Holiday Crafts and Fun
Get Organized! Create A Christmas Planning Center
By Cynthia Ewer, Author
Houseworks: How to Live Clean, Green and Organized at Home
Planning for the holiday season? Why try to wing it, on the fly? To get into the seasonal swing in comfort, find a place in your home for an activity center devoted to Christmas planning.
An “activity center” is a key home-organizing concept. Borrowed from those mistresses of controlled chaos, pre-school teachers, an activity center combines a focus, a dedicated area, and storage for tools and supplies in a single location. For example, sand play is easy at the sand table, and clean up is even easier if shovels and dump trucks live in open bins stacked beneath it.
Just as little ones know where to go to play dress-up, your Christmas planning center is the place you’ll go to make Christmas lists, address Christmas cards, organize décor ideas and plan menus. It’s home to Christmas planning and information, so create a pleasant and efficient place to prepare for the holiday to come.
Categories: Holiday Crafts and Fun
Dust Pan Cookies
A sweet and simple gift celebrating friendship, Dust Pan Cookies are easy to make and give.
A free printable gift tag makes it easy to create this "just because" craft.
To make Dustpan Cookies, bake or buy your favorite cookies. Break a few of them, and crush one or two to create cookie crumbs.
Place the cookies and crumbs in a new dustpan, and wrap with clear food storage wrap.
Hint: a few pieces of strategically-placed cellophane tape stretches the food storage wrap to the back to create an attractive gift.
Attach our free printable Dust Pan Cookies gift tag, or create your own tag with this poem:
Categories: Holiday Crafts and Fun
Cynthia's "Little Christmas"
Does it feel like Christmas morning?
Cynthia and Dicksie on Christmas Morning
I celebrate a tiny personal Christmas on this day each year. It's the Sunday in August that kicks off our earliest holiday plans: the Holiday Grand Plan and the Houseworks Holiday Plan.
On the Web, this site comes alive again on this day! Quiet and sleepy since the previous January, OrganizedChristmas.com wakes up to a new surge of traffic--and this Webmaster wakes up along with it.
This morning, that wake-up call came at 4:30 a.m. I simply couldn't stay in bed a moment longer, knowing that "little Christmas" is dawning.
Categories: Holiday Crafts and Fun
Houseworks Holiday Plan: Planning and Paperwork Week
Are you ready to make a plan ... to simplify your holidays?
This week, we kick off the Houseworks Holiday Plan. Part book group, part get-organized club, we'll travel together toward a calm and stress-free holiday season.
As we begin our journey to a clean and organized holiday house, one job comes first: organizing planning and paperwork. Where do you go to pay bills, keep a calendar, or handle the mail?
Whether it's a dedicated home office or a rolling file cart under the dining table, it's time to declutter, organize and clean the planning area. A holiday prep bonus: we'll set up a Christmas organizing planning center this week, so we can move ahead with holiday season preparations.
Planning and Paperwork Week Assignments
Ready to prepare for the holidays with friends? Join these Christmas message board communities to discuss the Houseworks Holiday Plan:
Categories: Holiday Crafts and Fun
Holiday Grand Plan: List Week
Week One is List Week at the Holiday Grand Plan!
During this week, we kick off holiday prep with lists, lists and more lists. We'll print helpful calendars and forms for Christmas organizing and begin to create a Christmas notebook.
This week's cleaning focus is the front porch: We'll clean and organize the area around the front door so that our home will be ready to welcome visitors during the holiday season.
Ready to jump into List Week? Let's get organized with the Holiday Grand Plan!
Categories: Holiday Crafts and Fun
Holiday Plans
Your Road Map to an Organized Christmas!
By Cynthia Ewer, Editor
Organized Christmas
What's the best road to calm and joyous holidays? It's all about the plan!
Preparing for Christmas with the help of a step-by-step holiday plan makes quick work of seasonal chores, and leaves plenty of time, energy--and money!--to celebrate the season.
