This is the seventh post in a year-long series all about taking baby steps to prepare for a stress-free Christmas. Here’s what to do in September to get ready for Christmas!
Wow, friends, wow. Last year, around the end of the year, when I was starting to think how neat it would be to make a big year-long challenge for myself to help me prepare for Christmas, I never ever would have thought I would have such a hard time actually following through on it. I definitely didn’t think we’d have such a big chunk of the year where we were in full lockdown and the kids were doing school from home and I didn’t think I’d ever actually have to skip a full month of this plan because I just couldn’t get to it. Maybe bump things back by a week, but never a full month. Just to illustrate the point of just how discombobulated things have become between busy work schedules, trying to give the kids a fun summer despite ongoing pandemic concerns and just general lack of time to think straight, let me tell you this: I lost the sheet with all my monthly plans on it. As in, I don’t know where I put it and I no longer have access to it. I never lose anything. And yet here I am, plan-less.
Not to worry. The whole spirit of this endeavour is to take actions that will have us in a better place of preparedness and peace than we would have been in had we done nothing. And so we’ll forge ahead. Even if we don’t get to everything, something is far, far better than nothing!
I remembered the vague ideas behind the types of things I wanted to get to in September, so I re-wrote the list for this month. No problemo. 🙂
How This Works
Every month, I’ll share a short list of three to five actionable items. These will be little baby steps that you can take care of to get some of the tasks you might normally find yourself doing in December done well ahead of time. The goal here is to free you up to actually enjoy the holiday season as much as possible and to leave some time for things like spontaneous baking, winter walks with the family, fun decor projects, and things like that without making you feel stressed out about all the stuff you’re putting off doing, because all of the “have to do” stuff will already be done!
How I did in August
You may have noticed that I didn’t post anything in August for this mission, however I did manage to get a couple of things done. I tackled one of our items from the July list and ordered some great swimsuits and towels while they were on sale. Better a bit late than never! I also stocked up on a few stocking stuffer type things and my secret Christmas preparedness area is looking pretty respectably full right now, even with all the missed steps along the way this year. 🙂
What to do in September to Prepare for Christmas
Here’s our new list!
Buy Teacher’s Gifts
Once you’ve had the chance to meet your children’s teachers, you can start to get an idea of what types of gifts would make sense for them, or at least what type of gift card. I love to purchase gift cards around now for teachers, as well as other important people we don’t want to forget about like the mailman and bus drivers. They’re easy to store and they don’t take up much room and it’s just nice to have these things already taken care of. You can add another little item or treat to the card just before it’s time to give them.
Buy All Advent Calendar Gifts
We decided on a strategy in July, but now it’s time to actually buy everything you need for your advent calendars if you’re doing them. That way you can start to put everything together and wrap everything individually when you’re ready without suddenly realizing that you don’t even have everything you need to wrap yet at the last minute.
Buy Non-Perishable Food Gifts
Now’s a great time to get any chocolates, teas, coffees, as well as anything like wines or liqueurs that you still need to get. Keep them in a cool, dark place! I used the recent wine tour that we went on to celebrate our 15th anniversary to visit a few different winery stores all in one afternoon and do a little extra stocking up, just in case we’re able to do lots of extra visiting this year to make up for last year.
Start Your Christmas Baking Wish List
You might have traditional things you make every year, but now’s a good time to do some planning and dreaming and think about whether there’s something new you’d like to try, or even if there’s something that you don’t want to make anymore.
And that’s the list for September! Keep it up! We’re doing great!
MORE POSTS LIKE THIS
- What to do in July to Prepare for Next Christmas
- What to do in May to Prepare for Next Christmas
- Five Semi-Sneaky Secrets of People who are Really Good at Christmas
- The Monthly Christmas Countdown Archives
Courtenay Hartford is the author of creeklinehouse.com, a blog based on her adventures renovating a 120-year-old farmhouse in rural Ontario, Canada. On her blog, Courtenay shares interior design tips based on her own farmhouse and her work as founder and stylist of the interior photography firm Art & Spaces. She also writes about her farmhouse garden, plant-based recipes, family travel, and homekeeping best practices. Courtenay is the author of the book The Cleaning Ninja and has been featured in numerous magazines including Country Sampler Farmhouse Style, Better Homes and Gardens, Parents Magazine, Real Simple, and Our Homes.