Planning for Christmas: Easy Tips for a Stress-Free Holiday

November 10, 2025

In today’s post, I want to share how I am planning ahead for Christmas and some practical ways that you can, too!

Planning for Christmas: Keeping it Simple

Before we dive into some practical ideas for planning, I just want to share some of my thoughts behind the process of planning and why I do what I do.

There is beauty and peace in simplicity. As our world spins more and more out of control as it seeks greater and greater complexity, let us seek peace in the truly meaningful which is often the simplest and yet most profound.

There is absolutely no reason to stress over Christmas because this should be a joyful season full of hope and eager anticipation. If you find yourself stressing over this holiday, perhaps take a step back and re-evaluate what you are doing. Ask yourself, “Is this activity or commitment helping me meet my goals for Christmas?”

What is most important about the season? To our family, what is important about the Christmas season is remembering the birth of Christ and treasuring one another. Getting caught up in too many activities and spending lots of money is not what we value, but treasuring relationships and taking part in meaningful activities is important to us.

With all that said, I keep my planning fairly simple and focus mainly on the areas that I’m about to share with you!

Planning for Christmas: What I Use to Plan

With Christmas around the corner, it’s easy to go into panic mode! But rather than panic, I want to face the holiday cheerfully and with a calm preparedness.

For my Christmas planning, I’m simply using my normal daytimer notebook and some notebook paper! Yes, it’s that simple! I didn’t go out and buy an expensive Christmas journal—a simple 3-ring binder and notebook paper works for me. A simple journal of any sort with blank pages would also work. My Christmas planning isn’t glorious and it’s kind of messy looking, but my chicken-scratch notes get the job done.

Planning for Christmas: Areas to Plan

You may or may not want to engage in all of the activities or ideas below, and that’s perfectly fine! These just happen to be a few areas that I’m planning for Christmas. You may have other areas that are important to you that are not mentioned here. That’s wonderful! You could add those areas in your planning.

Hospitality

·         People I want to have over

·         Food I want to prepare

Christmas Cards

·         List of people I want to send cards to

·         Take a family photo to send with the card

Gifts

·         Who do I want to give to?

·         Gifts to purchase

·         Gifts to make

Activities/Adventures/Programs

·         Go see Christmas lights

·         Church program

Family Time

·         Times with our immediate family

·         Extended family gatherings

Décor

·         Using what I already have

·         Do I need to purchase anything?

·         What rooms (and areas within in a room) do I want to decorate

Planning for Christmas: Writing it Down

For me, my planning is really quite simple. At the top of a page, I may write a category such as “Hospitality.” Then I will do a “brain dump” and write everything down that I can think of for that category. As I write, I find my mind thinking through ideas and coming up with ways to flesh out my ideas.

For example, under hospitality, I may write down everyone’s name that I can think of that I’d like to have over during the season. I may not be able to have everyone over, but at least I have a starting point. From there, I can begin to nail down specifics such as people, time, and food I’m serving.

Every time I think of something—even in the middle of the day—I run over to my notebook and jot down any ideas I have for Christmas. For me, going about my normal day in my home actually gives me lots of opportunities to think about how I want to transform my home for the holiday season.

It’s always exciting to me to write down my thoughts and then come back later and see how much has been accomplished! Even if I do not completely finish a task, I like to put a little check mark beside a task anytime that I work on a task and make a little progress.

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I hope you have found something helpful in this post. Planning doesn’t have to be perfect. A little planning goes a long way, but in the long run, it’s the people that are most important and make life special and meaningful.

Happy holiday planning!

-Ashley

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