Here at Organized Christmas, we're home to the Web's oldest holiday plans: the Christmas Countdown and the Holiday Grand Plan.
We're also bringing you two new entries in the holiday organizing plan category: the Houseworks Holiday Plan and the Rudolph Club.
Which plan is right for you? Check out these options to get ready for a stress-free Christmas:
Categories: Holiday Crafts and Fun
Gearing Up for Christmas Planning? Get Inspired with ChristmasPlanner.com!
Will you be joining one of our holiday plans to prepare for the coming Christmas season? Get ready! Long-time readers know that creating a Christmas planner is the first step to an organized holiday season.
We've got help! Announcing a focus site from OrganizedChristmas.com: ChristmasPlanner.com!
To make easy to create and use your Christmas organizing power tool, check the site's Make It! Christmas planner section, which offers a complete guide to making a Christmas planner notebook. You'll find how-to articles and supply lists and divider ideas.
To help you fill your Christmas planner, we're gathering the Web's best free printables and resources in our new Print It! section.
Don't miss our growing list of Christmas checklists. Our Plan It! feature is designed to be a quick and easy guideline for holiday planning.
Most of all, this site showcases you: the Web's best and most creative Christmas planners. In the Tour It! section, you'll find Christmas planner tours and tutorials from the Web. Whether it's a simple Christmas notebook or creative Christmas planner printables, you'll find inspiration to guide you as you make your own holiday planner.
Welcome! It's time to get organized for the holiday season ... with a Christmas planner!
Categories: Holiday Crafts and Fun
Blog Badges: Decorate Your Online Space!
You asked for it, you got it: blog badges from Organized Christmas!
These small linked images, or "badges", will help you tell the world how you get organized for the holidays.
Grab the code below to decorate your blog with these blog badges from OrganizedChristmas.com:
Categories: Holiday Crafts and Fun
August Rudolph Club Meeting
Craft Control!
Welcome to the Rudolph Club: your once-a-month meeting to simplify your holidays and get organized for Christmas!
At Organized Christmas, we know that the holiday season can be fast and furious. Solution? Take a day once each month throughout the year to plan and prepare for a more-organized holiday season.
On the 25th of each month, we'll bring simple assignments and easy tips to try now for a simpler, more joyous season. Over the year, you'll tackle planning and preparations to make the season lighter, brighter and less stressful come December.
Categories: Holiday Crafts and Fun
Birthday and Anniversary Calendar
Keep track of the special celebrations in your life with this printable birthday/anniversary calendar page for your Christmas Countdown planner, Holiday Grand Plan notebook, or Houseworks Holiday planner.
Noting special days for each month of the year on this printable calendar will make it easy to shop ahead for gifts, cards and decor items.
Categories: Holiday Crafts and Fun
Fresh Ideas For Gifts In A Jar
It's summer and canning jars, like fresh produce, are in season--but you can do a lot more with them than put up tomatoes for winter!
Savvy holiday planners know that gifts in a jar are easy, welcome and fun to make, so check out these gift-in-a-jar ideas from FreshPreserving.com.
You'll find a great round-up of gifts in a jar, mason jar recipes and crafts projects for all the seasons of the year. Check 'em out!
Need more ideas? Visit our Gifts In A Jar page for recipes, inspiration and easy gifts:
Categories: Holiday Crafts and Fun
Printable Calendars and Checklists
Make A Holiday Grand Plan Notebook
Ready to get organized for Christmas with the Holiday Grand Plan? A Holiday Grand Plan Notebook will serve as command central for your holiday planning.
Print these weekly Holiday Grand Plan checklists, calendars and notebook covers. They'll help you track each week's assignments for the Holiday Grand Plan.
Visit the Christmas planner forms library for more printable checklists, calendars and forms for your Christmas planner.
Categories: Holiday Crafts and Fun
It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like ... Site Updates!
Warning! Site updates ahead!
