Christmas 2009 in Review...

[AuntJamelle]

Summing it all up...

What worked well? What didn't work so well?

What would you do differently next year?

More baking, decorating, parties, etc.? Less?

I'm curious to see what everyone's lessons learned were this year!

 

[MrsSoup]

What worked well? Most everything seemed to work fairly well this year. I can't really think of any specific examples though.

What didn't work so well? We didn't have a back up plan for weather and illness. I got really ill the night before Christmas and as a result the cooking on Christmas day didn't come out good. Also we got a big snow storm on Christmas so the trampoline couldn't be put together. But we can't control the weather and I think we handled it well.

What would you do differently next year? I want to focus more on family next year and not so many gifts as experiences. Sure it's great fun to buy lots of things for the kids and they enjoy it as well but eventually they get tired of the toy and it's forgotten. I would like to let the kids pick an angel off the tree to buy gifts for and do more crafts and stuff at home.

I would like to refine my decorating, although it is nice and homey which I like alot. It's lived in, not the kind of decorating where you're afraid to touch. We don't have parties but i'd like to. I didn't bake nearly as much this year as I usually do and that was nice.

 

[Gingerbug]

What worked well?

The elf activities were a big hit and we had plenty of little things and adventures!
The Christmas Eve dinner went well...simple yet good.
Cutting down on the number of stocking stuffers was also fine...easier and no one felt slighted.
Having the brunch and ornament exchange in November before Thanksgiving worked really well because it was less hectic....
Putting out less decor....things still looked nice but just easier to manage

What didn't work so well?

Hmmm...trying to clean, bake and wrap on Christmas Eve...
Hiding the presents in assorted places...couldn't remember where or which ones were already wrapped...HENCE....cleaning out the closet to create a REAL gift closet.
Last minute shopping...stressful
Wrapping was horrible....

What would you do differently next year?

Definately plan the baking for the week BEFORE Christmas...or I don't mind doing it on Christmas Eve (kinda like it) if EVERYTHING else is done...ie...house clean and presents wrapped..
Christmas Eve Dinner will be casual (paperplates and sandwiches, chips dips and appetizers)
Gift Closet...I think this will help a bunch!!! a REAL storage place!!
Early Wrapping....this one is a must...it was out of control this year!!
MORE gift buying throughout the year...plan to have stocking stuffers done by mid year at the latest...and more actually gifts bought.
Savings for Christmas....later this week....setting up the Christmas Savings account for 2010.

 

[happy2bme]

What worked well? Following HHP and being organized, so that when I started a new job 8 days before Christmas I was not panicking at all. Making a lot of homemade gifts. Following the budget that we set.


What didn't work so well? I did too much baking. I forgot that MIL gives everyone chocolates at Christmas, so I bought lots of goodies for stockings and now we are drowning in candy and chocolate.

What would you do differently next year? Wrap as I buy, less baking, making more homemade gifts.

 

[SparkleNana]

OK - Here we go! I think I will do three separate posts. I'll try to answer each question in a separate post. (1) What worked well (2) What did not work well (3) what would you do differently next year.

(1) What worked well: Focusing attention on the most special events worked really well. NOT getting tired or overwhelmed -- by keeping my eye on the special events. The school Festival of Lights. The Church 4:00 Childrens' Christmas Eve Service. Taking the grandsons shopping for gifts for their parents & baby brother. Christmas Dinner.

Having the dinner at 4:00 at dd's house was great Children were relaxed, baby was in his high chair. Dd and I bought all the food already prepared -- so it was heat and serve. Delicious and easy.

I kept my calendar for the last week before Christmas virtually empty. That allowed me to do flexible fun and/or helpful things with kids, grandkids & dh. That worked out great.

Buying all my gifts early was a big help. I started wrapping early, which was good.

