PLANNING FOR CHRISTMAS 2012, # 1

Welcome to my first post in a series that I will be doing through out the entire year here on A Debbie-Dabble Christmas.

My One Little Word for 2012 is TIME. By becoming more organized in 2012, this will give me TIME to do the fun things I want to do with the people that mean the most to me.

To read about my choice of TIME as my One Little Word for 2012, please click HERE

In my last post, I told you that I felt that Christmas sort of got away from me and I guess you could say I felt a bit cheated that I did not get to do some of the things that I wanted to do and normally do during the Christmas Season.

This is NOT going to happen again.

I remember reading about a Christmas Countdown over at Leann's blog, The Old Parsonage.
Here is her post. I suggest you read it if you want to be more organized for Christmas 2012.

In Leann's post, she mentions a site called Organized Christmas.
I decided to check it out and I am so very glad that I did.
Please click HERE to check out this fantastic site.
Thanks so much , Leann!

I did tell you that I had been planning on returning to keeping a binder on Christmas. I did this years ago when the boys were younger. Both of their birthdays and Christmas are within a 3 week period so I had to be organized because my parents and my in-laws gave me the money to buy their Christmas and birthday presents with. I used to have master sheets with who was getting what from who , when!!!! I also wrote down who I had to buy gifts for, decorating ideas, storage for Christmas decorations and menu's for holiday dinners.

Organized Christmas takes this concept to a whole different level!!!

The binder I was planning on keeping for Christmas is called a Christmas Planner at Organized Christmas.

They suggest using a binder so you can add sheets as needed.

Click HERE to view the page for a list of supplies you will need to create your Christmas Planner.

You can copy from your computer cover pages and spines for you binder.

I decided to copy one of the spine pages but I planned on using it to create my own cover for my Christmas Planner.

There are many other pages that you can print out for your planner.......


And you can make Planners to use the entire year for other Holidays and just to organize your life.

The Binder I bought has a plastic sleeve on the front so you can slide your cover into it to protect it and then you can change it if you want.

I decided to use a piece of Christmas sheet music as a base for my cover.

I then printed out the Title Sheets for the sections I want in my binder. I bought Christmas computer paper on Clearance at Michael's for $1.50 a pack.

I placed them in clear plastic cover sleeves and these created sections as they stick out a bit more from the regular sheets.

I then printed out some of the pages from Organized Christmas....




And I printed out Calendar sheets, a few on Christmas paper that can be posted on my refrigerator along with one in the Christmas Planner and a few on regular sheets to make notes on in the Christmas Planner. I printed out sheets starting with September. I also took one of the many free calendars that we recieve from various charities that we contribute to and cut the sheets, punched 3 holes in them and added them to the Christmas Planner.


Another example of the many pages you can print out for your Christmas Planner.....

I started creating my cover.....

I added some images from wrapping paper I liked and glittered it up a bit and here it is.....

I could have added more to the clear plastic cover sleeve but I suspect that this Planner is going to get a lot of use and take a beating in the months to come so I decided to not add anything to the front that could be knocked off.

So that is the start on my quest in Planning for Christmas 2012. I now have to organize what I have in my Christmas Planner.

Stay tuned.......

Now in the spirit of Keeping It Real, a movement started by some bloggers in 2011 to show that bloggers are real people and live real lives with real problems and that our homes are not always in perfect condition, I am going to show you what my home looks like while taking Christmas down.

First, I am on a quest to become more organized which means getting rid of things that I no longer use or need.

The first things that I packed away after Christmas was Christmas music and movies.

Years ago, I had bought 3 larger photo storage boxes for these.

I usually replace regular CD's in a stand in the Dining Room, where my stereo is, with all my Christmas Music.


Yes, I still have cassettes. After I took this picture, I did decide to donate most of these cassettes to our church Flea Market and those that I really liked, I will replace with CD's for next Christmas ( added to a list of What to Buy in my Christmas Planner).

