Getting Organised for Christmas - June 1

Sorry for the late post today everyone.

Long story but basically No desk top computer for two days. My desktop computer has some major issues at the moment (hopefully it comes back tonight, but will have to have EVERYTHING reinstalled before we can use it!)... the lovely world of the web has infected our computer causing us to loose some things and corrupt the whole computer. unfortunately the desk top computer is our main computer and has all my scrap booking photos and work on it !!!!

So anyways...with Christmas preparations all ready in my brain I thought I would share with you where I am at with my Christmas preparations for this year.

A couple of days a go I asked you to start planning by working out a list for your Christmas cards.

Today, I wanted to share with you another list that I start at this time of the year. The presents list. Or more specifically the homemade gift list!

We as a family love to be able to give gifts to friends and family that we have made. It seems more personal. Every year we have made something different. It usually involves a combination of craft and food. We have made a variety of things such as homemade jams/preserves from homegrown produce, gingerbread, chocolates, bath salts and homemade cookies in a jar mix all decorating in little gift tags and what not. It helps us to get into the festive spirit along with helping the children understand the importance of what gift giving is about.

So every year about this time we start a list of people we would like to be able to give homemade gifts to. This helps us to stay on track and prepare things in advance. Some things we make can be made well in advance and some things can only be given just before. We also have to keep in mind also that some gifts have to be given out way before Christmas arrives (these are the gifts given to school friends as school finished well before Christmas).

So our list looks something like this:

Thing being made:
- Passion fruit Butter

People being given to:
- John Citizen

Date needed:

Things needed to make item:
- Butter
- Passion fruit Pulp
- Lemon Juice
- White Sugar
- Eggs
- Small Jars
- Homemade gift tags

Total needed:

And the list goes on with other items that we look into making for the year. I like to keep it simple and have things that the kids can help make also. I tend to also make things that have multiple tasks that can be completed in stages by different children so that all can say they helped make it. By that I mean, My eldest daughter would help to make the Passion fruit butter, my son would help with making the gift tags, and my two younger children love the liking the bowl job !!

By doing it this way with the list it helps to work out about how much time we need to prepare everything food wise and how much craft time we need to set aside to get the craft side of things done. If I find that we wont have a lot of craft time then I can plan the craft side of things to be a bit simpler. Mind you with a little help of my favourite Fiskars Squeeze punches the gift tags take no time at all!

So if your planning on getting creative this year for Christmas, now would be the time to start planning realistic timeline for creating. That way you don't get too close to Christmas and wonder where all the time went!

Happy Creating, Mx