I love the idea of entertaining at Christmas. However, it is really good for me to NOT entertain at Christmas. The house is too small -- it is much better to entertain during the warm months - when we can use the outside areas. (The Christmas tree is small -- but it takes up too much room in the living room for entertaining.) Also -- our schedule is too busy in December for entertaining.

Putting up/checking the outdoor lights early -- so they can be turned on Thanksgiving night -- that works well. Putting up and decorating the tree early (as close to Thanksgiving as possible) works great.

Watching Christmas movies on TV is great. Ditto listening to Christmas music. Saving money for Christmas is necessary. Making sure all bills are paid up to date, before Christmas, is necessary. Using cash only is necessary.

Spreading out family celebrations is great. (Ds#1 arrives in early/mid January. Special family Christmas meals then.)

Working with MHH throughout the year -- on organizing -- is really necessary. Jumpstart January, Houseworks Holiday Plan and Holiday Grand Plan, Rudy Days -- every little bit helps! Doing the plan puts things on "Autopilot" for me. Makes things so much easier psychologically.

Looking at the Clearance Sections in every store I visit, all year, pays off with great gifts for little money. Also -- when shopping for birthday gifts, keeping an eye open for bargains for Christmas gifts.

Entertaining during the year -- but silently pretending to myself that it is "Christmas entertaining" works great. (A beautiful, outdoor brunch on a lovely September weekend. Only I think of it as a "Christmas" brunch. Everybody else just thinks it is a wonderful brunch.)

Reading/Discussing our Christmas book this year here at MHH ("25 Days, 26 Ways To Make This Your Best Christmas Ever") was something that added a lot of understanding and enjoyment to my celebration. It was not planned. It was a way of dealing with the guilt by impulsively spending so much for that book - by deciding to share it with my MHh Family. A lot of good things are NOT planned - they are spontaneous.

Having a color scheme was good. Green is not a very original color choice for Christmas. But it was nice and soothing. Dark green tablecloth. green (with gold highlights) for the Christmas gifts (various papers).

OK. That's it for now. I'll do the other two posts at a different time.

 

[momof9]

What worked well?
We sat down before Advent started and talked about traditions as a family... the kids gave me their TOP 3 and I compiled them into a list of can't miss activities. eliminated some unecessary stuff and were able to enjoy the others.

What didn't work so well?
My son (who is in counselling) had a violent meltdown and destruyed all our christmas baking and alot of our decor. He went to spend Christmas with his Grandparents, his choice but a great relief to us all! He is the only one not homeschooled and next year we have to keep him busy over Christmas break!!!

What would you do differently next year?
Keep 15 yo son busy! stay on track with Christmas organizing.

More baking, decorating, parties, etc.? Less?
MORE:
baking
hospitality
quiet evenings at home
ORGANIZATION

LESS:
stress
shopping

That is all I can think of right now

 

[Minta]

What worked well?
Started wrapping before Thanksgiving, same for the Christmas cards. Next year I plan on starting right after Halloween.

We did not host Christmas dinner for extended family. The first time in 8 years and it was a very nice and relaxed. Dinner and clean up were a breeze which left me more time to spend with DH and the kids.

Homemade gifts for DD's teachers and bus driver. We made foam ornaments and dipped pretzel rod into various flavors of melted chocolates. Bagged up the pretzels and attached the ornaments to the bags. They were a big hit. It was a lot of fun as the family did this together and it was a lot easier on the budget.

What didn't work so well?
We gave up some planned family outings and events to attend other family functions. While it's great to get together with extended family, there were several functions through out the month that we were expected to attend so we had to cancel plans that our little family made.

Was shopping for gifts and gift cards up to the week of Christmas.


What would you do differently next year?
Make sure we stick to our familys planned outings and events and send regrets to family functions that are scheduled at the same time as our family plans.

Plan on being done shopping by Dec 1st.


More baking, decorating, parties, etc.? Less?
I want to to try to make fudge to give as gifts. Wanted to do that this year but not enough time. Will try different recipes over the year to see which ones I like better.
This year we did not make the cut out sugar cookies again due to lack of time - although we had plenty of other cookies they were missed. We usually make the cut out sugar cookies a family event so we will make sure we do that again next year.