And I am embarrassed to say that many of my Christmas movies are VHS. These were bought years ago when my sons were young.
I did decide donate quite a few and added some titles to my list to buy for next Christmas. I plan on buying these through the year.

You also see some VHS tapes that I will not part with. Many were Christmas Decorating shows taped from HGTV back in it's early days when HGTV was worth watching. As long as I still have a DVD and VHS combo that works, I will continue to watch these. I hope I can have them transferred to DVD. Another thing I have on my list in my Christmas Planner.

Here is the lid of these storage boxes which I was able to condense from 3 to 2. I will use the other box to now store Christmas trims in .

Many of you have asked me about storage of all my decorations. I did do a post in the Summer for the Where Do You Keep It All party over at The Tablescaper.
Please click HERE if you would like to read that post.

I will be showing you where I store everything through out the year.....

I started in the Living Room taking down Christmas. This room takes me 3 days to decorate and about 3 days to undecorate.

This monster ornament box we bought MANY years ago and everything from the Living Room tree fits into it.



Next I took down and packed away the villages in the Living Room and the Dining Room.


And here is all the tubs and boxes waiting to be put back where they belong. Since these tend to be quite heavy. There is a trap door in the back of the closet you see in the Hall way. This leads under the steps where our hot water heater is and these all are stored in there along with a few things from the Kitchen and the Den.

Remember I live in a townhouse with no basement. My attic is floored and we rent a Storage Unit.

Next the boxes from the attic came down and in these tubs is everything from the Hutch and the surrounding shelves and little tables.

Notice they are marked accordingly.

This is the rest of everything from the Living Room. Most of the sets from Sam's Club that I have , I have kept in the original boxes since they are quite breakable.

Plus, 2 more of these tubs!

Yep, that is just the Living Room!! They all go up the attic . I will show you in the next post on Planning for Christmas 2012 that my attic rafters come down and actually create sections. One or Two rooms are stored in a section. Therefore, I can decorate room by room.

Now many of you asked what do I do with all my regular things. They are stored in the Christmas boxes and tubs. I use my Dining Room table as "staging" area so to speak. Everything gets unpacked onto it and then gets put out. I clean everything that is being packed away before I pack it away so then I can just put it back out when the time comes. This includes all the Christmas things that I am now packing away.

Here is a glimpse of my Dining Room table...Keeping it real.....

And since I packed away my Dining Room village, here is my bufett in the Dining Room.

I have stripped the garland going up the steps down to the greenery and when all of Christmas is put away, I will add red velvet rose garland and red lights to this for Valentine's Day.

The Living Room tree is stripped down to the lights. I will change this into a Valentine's Day tree. But I will take down and put away all Christmas downstairs first and then decorate for Valentine's Day and Winter.

Here is the Living Room hutch with all of my regular things in it. Notice I still have to get to the rest of the Christmas things.......

There are many vintage items in the hutch now including my Mom's Depression glass.

And I even managed to make a wreath for the Craft Fairs that I will be participating in for the Christmas season of 2012. I plan on doing my Christmas crafting all year round so I am not swamped last minute with things to make....

Well, that was my first post in my series of Planning for Christmas 2012. I will be posting about this from time to time but have not decided how often and when I will be posting about it .
Won't you consider joining me and showing us how you are Planning for Christmas 2012????

I am linking up to these parties:

Masterpiece Monday

Mod Vintage Mix Monday

Amaze Me Monday

Metamorphosis Monday

Cozy Home Party Tuesday

Home Decor and Organizing Link Party

Nifty Thrifty Tuesday

Wow Us Wednesday

Rednesday

Vintage Thingie Thursday

Delightfully Inspiring Thursday

Open House Party Thursday

Homemaking Link Up Party

Home Sweet Home Friday

Show and Tell Friday

Potpourri Friday

Vintage Inspiration Friday

Thrifty Things Friday

Seasonal Sunday

Please take some time to visit these terrific hosts and all those joining in on the fun!

Thanks so much for stopping by today and every day that you take the time to visit with me!

Hugs,
Debbie