Planning Christmas

Now that Halloween is over, it's time to get serious about planning Christmas.  Maybe the way I plan my Christmas shopping is a little nerdy or OCD, but it works for me.  I made a simple spread sheet with my kiddos names and my husband across the top.  In our family, we give four gifts to our children - something they want, something they need, something to wear and something to read.  So on the left hand side of my spreadsheet I have "Want", "Need", "Wear" and "Read".  Below that I have the names of all my children, to keep track of their gifts for each other (just to make sure everything is taken care of).  Last, is the section where Santa and I get in sync and make sure things are distributed evenly.


I start off filling my spreadsheet with ideas, then as I purchase gifts I highlight the box and include the price in parenthesis and keep a running total under each person's column.  A girl's gotta to keep track of her bottom line!

I also make an even simpler list on a separate tab of the spreadsheet of our extended family, friends and neighbors we like to do a little something for at Christmas.  The list will be getting shorter once again as we decided to send cards to our more of our extended family.  (That darn  budget thing again!)  I use this page the same as the first page, a place for ideas; then I highlight the gift when it's bought.  I also keep track of what I spent on each gift and a running total.  Email me (raejeaneasyaspie at gmail dot com) if you would like me to send you a blank copy.


I have ideas for some of my children, the older ones are more challenging - but at least they are content!  Besides collecting ideas for them, I also looking for ideas for neighbor gifts.  I found this recipe for Praline Ice Cream Sauce at Skip to My Lou that might fit the bill.  What do you think?  Do you have any awesome small gift ideas?