 

[Pamelajane]

Christmas Review 2009

What worked well.......

Checking in here regularly made me conscious of Christmas all the year through so it didn't creep up on me.

Making a list of ideas for gifts or where i saw things, written in my diary in my handbag so even if i didn't have the money at the time to buy it i could refer back to it.

My table decor, lots i wanted to add but didn't have the money, learnt that sometimes simple is the best, it looked lovely, it's amazing what candles can do!!

Started wrapping early.

What didn't work well.......

Posting my cards late, postage is so expensive i want to buy stamps early next year.

Still ended up wrapping on Christmas Eve.

Forgot where i had hidden some presents need to keep track where i put things!!

Do differently.....

Buy stamps early, wrap early!!

Put money aside throughout the year.


Pamelajane

 

[sweetpumkinpye]

What went well,
Had all shopping done by middle of November. Had a very quiet Christmas eve at home with just the family. Had fruit plate and cool drinks. Did night before Christmas basket and watched a movie as a family. Very nice. Breakfast Christmas morning was croissants and cereal, very nice and relaxed, hardly any clean up. Dinner at my mums was Perfect.

What didn't work well.....Hurt my back 3 weeks before Christmas. Wrapping was a real chore and was surprised it even got done. Did not do any activities as a family due to sore back and both children working up to Christmas. Did not feel Christmassy to us.

What I would change....Try and wrap gifts earlier so that if something happens at least that is done. Would not do quite as much baking, as we are trying to eat all the baked goods before they go bad. Re evaluate what goes into the stockings as I am still trying to find places to put everything that we got.

 

[MrsSoup]

Reading through everyone else's responses has made me think of several more things to add to my responses. YIKES!

 

[teachermomof2]

What worked well? Making several handmade gifts worked well. Shopping throughout the year and paying in cash for 99% of the gifts worked very well. Now I don't have debt hanging over my head for one day. Prepping dinner and things in advance made things go smoothly.


What didn't work so well? Not much of anything.


What would you do differently next year? I would like to have friends over for a party before Christmas, I didn't do that. I hope to visit more family too. It's just not working out well this year for some reason.

More baking, decorating, parties, etc.? Less? I will definitely decorate more and have more parties.

 

[jinglemom]

Ugh! I'm not even sure where to begin. There were many things that I thought were going very well, but still ended up falling apart.

I know I spent way too much time running around and didn't really get to relax. This year I pretty much new or had already purchased gifts for our relatives before summer began. I only needed to find a little something to add to two of them but thought that would be easy. I put this off a little to long and had a harder time than I realized. Combined with me forgetting other things I needed and grocery shopping I was out running around all the way up until 11:00pm December 23rd.

What also went part well was internet shopping. I have a 10 and an 11 year old who I really had no idea what to get them for Christmas this year. They didn't even know what they wanted. This is the first year they really stopped playing with toys, but not yet into clothes, ipods etc. They love hockey, but in California, there is not very much Hockey anything to buy other than a few Sharks jerseys, a small selection of sticks and tape. Online shopping really saved me. I did look for ideas early, but was not organized at keeping my ideas all together. I spent way to much time having to revisit sites especially in an effort to combine the items I wanted to save on shipping.

We spend way too many hours each week with my kids hockey. My kids have hockey, Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday (Tuesday is religious ed). Depending on the day we leave at 4:00 or 5:00. The earliest we get back home is 7:00 and usually two nights (game nights) not until 10-11pm. They also had two practices on December 23rd. I really looked foreward to relaxing and watching the Christmas movies on TV and baking but didn't really get to do this at all since we were never home.

