Preparing for Christmas

I love Christmas, all of it. I love celebrating Jesus and decorating the house and gift giving. It’s such a rich time of year and it can be crazy with everything going on.  I can handle the stress of the season if I get an early start.  I really wanted to get an early start this year as I’ll have a newborn.  Newborns are fun and can be chill but they can also be a lot of work, especially if you’re breastfeeding (and I’m planning on it.)  So starting early and being organized is even MORE of a must for me this year.




Last year we were going to be gone on our Bahamas Cruise in the middle of December so I got all my shopping and wrapping done before we left on December 10.  We did layaway so I could get the shopping done early and have it stored someplace OTHER than my house.  We have a small house with limited storage, even less now that my mom lives with us.  I must admit that being able to pay for it overtime was nice but my favorite part of layaway is the fact that I don’t have to store the stuff.  Another nice perk was the price match.  Even though we picked out the items we wanted in September, if they were cheaper in December we got the cheaper price.  There were three or four items that had price drops and it was nice to get money back.  YAY for more money!  The plan was to do it again this year.  I really want to have 95% of my Christmas shopping done by Punkin gets here. That way I can just worry about the extras and little stuff in December and hopefully enjoy the month.

I started by making an Amazon wish list.  The Man and I like to be deliberate in picking our gifts for Munchkin, making sure we buy things that we know she’ll like and play with as well as help expand her horizons.  I’ll admit that I started my wish list back in January or February. Actually my mom and I bought a few things on clearance back in December and they’ve been patiently waiting for December in Munchkin’s closet (which is stuffed to the brim and can’t hold anything else!)  Anyway, the wish list gets things added and taken away through out the year as I pay attention to what she’s liking and playing with or if I see something I think she’ll like.  I know that if I don’t put it somewhere I’ll forget about it.  I talk to The Man about some of it but if I do it too often he starts to glaze over.  He can’t handle me talking to him about it before September and that’s pushing it.  He also has a tendency to forget what we talked about.  I go back and forth and waffle about different things, changing my mind over and over again.  The wish list is great because I can then show him what I’ve been thinking about for 9 months.  He usually has suggestions of things to add.  Occasionally he’ll disagree with something I have but the wish list is usually the master list for what Munchkin (and now Punkin) will be getting.

We headed to Toys R US last week cause I was getting the itch about NOT having anything picked out for Munchkin yet.  There were only 3 weeks left till Punkin arrives.  Time is short!  The whole trip was a disaster.  I was tired after a long day and I was in pain.  I felt like we were just randomly picking things up and throwing them in the cart because we could find the items we really wanted and had talked about.  We ended up leaving the cart by the registers and leaving.  I was so upset because I had been wanting to get this done and it just didn’t go like I expected.  I actually started crying I was so upset (Don’t you just love pregnancy hormones?)

I slept on it and then got back online and looked at everything again.  I was able to find the things we wanted online at Toys R Us and was able to really think about  them and make sure they were what we really wanted.  While I was on their website I saw that they are offering online layaway this year. You can place your order online and once it’s paid off you can either pick it up in the store or have it shipped to you (if you spend enough shipping is free.)  So I can shop from the comfort of my sofa and have it shipped FOR FREE directly to my house?  SCORE!  I was all over that one! So I have our online layaway done and I’m feeling MUCH, MUCH better. 

I still need to go to Walmart to put two things on layaway there and everything else will be from Amazon (using gift cards I’ve gotten through Swagbucks) and sales from Black Friday and beyond.  I’m feeling much more in control of Christmas.  I’ll feel even better once I figure out what I want to get The Man.  He’s always the hardest!

When do you start preparing for Christmas?

Any tips to share?