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Show Notes:

It is that time of the year where we are starting to think all about the holidays. And in my opinion, you can't start planning too early for Christmas. So, today I am telling you all about my Christmas gameplan, which is simply the planning that goes in to making Christmas a wonderful, peaceful time of year—because let's face it, it can be very stressful and very hectic if you don't thoughtfully plan ahead.

So I'm just gonna share with you my approach and my strategy, and hopefully it will encourage you and bless you to plan a little more ahead and also enjoy your holidays a little bit more.

For the full episode, hit play above or read through below.

Two things before we jump into the episode—

First, on December 1st, I am re-releasing my audio course called An Integrated Life! The Integrated Life is all about how to incorporate your work and your home and your faith together so they work in harmony with one another, not competing against one another. I just feel like that is how God intended it and how we should be living, and so I talk about things like how to practice solitude on a regular basis, 10 biblical principles for handling money, how to identify your calling versus your assignment, how to have faith centered work practices, how to write a mission statement and core values for your home and your family, how we've become debt free, how to create a five, three, and one year plan for your work and on and on and on—a lot of the practical things I've learned through the years of running a business and also having a family and walking with the Lord. So it will only be available December 1st through the 10th, and you can sign up to get notified when it becomes available if you get on the waitlist, and you can learn more about it here.

The second thing before we jump in is simply that the most important thing about Christmas is honoring the Lord and the miracle of Jesus' birth. It is so incredible to me every Christmas, if you really stop and think about the fact that the God who created all of this, all of this, the things that we've messed up, that He chose to re-enter back into it as a human. The miracle of that is never lost on me.

However, today's episode is a very practical guide to your budgeting, your planning, your decorating, things like that. And so it's not that I don't wanna keep Jesus at the center, I absolutely do, but I firmly believe that if you can organize those other things and kind of tame that stress beast of all the scheduling and everything, that you can make more space for the Lord to be at the heart of everything you do.

So if you want more of a heart episode, head back to Episode 90 and you can hear all about our family's Christmas traditions, how we honor the Lord in those. Okay, quick disclaimer before I jump into this episode, Mamas who are listening, we're gonna be talking a lot about, you know, some grown up planning stuff, Santa, you know, maybe put the AirPods in and play this episode when the kids aren't around, if you catch my drift.

Okay, let's jump in. Two things you're gonna need are your Christmas Budget and your Calendar. If you don't make a Christmas budget, that's totally fine. I like to make one kind of from scratch and I'll kind of show you what I do or explain to you what I do that's separate from my normal monthly budget so I can see Christmas all by itself.

And also a calendar that can be whatever calendar you use, whether it's a paper planner or your Google Calendar, whatever you use, just those are the things we're gonna be working with constantly throughout this. And those are the two tools that I have to use to make Christmas a success. So those are the two tools: budget and calendar.

The three kind of categories I wanna talk to you about today are:

Gifts
Your Schedule
Your Decorations

Now, I know that might seem out of order, but stay with me because I don't think it is. This is where I always start my Christmas planning is with gifts, and then schedule, and then I move into decorations. Okay? So let's talk about gifts first.

First, you're gonna make a list of every single person that you need to buy a gift for, and not only just the people in your life, but you also need to include white elephant gift exchange parties that you likely will go to. I have like two or maybe three like standing white elephant parties that I'm always kind of invited to or expected to bring, you know, one of those trade gifts to. So just write that as well. And don't forget stockings, because that's the kind of thing that throws me to the last minute is filling stockings. And so make sure that you put that down as part of the list because these are all the gifts that you are responsible for buying.

Okay, I like to make a spreadsheet and so on the left at the very top, I have gifts. On the left I have everybody's name, plus like white elephant 1, white elephant 2, stocking 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, like list everything out. Then right next to it, you're gonna fill in the actual gift you buy, and then in the blank next to that, the actual amount you pay. But then the blank next to that, the fourth blank is gonna be your estimated amount that you're gonna spend.

So when you're creating this document, it's gonna be the list of everybody's names, blank, blank, and then the amount you think you're gonna spend on each person (see below).

Ex. Aunt Sharon | [Gift] | [Actual Amount Paid] | $35

And then that way you can, as you're buying gifts for people, you can kind of look at the documents, see if you're on track, see if you're over or under, write in the gift, write in the amount, and then compare at the end if you were under or over budget.

Okay, Hopefully that makes sense. Now, once you kind of write everyone's names and estimate how much to spend on each person, talk to your spouse, show the document to your spouse, say, am I way off? This is kind of what we're looking at for Christmas. What do you think about this? Because it's probably gonna be sticker shock, like, oh my goodness, we're spending this much money on gifts at Christmas. But once he sees everything, like you guys can negotiate and talk about where you wanna cut, where you wanna add in, and what you wanna do about it.

Okay, my next tip for gifts is to start buying them now, once you guys decide on that document and the budget, start buying the gifts. Do not wait. Always put the gift as you buy it into the spreadsheet. Type out the name, type out the amount so you don't forget what you buy as you buy it. And then when it comes in the mail or you get it from the store, take it to your secret spot in your house. You know, we all have one, whether it's a closet or under the bed or wherever. Go ahead and take it out of the package so you can see it and put it away.

All right, so make a list. Estimate how much check with husband. Start buying the gifts now. Put everything away in the secret spot as it arrives. And my final tip for gifts is to set a deadline.