ANTS!!. I don't know what I can do about this. Every year when the rain starts, right around Thanksgiving when I want my counters the most, my house gets invaded. There is nothing for them. From past experience, I keep all my food in airtight containers or ziploc bags (even my peanut butter), I make sure I sweep the floor and wipe down the counters, but each year they drive me crazy by crawling around my kitchen and bathrooms anyway.

I took too long getting my decorations up and never did get done everything I wanted to do. I wanted to change up my decor this year which took me a little longer than I had expected. I had inventoried everything I had placed in each tub after last Christmas, but don't know what I did with it, causing me to spend more time looking for certain decorations.

I didn't bake like I wanted to, especially with my kids.

I also should have gotten my cards out earlier and my gifts wrapped sooner.

What I will do differently next year........

Make sure I organize my gift ideas better. Make it so I can quickly compare who had what, so when it comes time to finalize what I am giving, I can keep the shipping costs as small as possible.

Finish up all gift buying by the first week in December, especially the little things that I usually end up running around last minute (food items, baskets, etc.) Get them wrapped!

Keep a list......to save me from extra running around for things that I forgot.

Instead of changing my decor again next year.........I'm going to keep it the same next year and add the little things I wanted to make that I never had time to do.

After I reinventory my Christmas decorations, I will keep one copy in the computer and another in my Christmas notebook so I don't loose it again.

I will get my Christmas cards ready earlier because I know each year I barely get them out in time.

Try to plan as much as possible to get done during the week so I can have as much of the weekend as possible in December to bake and watch movies with them.

 

[momof9]

I forgot one small little detail that worked beautifully. I cooked and mashed potatoes ahead of time and froze them. They looked terrible when they thawed... watery and mealy. I whipped them up with my beaters and poured it into a baking dish and threw it in the oven and they were YUMMY!

 

[Cathymac]

Oh, great thread. I need this to reflect!

What worked well? Our gifts to the kids were dead on what they wanted, which is big at our house. We determined last year to get what they want, not what we
want them to have. And to be honest, even though we shopped late and in the pouring, pouring rain (and like Mrs. Soup said, we couldn't control the weather), most of our holiday went well. I had everything wrapped early-on Christmas Eve after everyone left and I got the kitchen cleaned up, we only had to put the gifts under the tree and head to bed ourselves. Christmas morning was great-I fixed breakfast and we ate and then watched Christmas movies and I caught up on my blog hopping...I spent a lot of time reading blogs I don't normally have time to read. Then we went to my mom's which was also great. Then on Saturday we went to DH's sister's house-also great. So....

What didn't work so well? Shopping in the pouring rain two days before Christmas. Our budget was so tight that we had to use most of December's checks to get bills paid up, then used both of our checks (and part of DH's bonus) to get Christmas. But it was really, really ok. And I wish I'd put lights outside...candles don't work well in the rain.

What would you do differently next year? Try to manage a few gifts each month. However, since our kids change their minds every 15 minutes, not sure how well that will work either. Most important: lights outside!!

More baking, decorating, parties, etc.? Less? I don't bake, we only had Christmas Eve and my work party (just a few of us...no family, just employees..very grown up and nice!) and I loved the pared down decorations..nope, I think that went just right!

 

[ChristmasRose]

What worked well? Definitely buying all year, and wrapping things as soon as they came in the house. I kept an up-to-the-minute list of everything in my notebook. Also, having a few extra gifts came in very handy!

What didn't work well? Having my cats bathed on Dec. 23, and dental work done, since they were sedated anyway! My oldest cat (14 next month) had to have several teeth pulled, and had an exposed nerve that caused her a great deal of pain! She stopped eating and drinking, which meant she wasn't getting her seizure medication, or her insulin! She's been back several times for fluids and pain injections (I can't pill her -- she gets her med. in food!). My sweet vet even came in on Sun. for her! Today she's much better. I had to bail out at the last minute singing and playing my harp on Christmas Eve to stay with her, which caused a lot of problems at church, and I fretted about her all weekend. I'll never have anything done to them that's out-of-the-ordinary right before Christmas again!!!

