Welcome to the Christmas Countdown Challenge – Week 1! Thanks for going along with me on this adventure. I don’t know about you, but October comes around every year and I’m almost instantly feeling the pressure of allthethings!
School is in full swing (and so are the school activities), autumn is bursting with holiday madness starting with Pumpkin Spice season, then Halloween, then Thanksgiving, and finally Christmas and New Years. On top of all of that fun, we have two family birthdays that I need to plan for. Plus some extended family birthday, our wedding anniversary, etc. It’s a busy and full time of year for us!
But, everyone’s plate is full, I know I’m not the only one feeling that. That’s why I want to do what I can to help relieve some of the stress by being proactive. I thought it’d be great to have a group of like-minded women to do it with me!
I’m most excited to get my shopping done and out of the way so that I can focus on other things for the months of November and December! One thing I will not regret is saving myself the stress and anxiety of the mental load that the holidays bring, year after year, without fail. What are you most excited for?
Christmas Countdown Challenge – Week 1 Task
This week, the task at hand is just to get your head wrapped around your goals and expectations for this holiday season. The holiday hub-bub gets overwhelming and exhausting quick, so I’m simply laying out items I want you to consider and answer for yourself and your family.
I’ll be using these little cards as prompts throughout the month. You can use them to guide you, keep you on track, and help you organize your thoughts and gifting strategies.
As we begin to plan things out for the holidays for our families, let’s start with some “big picture” prompts:
Christmas Countdown Challenge – Goal/Theme Setting
While it may seem odd to set goals for your holiday shopping, I bet you already have some goals in mind. For instance, one of our goals for this year is to refrain from gifting ANY toys that make noise (and all the parents of littles nod in unison). This is mainly for our own children, but I’m going to extend it to any gifts we give.
Your goals might also be geared more towards a “theme” for the season. One year, we focused on open-ended toys only. Or, you may have a specific color you want to use as guidance for your gift-giving. Or maybe your family is really into sports, so you focus all gifts around sports! The beauty of this is that you’re proactively considering what you want your holiday season to look like, and then you can intentionally purchase with more tunnel vision as you get going with list making, etc.
Give this some thought, discuss with your spouse/partner, and then jot down somewhere if you think it’s necessary.
Christmas Countdown Challenge – Budget Setting
As far as a budget goes, its smart to discuss financials with your partner or spouse prior to making purchases. Consider what you’ve spent the past couple of years, too. This will allow you to get on the same page, determine how money will be spent for the holiday season, and again, begin to narrow down what and how much gifting you can do for the upcoming holidays!
We don’t have a cut and dry budget, but we do discuss money leading into the holiday season, and have a very realistic idea of how much we’re willing to spend. We also allow a “stretch goal” of sorts that gives us some wiggle room. Our situation is unique in the fact that we’re a one-income family, and that income is self-employed. So we may be able to do more in some years versus others. It’s just he nature of the beast.
And just a friendly reminder, you don’t have to buy into the hype of the spend, spend, spend mentality that our consumeristic society drills into our heads each and every day (whether you’re aware of it or not). There are plenty of ways we can show love and appreciation to our loved ones without going into debt. When in doubt, remember that time is the most valuable gift you can give!
We’ll get into finer details next week, but for now, this should give you something to chew on and get you in the right mindset for a successful holiday season! If you want to work ahead, go ahead and read these Simple Christmas Gifting Strategies for Kids.
Until next week,
-MG
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