When is the last day that you wanna be done with all of your gifts, including stockings? Because mine is December 1st, and I know that seems weird to maybe have all your stockings like done by December 1st, but I really love not having to worry about gifts in December. I love having the gifts wrapped in under the tree for a long amount of time instead of just like two days before Christmas (which has totally been my story before). So that's my game plan for gifts.

Now let's move on to schedule. I want you to sit down and write out every single event that you and your family usually go to, the ones you like to go to, the ones that you're invited to, your most important traditions, the things that you don't wanna miss, the things you love. Write out everything in between, everything you can think of. Even the things you know you're gonna be invited to that you don't even really wanna go to. Write out a massive list of all those things. Also, write out a list of your favorite Christmas movies and how many Christmas movie nights you wanna have because it's one of our favorite things that we do.

And I feel like last year I remember thinking, we're running out of time for Christmas movie nights, right? Write in things like Christmas cookie baking day. Don't forget any birthdays in your family in December, my birthday's in December, don’t forget birthdays in December. We always need to make sure that we're prioritizing birthdays in the middle of this crazy month, too.

So go ahead and write all those down. And then I need you to actually get out your physical calendar, whether it's iCal, Google Calendar, or your planner, and start writing them in today. Write in every single event that is the most important to you. And if you have some events that are left over on your list that aren't gonna make the cut, go ahead and decide now that they're just not making the cut. Make sure you're also writing into your schedule just home nights. Nights that don't have anything planned, because you're gonna need some of those. You're gonna need a lot of those in December.

So go ahead and plan out the whole month of December if you can, even including those kind of margin days where you don't have anything planned, the things you're gonna say yes to, the things you're gonna say no to, you're gonna be so happy that you decided on these things ahead of time.

Lastly, once you get your schedule in order and you kind of know what's going on, there might be some questions that come up like, “Okay, I don't know what my family's plans are” —I just wanna encourage you, don't be afraid to be the communicator in your family about plans. You can go ahead and text them individually or as a group and say, “Hey, what are you thinking about Christmas plans? Hey, what are your travel plans? Hey, we're trying to get our plans settled. What do you think about this?” And I always like to suggest, “Hey, what do you think about this?” Instead of just saying like, “Hey, what's your plan?” But just going ahead and getting the ball rolling with that text. Okay?

Finally, don't forget to schedule in a fun gift wrapping day or Christmas date night or things just for you to make sure that you are enjoying this holiday season. Whatever the thing is that you love to do, make sure you're scheduling those in as well.

Okay, third part: decorations. When are you gonna decorate? Go ahead and add that to your calendar. We always love to decorate right after Thanksgiving. I know some people love to decorate right after Halloween and your house is probably already decorated as you're listening to this. Totally fine. But writing in your calendar when to decorate and when to take your decorations down is really helpful because usually that's like an all day thing for us.

Also, think about what do you need to decorate with that are considered new things you need to buy. For us, we always get a fresh, real Christmas tree. I'm team real Christmas tree. We also buy real garland and one really pretty real Christmas wreath for our door. And once you've decided on any new purchases that you have for this Christmas season, go ahead and add that into your budget as well.

After you've done these three big things, your gifts, your schedule, your calendar and your decorations, you are gonna be feeling so much better about Christmas. I don't know, maybe you're gonna be overwhelmed because of how much money you're about to spend, because that usually happens for me at first. But ultimately, knowing what you're going to spend, knowing what you’re schedule's going to be, really gives you power to say no to other things if you need to or to simplify your schedule or to refocus your spending on other things. Or say, “Hey, we're doing something different with gifts this year. This is our plan.” And it allows you to take a deep breath, know what's coming, take authority over your finances, over your schedule, and really be present during the Christmas season.

So I hope you've enjoyed or gleaned from my Christmas gameplan for this year. I've learned that with a lot of little kids and a lot of family, it is necessary for us just to stay sane through the holidays to make a plan that not only is thorough and helpful, but it's something we're excited about.

It's got things scheduled in that we love to do as a family, and we're not feeling like we're scrambling to get it all done, but we're really enjoying it. So I hope that you take maybe one or two things from this episode, apply it to your own life, and I pray this Christmas season for you, it's full of a lot of work and a whole lot of play and that it's blessed and peaceful.

Okay, it's time for the Work & Play Cornerstore. I just wanted to mention a book that I've really been enjoying all about decorating your home for each season. It's called Welcome Home by McQuillyn Smith. It’s for you if you want just a very simple kind of no fuss guide to decorating your home for each season—I love it. I highly recommend this book. So head to nancyray.com/cornerstore to grab yours. That will take you directly to my Amazon affiliate store, where you can see all the books I've ever recommended here. It is an affiliate store. I'll make a small commission on what you buy there and it will continue to help me bring this podcast to you.

Hey, if you haven't downloaded my weekly checklist, head to nancyray.com/checklist. It's completely free and it is my weekly checklist on how to have effective work and a lot of play and how you pre-plan your week every single week. It is a lifesaver for me. It's how I plan my week every week. And also I'm really excited to use it all the way through November and December because it helps keep me sane. So feel free to download your free weekly checklist here.

I'm gonna close with words from Laura Engles Wilder, who said, “Our hearts grow tender with childhood memories and love of kindred, and we are better throughout the the year for having in spirit become a child again at Christmas.”

My hope for you is that all of the planning in this episode will allow you to become a child again at Christmas.

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