin to build a Christmas holiday planner or notebook, assess the state of the house, and enjoy the Halloween festivities. Ready? Let's get organized for a stress-free Christmas season!

To Do This Week:

  • Make the promise! Spend 15 minutes each day this week to get organized for Christmas.
  • Get comfortable for holiday planning--create a Christmas holiday planning center
  • Set up your Christmas holiday planner in a notebook or three-ring binder.
  • If you're using a clear pocket binder, print the cover and spine pages. Insert in pockets of your clear-view binder
  • Add blank lined pages for any notes and records.
  • Make or designate a holiday planning calendar. For your Christmas holiday planner, print the Countdown plan calendar. Want more flexible calendar forms?
  • Add monthly planning calendars as needed.
  • Begin at the beginning: review your family's holiday values. Print and record your findings on the holiday values page.
  • Gift-buying looms! Start a master gift list. Print the master gift list form and use it to record purchases and home-made gift items.
  • Begin a Christmas card list. Locate addresses, and consider making a computerized Christmas card address list for maximum time savings. Or, print a Christmas card list for your holiday organizer notebook.
  • Print a home spruce-up worksheet and complete the holiday home spruce-up exercise. Plan and schedule any pre-holiday home improvement projects.
  • Will your family travel this holiday season? Make travel plans and reservations this week.
  • Will you host houseguests this year? Make arrangements for any overnight guests.
  • Make an appointment for family photo sessions for holiday giving or photo Christmas cards.
  • Schedule carpet cleaning now! As the holidays approach, business picks up. Call now for your choice of appointment times.

To Print This Week:

To Read This Week:

To Buy This Week:

  • Christmas cards or supplies for Christmas letters
  • Holiday stamps

Reality Check Week

holiday head-start with the Christmas CountdownWarning! Reality check ahead!

It's week two of the Christmas Countdown, and time to consider the darker side of the holiday. Though we may not be conscious of them, hidden holiday forces work to over-run our budgets and distort our decision-making.

Not to worry! Coming face to face with the reality of outside pressures will make us stronger--and we'll be empowered to bring our celebrations within the circle of our own values.

Ready? Let's get organized!

To Do This Week:

  • Divide Christmas card list into five groups. Write and address one group this week.
  • Make a holiday budget. Work together with your spouse to set a comfortable level of holiday spending. We make it easy with our printable holiday budget form. Add a printable master shopping list to speed errand days.
  • Do your visual field a favor with a quick decor declutter. A clean sweep now makes holiday decorations all the more impressive!
  • Set up a holiday housework plan. Print our chore checklist form. Post it publicly and hold family members accountable for delegated tasks.
  • Make a family wardrobe check. Fill out the family wardrobe worksheet, and put any "To Buy" items on your shopping list.
  • Print a master shopping list, to organize shopping excursions through the holiday season.
  • Do you keep a gift closet, adding new gift items year-round? Take inventory now, before you shop for holiday gifts. Use our printable gift closet inventory form.
  • Establish good health habits to cushion you and your family from holiday stresses. Focus on regular bedtimes, proper diet, mild exercise and stress reduction.
  • Perform a tabletop check. Inventory serving pieces, table linens, china and flatware. Check store flyers for sales. Will you be ready to set a pretty holiday table?
  • Schedule family haircut appointments.
  • Check smoke, carbon monoxide detectors on Time Change Sunday. Change the batteries and test detectors to keep your family safe.

To Print This Week:

To Read This Week:

To Buy This Week:

  • Begin Christmas gift shopping. Divide the master gift list into five sections. Purchase gifts for one-fifth of the List entries. Wrap gifts as they are purchased. Keep a running total of gift expenditures and enter on the holiday budget form.
  • Purchase any needed holiday clothing for family members.

Gifts and Giving Week

Welcome to Gifts and Giving Week! It's the time we focus on gift lists, gift buying and gift wrapping.

A recent poll at OrganizedChristmas.Com shows that gift-buying wins out as the "biggest holiday organization challenge". During Gifts and Giving Week, we'll give you the tools to get on top of the gift list. Hint: more lists!

For many families, gift-giving is a prime source of holiday financial stress. We'll divide and conquer, spreading gift-buying over a four-week period, and tracking our purchases. Goal: a bountiful, yet sensible holiday free of the bust-your-budget credit card trap.

Ready? Let's get organized for great holiday gifts and giving!

To Do This Week:

  • Write and address one-fifth of the Christmas card list this week.
  • Finish all catalog and online shopping. Print our catalog and Internet tracker pages to keep track of catalog purchases.
  • Use a three-hold punch to add a large manila envelope to the holiday organizer notebook. Place all receipts in the envelope to track purchases, provide for returns.
  • Review and renegotiate adult gift giving. Can you simplify your family's "unwritten rules? Draw names and set a price limit for a gift exchange. Could your family dispense with adult gifts in favor of gifts to charity or family service project?
  • Finish making all gift lists.
  • List all gifts to make. Be stern! Make your list and cut it in half--there's less time than you think. List needed materials and add them to the master shopping list. Begin on "to make" gifts this week. You must make one-fourth of your gifts each week.
  • Keep tight tabs on the holiday budget. Add gift purchases and other expenditures as you make them.
  • Set up a wrap and mail center. You'll speed gift wrapping and parcel mailing with supplies all in one place.
  • Plan Thanksgiving Dinner using the holiday menu planner. Order turkey. Check serving pieces, and write the contents on a Post-it note. Make it easy for other to help!
  • Schedule family service projects, or sign up for church charity efforts.
  • Reserve baby-sitters for December's nights out.