What would I do differently? Aside from the cats, I hope to not procrastinate when it comes to getting my decorating finished. I had a brunch on Dec. 13, and I barely got the minimum done. The house looked very nice, but I just had more I wanted to do. Our tree is gorgeous, but it seems as if I just got it up, and now it's almost time to take it down. I just couldn't get into it this year.

More? Less? I'd like to do more baking next year, and get more handmade gifts done.

 

[masslass]

What worked well: Making a list of what I wanted to do (as in, family/fun activities), so nothing got left out. As a result, we were able to find time to do most everything on the list: build gingerbread house, go out to look at lights, decorate, get Christmas CDs out in time to listen to them over the holiday period, etc.

I also made a list of what I wanted to bake, so nothing got left out there either.

Wrapping early: for the first time, neither DH nor I were up wrapping late on Christmas eve! I think next year, I may take it a step further and leave Christmas wrapping paper accessible in our spare room and wrap thing as I buy them. As DD's birthday is in late Sept., I generally start looking for presents at that time.

What didn't work well: The fridge and freezer were overfilled before the holidays began and I need to take time to clean them out. It's such an onerous task, but those things need to be decluttered, too, to make room for the food we prepare and receive as gifts.

The tree went up late-ish this year. I'd like to get it up by the 1st weekend of Dec. next year.

Other than that, we had a great Christmas. Small, quiet and relaxing - wonderful!

 

[CanadianJingles]

Christmas went pretty well overall, but I'll try to sort out some answers.

What Went Well...
* Getting the gift my son really wanted when I saw it in late August; he wanted Buzz Lightyear (from <I>Toy Story</i>) and we got him Woody and Buzz. He loves them. I bought early to make sure I'd get them.
* Decorating gingerbread houses with our kids. I made a house for each of my two kids and had a ton of decorations for them. They created two very different houses.
* Making sure the kids had decorations for their rooms; we got a new tabletop tree for our daughter.
* Chocolate advent calendars and my son's homemade countdown chain.
* I gave my niece and nephews fancy decorated, homemade cookies and fudge.
* Christmas cards went out the first week of December
* baking what was really essential to my Christmas first
* writing a letter to Santa with my son and making sure Santa got him what he asked for. (He got a small Buzz Lightyear and his sister got her crayons.)

What Didn't Work So Well...
* I bought gifts to donate to Santa's Anonymous (children's toy drive for charity), but didn't get them donated soon enough. I should get them into the donate bin when I buy them instead of bringing them home from the store.
* I spent a bit more on stockings and was scrambling late to get them finished
* too much tv

What would I do differently...
* bump up my savings through the year to cover more than just our extended family gifts (my parents, his parents, etc)
* more homemade gifts
* wrap as I get gifts
* start stockings earlier

 

[AuntJamelle]

What Went Well...

As my usual habit for years now, I kept track of my year long gift buying efforst on a Word doc on my laptop, allowing me to keep an eye on what I had already for each person and how much it had cost.

All gifts were kept in the gift closet until I stated wrapping the 1st wknd in December. Wrapping supplies and small card table they were arranged on (and under...and around... ) was left out pretty much all month long as it turned out and it was very quick and easy to wrap gifts as I got the time or had the need.

I think I finally picked out gifts for DH that were all winners! Hooray! Many years I have struggled on the right things to get him and this year I tried to be really attentive and ONLY get things I really KNEW he wanted! It was so great!

Using the Flat Rate shipping boxes from the Post Office was really nice. I was able to ship canned goods (home canned items) and other, heavier type things that I usually avoid sending.

Christmas Cards went out on Dec 1st - had been working on that in batches since late summer - which always works well for me.

I didn't do as much decorating this year, knowing I would be too tired to take it all down again now, but I was happy with how things turned out. It was still really nice and I always enjoy my trees!

What Didn't Work So Well...

