My holiday system.

Happy Holidays!

So I hear a lot of people talking about how they have shopping left to do still with just a few days left 'til Christmas, stressing about time and money at holiday time and they talk to me like I should know what they're going through and I have to say: I don't. I guess I used to be that way, but I got tired of the traffic, the crowds, being out in the cold, holiday retail help who don't know enough to actually help (no offense, just my experience), and the expense of having to come up with x amount of dollars all at once to shop for Christmas presents. The "most wonderful time of the year" sadly ends up being the most stressful time of the year, the busiest time of the year, and the most dreaded time of the year. So I decided to control it before it controlled me.

And now here I am sharing my system with all you fine folks. Now I know some people love being crazy this time of year - I just happen to not be one of them. And I'm not at all saying my system is the greatest or that I am better than anyone else, I'm just sharing what works for me.

I started in 2001 and putting together Word documents for both "Christmas Gifts" and "Yearly Gifts". Yearly gifts are birthdays and anniversaries or any other occasion that I might need to send a gift or a lil' something.

My Christmas list is in sections: his family, my family, friends, and then other which is teachers & co-workers (people that are subject to change on the list each year). Everyone starts out in RED, and as I am finished buying for them, they are changed to BLACK. For the little ones, I note the sizes that I am buying for this year which is typically a size up from what I bought for them last year; I do confirm this throughout the year with their mothers.

I print out my list and I keep it in my purse or in my car and I shop year-round. This is where I save money. I guess if you're flush with cash you don't need to save money, but just think how much more patterned paper and ribbon or whatever you're in to you could buy with all the money you save!

Here are (2) turtlenecks that I picked up at Kohl's in the summertime. Turtlenecks aren't hot sellers in the summertime (no pun intended), neither is other winter wear for that matter, so you'll typically find stray winter stuff hanging around on clearance racks. These turtlenecks were originally $18. Seriously - who would pay that? Maybe on sale for $9 - but $18? Get real. These were each marked down to $3.60 and I got them during one of those Saturday morning doorbuster sales where you take 50% off the lowest marked price. $1.80 each; 2 turtlenecks for $3.60 - a nice, inexpensive gift for a great aunt.

Then there's this pretty dress for my little niece Kathryn. She lives in California, so she could wear something like this almost anytime.

I picked this dress up at Dillard's after Christmas last year. The original price was $32. It was marked down to $9.60. And it was the weekend of New Year's where you take 75% off the lowest marked price making this dress $2.40.

My goal every year is to have all Christmas shopping done by my birthday - October 5th. And then I start wrapping on October 6th. I haven't always stayed true to the start wrapping part, but the shopping part, for sure.

Now here are the exceptions: gifts for my kids I do shop for throughout the year as well, however there is always that one thing that the children ask Santa for closer to Christmas that I go out and pick up for them. Same thing with my husband and my friend Heather (Hi, Heather!) who are both really hard to buy for. So I pick things up here and there that I think would be good for them, but I tend to wait until closer to Christmas to see if something cool comes out that they would like or if they mention something specific that they want.

Another thing I do is stock up on cheap holiday gifts that you find on clearance. There's always Christmas-themed gifts on clearance everywhere you go and you'll find them out until Easter and sometimes later. I'm talking about the kitchen towels, the candle sets, the Christmas-flavored teas, things like that. When you can pick up 5 of these for $1 each - do it. These are great for the great aunt who has everything, for church teachers, for anyone that you want to give a little something to without breaking the bank. Michael's has those cute Christmas kleenex packs for $1 that you can usually get for 25-cents on clearance in February and these are great little gifts for people you don't want to give a gift to per se, but just a lil' something - like non-close co-workers, KWIM?

I bought several sets of these Christmas dishcloths on clearance at Target for 90% off - 40-cents each. This year I gave the kids' teachers each a gift set that I made of Christmas pasta from Cost Plus (used a $20 off $50 coupon), fancy pasta sauce, Restaurant.com gift certificates to Carinos (80% off) and then threw in these dishcloths to complete the gift.

Oh yeah - and storage: that's my husband's part of the gig. He has everything stored in Rubbermaid boxes out in the garage. When it comes time for me to wrap, I print him out the area of the list I am working on and he goes out there and brings in the goods.

So there you have it. Maybe a little complicated or a little obsessive, but for me it's easier on the wallet to spend an extra $10 here and there than to come up with extra hundreds all at once. And I love giving a gift that looks like I spent more than what I really did - although most people that know me know how cheap I am *giggles* And more importantly, I love having the extra stress-free time in December to do things at my leisure and spend more time with the family.