Christmas Planning Binder

I wanted to share a little bit about my Christmas Binder. (I know I should have shared this much earlier, but maybe you can glean some ideas for your Christmas planning for next year.) 

***Also, I know that I blogged about my Christmas binder in 2016, but that was two years ago!

I first began keeping a notebook in the year 2001, and I switched to a binder in 2007. It's just a 3 ring binder with dividers that I made by typing the categories on cute Christmas paper and laminating them. My first binder is now completely full, so I made a new binder this year and titled it "Christmas Binder 2". The sections in my binder include:

I began keeping a spiral bound Christmas notebook in 2001. In 2007 I switched to a 3 ring binder with the following dividers:

Gifts:

• This section is subdivided by year.

• I create a document for each year in a table format with the following columns: To, Gift, Bought, Wrapped. I list the recipient's name and the gift. Then I put an x when I buy (or make the gift), and an x when I wrap the gift. On the pages that I create for my children, I make one page per child. I print this out to use as I shop and wrap, but when it's all done, I print out one final clean copy to include in my binder. I love looking back over the years at the gifts I have shared with my family and friends. This also prevents me from giving someone the same exact thing I gave them last year! I also love to look at what I gave my kids in years past, especially when they were younger.

Addresses:

• I print out my Christmas cards address list each year and make any corrections or additions. Then I print out one more final copy for my binder. I am not sure why I feel the need to have a hard copy in my binder....I guess that's in case my computer crashes. 

• I also make a list of addresses for any parties that I send invitations.

Parties:

• I keep copies of party invitations in this section.

• I also keep guest lists for various parties here.

Food:

• This section has recipes for all the Christmas goodies we make and share each year.

• I include menus and recipes for Christmas meals and parties.

• I make labels for the homemade treats we give to others, and I have the master copies of those labels in this section. I like to put who the goodies are for on these labels. This helps when distributing them.

• A new addition to this section this year is I am going to list what foods I take to various gatherings. I think this will be fun and useful to review each year. 

I have included some pictures below, but first I must share my crazy idea from last year. I saw on Pinterest where some ladies were making their own super cute Christmas notebooks, and I thought, "I should totally do that! In all my spare time!"

And so I did. I ordered a personalized notebook from Erin Condren. I clicked on all my cute Christmas notebook pins on Pinterest, and I spent hours crafting this beautiful notebook. Complete with a table of contents, cute stickers, and red and green pens. It turned out great!

Except that I still used my binder as well. I could not resist having copies of everything I recorded in my cute Christmas notebook in my binder too. So, while I enjoyed the festive notebook, I went back to my trusty Christmas Binder this year. I did use the Christmas notebook this year for some list making, and it is good to carry around for that, but my binder is a keeper. 

The Erin Condren notebook I used last year

a divider in the notebook to keep me in place

from the notebook

I had a page for each person.

recipes for my binder

binder dividers

my original binder

my current binder

And that's it! That's how I organize my brain during the holiday season.