I didn't do as much baking as I wanted to do this year. Ran out of time and energy in November to get cookie dough in the freezer. This year was really hard due to the baby shower hosted at our house and the "skunk incident" with the dogs that happened 3 weeks before the shower. Kel nightmare! {shudder}

We didn't get to spend as much time with friends this year, for various reasons. We were kind of isolated, actually, and only realized it looking back. DH and I both feel like there was just someting "missing" this year and I think that lack of the usual contact with all of our friends was a big part of it.

Other's parties were canceled or rescheduled, our big dinner party was skipped this year due to my pregnancy, the Wrapping Party I did have was only attended by 3 people - lots of call offs due to illness and such, even our Christmas with DSis and her girls is off this year due to illness.

Just alot of things that we look forward to every year did not happen. No huge deal if you look at them individually, but all together they did have an impact.

We also decided that we did not do enough to help others this year. We ended up running out of time to donate Toys for Tots. Although we did donate privately to help the Christmas of a family we know that is fallen on very rough times - we just feel like we want to do more.

I was reading an article in the paper yesterday about the local homeless shelter and how excited a little girl was there to get a fuzzy pink sweater, like it was better than the greatest toy every, and I just lost it - right there in the drivethru at Walgreens - pregnancy hormones are great, aren't they?

In any case, I am determined that adopting a family next year is going to be something we do! We may not be able to adopt a big family - but I can't wait to do what we can!

In previous years I was always involved in adopting a family through my place of employment and that is not something they appear to do here at my new job...

What would I do differently...

Focus more on time with our close friends.

Involve us more with activities that help others.

Start getting cookie dough in freezer earlier - mid Oct maybe.

More thoughts later...

 

[nicurn92]

what a great thread!

what went well: the best thing I did was tell my husband he was in charge of the presents for his side of the family. In the past I have tried to get them things I think they would like, or I have made stuff... none of it has really gone over well so... I was much more relaxed about it since I wasn't doing it.

shopping off everyone's amazon list... they get what the want not what I think they want.

xmas cards done and mailed by dec 1st. (not feeling bad that not everyone was getting a homemade card)

doing the elf thing for myself. I like the elves and it's ok that my dd thinks I'm crazy.

decorating outside right after thanksgiving.

what didn't go well:

didn't get the tree out of the closet this year, didn't get a real tree either. there was no tree... (we were out of town 1st weekend in dec for a major irish dance comp and pretty much all of oct/nov was spent dancing) I put up our step ladder and wrapped it with garland and lights and put some ornaments on it. I liked it, my friends liked it... dd was not happy. next year we will have the tree again

baking, didn't really do any.

things I'd like to do next year

I'd really like to get out and see all the different trees in dc, we did see the national tree this year, but I'd like to see the capitol tree and the botanic gardens tree... maybe go see Ice again at the gaylord, it was pretty cool.

 

[SparkleNana]

****o. I think I will write some notes about what did NOT work out so well this Christmas.

OK. The main thing was...... the routine real-life things -- just got away from me. The house got out-of-control. Oh - dinners, dishes and duds (laundry) were all kept up with. But - the house got messier and messier. This is NOT festive. in spite of working on Christmas all-year ----- there was still SO MUCH left to do! And doing it took away time that was needed for routine stuff.

The BEST THING would be to have the Christmas stuff done by Halloween. (Fall-back date: done by Thanksgiving.) That was my goal this year -- but tons was left NOT done. Much more has to be don in advance in 2010!

Also -- other family members were NOT prepared for Christmas -- and needed my help during the week before Christmas. They REALLY needed my help. Which is fine -- I was able to help them. It wasn't restful - but I was available. This is probably NOT going to change. My husband LIKES to shop at the last minute. And he likes to have me accompany him on those trips. DD has a really busy life -- and will probably need TONS of help that week before Christmas -- for many years to come! Which is fine -- because I allow for that.

Keeping the calendar pretty free during December -- except for family events -- seems to work best for us. FEWER December events -- not more.