Gemma Bray, best-selling author and creator of The Organised Mum Method, recently wicked off a free 13-week program to help moms and parents in charge of Christmas magic everywhere get effortlessly organized long before the big holiday arrives.
We know what you’re thinking…Christmas planning? In tank top weather? But you know how it goes. The minute pumpkin spiced delights hit the menus (and they have) that means you’ve got about three blinks in before Yuletide sneaks up—leaving you far too overwhelmed with last minute to-dos to actually enjoy the holiday. Ba humbug.
But Bay’s “Organised Christmas” promised to circumnavigate all that, by having “a very slow, very gentle, very calm way” prep plan that’s so simple, you “won’t even notice you’re doing it.”
“That’s the whole magic of it. Every single week, I just give you a few jobs, bite-sized jobs just to tick off. It’s not too much, it’s not gonna overwhelm you, it’s not gonna take up too much time in your week, cause I know that we’re all busy. Tick them off, move on, get on with the rest of your week, forget about it,” Bay says in a TikTok.
“At the end of Organized Christmas, which finishes at the end of November, the whole idea is, it leaves December pretty much stress-free, so you can actually enjoy it.”
Okay…we’re listening!
Technically, Organized Christmas began September 1st, but worry not. These tasks are really so simple that catching up is easy. And again. It’s about doing little steps “slowly but surely” before things get stressful, not about being perfect.
Okay, week one’s tasks: finding (and possibly booking) upcoming holidays events.
“Now this could be anything…could be Christmas lights. It could be an event that you’ve been wanting to go to for ages, but you never quite get it booked in time. Have a look this week. Do some research. This is your year,” she explains, adding, “I’ll be talking budgets very, very soon, but if there’s that one thing that every year you think, God missed out again, have a look this week.”
Also: holiday events on the school calendar will be checked out during this week.
“Have a little look on your school website…to see if there’s anything on there about Christmas events, Christmas fairs, Christmas plays, that sort of thing. Especially if you work shifts or need to take time off work. If there isn’t anything on there yet, then make a little note in your diary today to check in with them in a few weeks time. Otherwise, you’ll just forget in all of the chaos, because this time gets really really busy. You want to give yourself as much time and chance as possible if you need to book that time off work.”
Last but certainly not least: food deliveries.
“If you do online grocery shopping, then have a look into it this week because most of them will give you priority slots for Christmas shopping deliveries, and it just makes it so much easier,” says Bay.
“It’s well worth it in my opinion, especially if you are going to make use of it regularly, because it just saves you on delivery costs as well.”
Down in the comments, others made a few other suggestion for things to book early:
“I love booking a full house deep clean before the holidays to make them less stressful and those slots bookup really fast, so it could be worth looking in that if (like me) some of the items like grocery delivery and school events aren’t relevant to you.”
“Advent calendars will start coming out soon too or available for preorder.��
“I’ve already got my family Christmas pajamas. They sell out ev
ery year.”
Mostly people just flocked to the comments to thank Bay for offering some helpful ways to stay on top of things without feeling inundated with to-dos, or without succumbing to procrastination.
“I’ve just found you. I always get overwhelmed at Christmas but adding this year I’m currently 32 weeks pregnant so hoping this will help me massively!”
“I’m a chronic leave it til last minute person. Not this year! I’m sick of December being stressful and being too busy to do things with the kids. I’ve almost finished my Christmas present shopping, advent calendars bought, snacks for Christmas bought but this is really helpful as a first-time prepper to make sure I’ve not missed anything!”
Whether you’re an A-type Christmas magic bringer or more “go-with-the-flow,” it’s easy to see how incorporating at least some of what Bay is suggesting can make the holidays less mentally taxing, and therefore a whole lot more fun for everyone.
To join in on Organised Christmas, give The Organised Mum a follow here.
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