To Print This Week:

To Read This Week:

To Buy This Week:

  • Continue Christmas gift shopping. Divide the master gift list into five sections. Purchase gifts for one-fifth of the List entries. Wrap gifts as they are purchased. Keep a running total of gift expenditures.
  • Buy materials and supplies for all "to make" gifts.

Get Cooking Week

It's all things cooking at the Countdown, as we swing into Get Cooking! week.

We'll plan holiday meals and menus, save money on holiday meals, prepare easy freezer entrees for busy December nights, and make holiday baking easier.

Ready? Let's get cooking for stress-free Christmas holidays!

To Do This Week:

  • Write and address one-fifth of Christmas card list this week.
  • Make one-fourth of gifts to make this week.
  • Fill out a holiday menu planner form for each remaining holiday meal that you will serve in your home. Check serving pieces, and write the contents on a Post-it note. Make it easy for other to help!
  • Inventory the freezer, and record contents on the freezer inventory form. Plan to eat from the freezer this week and next week, making room for holiday meals and holiday goodies. Use food budget savings to stock up on holiday staples.
  • Start planning holiday baking with the baking planner form, and be alert for supermarket specials. Try to buy nonperishable holiday foods this week and next week for all upcoming holiday meals.
  • Do a mini-freezer cooking session to put 5 to 10 pre-made entrees into the freezer. Use these meals on busy December evenings.
  • Prepare for drop-in visitors. Collect hospitality supplies: cheeses, crackers, frozen desserts. Hide from hungry family members using creative labeling.
  • Simplify baking chores: organize a Cookie Swap. Invite 6 to 12 guests to bring as many dozen cookies as there are guests. Swap so that each guest leaves with a lavish assortment of holiday goodies. Freeze immediately, marked as "liver and onions."

Week 4 ChecklistWeek 4 ChecklistTo Print This Week:

To Read This Week:

To Buy This Week:

  • Continue Christmas gift shopping. Purchase gifts for one-fifth of the list entries. Wrap gifts as they are purchased. Keep a running total of gift expenditures.
  • Trim the regular food budget to stock up on sale-priced holiday non-perishables. Make a Thanksgiving Friday grocery shopping trip for best savings.

Decorate Week

American Thanksgiving is near ... and we've reached Decorate Week at the Christmas Countdown. Time to turn our thoughts to holiday decorations.

This week, we'll discover secrets of frugal holiday decorating, take a quick decorations inventory, enjoy giving thanks with family and friends on Thanksgiving Day and begin decorating for Christmas. It's a busy week (and the holidays are here!) so let's decorate ... for a stress-free Christmas season!

To Do This Week:

  • Write and address one-fifth of Christmas card List this week.
  • Make one-fourth of gifts to make this week.
  • Set up holiday tearfiles. Use tearfiles for ideas for holiday decorating. Save for next year!
  • Inspect and inventory decorations. Record results on our holiday decoration inventory. Check light strands for cracked or broken bulbs. Add needed replacements to the master shopping list.
  • Does your family give children new ornaments each year? Preserve the memories along with the gift. Use printable ornament memory record pages to keep the gift alive!
  • Prepare for Thanksgiving dinner, baking desserts and salads ahead.
  • Give thanks on Thanksgiving Day!
  • Check in with family members at Thanksgiving celebrations. Ask for gift suggestions, and arrange to share or contribute to holiday meals.
  • Begin interior and exterior decorating.

Week 5 ChecklistWeek 5 ChecklistTo Print This Week:

To Read This Week:

To Buy This Week:

  • Continue Christmas gift shopping. Divide the master gift list into five sections. Purchase gifts for one-fifth of the List entries. Wrap gifts as they are purchased. Keep a running total of gift expenditures.
  • Purchase new holiday decor items

Celebrate Week

We're here and it's time to celebrate!

Celebrate! Week sees us into the full swing of the holiday season, prepared (or nearly so) for a great holiday with family and friends.

During Celebrate! Week, we complete gift shopping, mail Christmas cards, plan parties and put the finishing touches on holiday decorations. During this phase of the Countdown, we also gather information--memories, traditions, debriefing--that will guide our preparations for next year.

Ready to celebrate? Let's get organized!

To Do This Week:

  • Write and address final one-fifth of Christmas card List this week. Mail all cards by December 10.
  • Complete the final one-fourth of gifts to make this week. If the gifts have not been completed, put them away for next year. Add any needed replacements to the master gift list.
  • Complete gift shopping. Wrap and mail send-away gifts by December 6.
  • Plan holiday parties using free printable party planning forms. Plan the event with the party planner form, track and record RSVPs on the guest list, and keep the lid on finances with the party budget form.
  • Begin a family Advent observance. Use an Advent wreath, calendar or daily family activity to underscore your spiritual values.
  • As a family, broaden your own observance by learning more about other holiday traditions.
  • Record each year's special traditions on a holiday tradition tracker form. Add new ideas, and record your family's reaction. Keep the memories alive!
  • Order poultry or special roasts for any holiday meals held in your home.
  • Cultivate a calm and quiet home during the height of the season. Turn the television off, and substitute reading one evening each week.
  • Complete interior and exterior decorating. As a last touch, decorate the front door as a symbol that you are ready to celebrate!
  • Get resolved! Consider New Year's resolutions carefully, and maximize your chances of following through by writing them down on a New Year's resolution form!
    January 5, hold a holiday debriefing. Record impressions, memories and solutions to guide next year's holiday!

Week 6 ChecklistWeek 6 ChecklistTo Print This Week:

To Read This Week:

To Buy This Week:

  • Purchase gifts for the final one-fifth of the master gift list, together with any gift substitutes for uncompleted "to make" gifts.
  • Wrap gifts as they are purchased. Keep a running total of gift expenditures and watch the holiday budget!
  • Buy fresh trees, wreaths and garlands.

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