It's that time of year for Webmistress Ming (author Cynthia's techie alter-ego!) and the Organized Christmas Elves. During the hottest days of summer, we hunker down under the air conditioning, and spruce up our site for the coming holiday season.
During the next couple of weeks, expect a few loose ends around the site. Behind the scenes, Ming and Webmaster Ryan will be updating forms and features--and sometimes, the process can get a bit messy.
We'll do our best to get all spiffed and ready as quickly as possible. But until then, bear with us!
---Cynthia
Categories: Holiday Crafts and Fun
Summer Savings: Planning Ahead for Christmas
Christmas is coming ... so what if it's summer?
Smart holiday planners "think Christmas" ahead of time--and summer is a natural time to get a head start on holiday planning. More important, starting early saves money and spreads the financial burden of the holiday season, avoiding the need to borrow to fill Santa's stockings.
Get ready for a debt-free Christmas! Click the read more link below for planning pointers from Celebrating Christmas online magazine.
Categories: Holiday Crafts and Fun
July Rudolph Club Meeting
Choose A Holiday Plan!
Welcome to the Rudolph Club: your once-a-month meeting to simplify your holidays and get organized for Christmas!
At Organized Christmas, we know that the holiday season can be fast and furious. Solution? Take a day once each month throughout the year to plan and prepare for a more-organized holiday season.
On the 25th of each month, we'll bring simple assignments and easy tips to try now for a simpler, more joyous season. Over the year, you'll tackle planning and preparations to make the season lighter, brighter and less stressful come December.
Categories: Holiday Crafts and Fun
Beat the Heat: Make A Cool Tie!
Beat summer's heat with this sew-simple craft project: a cool tie!
This bright cotton neckerchief has a summer secret: a filling of water-absorbing polymer granules from the garden center.
Soaked in water, the cool tie's polymer granules absorb more than 200% their weight in water. Tied around the neck or worn as a headband, a cool tie provides all-day cool relief through evaporation.
The cool tie is simple to sew, requiring only a straight-stitch sewing machine. It makes a great gift for gardeners! Our printable Cool Tie gift tag makes the gift fun.
Categories: Holiday Crafts and Fun
June Rudolph Club Meeting
Recipe Round-Up!
Welcome to the Rudolph Club: your once-a-month meeting to simplify your holidays and get organized for Christmas!
At Organized Christmas, we know that the holiday season can be fast and furious. Solution? Take a day once each month throughout the year to plan and prepare for a more-organized holiday season.
On the 25th of each month, we'll bring simple assignments and easy tips to try now for a simpler, more joyous season. Over the year, you'll tackle planning and preparations to make the season lighter, brighter and less stressful come December.
Categories: Holiday Crafts and Fun
July 4th Recipe: American Blessings Mix
It's a sure-fire hit for your family's Independence Day celebration: a simple snack mix favor to remind us of our nation's blessings.
Bagged in favor-sized gift bags and decorated with a patriotic poem, American Blessings Mix is a festive touch to July 4th celebrations.
We make it easy with free printable gift tags for the patriotic snack mix recipe below:
Categories: Holiday Crafts and Fun
Cash In! Do-It-Now Ways To Save Money For Christmas
Holiday spending can be hard on the pocketbook--and bought on credit, "Christmas Day" can stretch into the new year for weeks or months.
Ease the Christmas cash crunch with creative ways to save money for Christmas! Financial institutions offer dedicated Christmas clubs for the disciplined, but savvy holiday planners have found other ways to accumulate cash for holiday spending.
Best idea: start now. Saving money for holiday spending is a little less painful with these do-it-now ways to come up with Christmas cash:
Categories: Holiday Crafts and Fun
Old Glory: How To Display The Flag
Independence Day will be celebrated in America on July 4th. Let your flag fly high!
Brush up on flag etiquette for the Fourth of July with these guidelines for displaying the American Flag.
An illustrated guide from the U.S. Department of Veteran's Affairs:
Guidelines for Display of the Flag
Categories: Holiday Crafts and Fun
