By Lori Martin of The Purple Martin & Co.

The holiday catalogs have started to arrive and my children are blissfully adding to their “Santa Lists” before Halloween. Truthfully, I am enjoying the “one liner” I truly can’t use in July when my children are with me in the mall and start to have a dreadful case of the “Gimmies” … “Tell Santa,” I say with a smile on my face. Since it is October, they actually do add it to their list and stop giving me a hard time about the plastic impulse purchase of choice they want at that particular moment.

While I certainly don’t “feel” like buying winter gloves and hats, stocking stuffers, or holiday gift wrap quite yet, it isn’t too early to start thinking about Christmas ~ let alone getting organized for it.

One of the most stressful parts of the holiday season is the additional amount of “information” we are responsible for on top of our daily routine. This additional coordination can feel like piling another “full time job” on top of our existing “full time job” and we simply don’t have the additional hours in the day to keep up.

Keeping track of all of this additional information in an organized manner is THE KEY to maintaining a sense of “peace and calm” in this season of “hustle and bustle.” One way to keep all of this pulled together is in a “Holiday Planning Handbook.”

Holiday handbooks are customized to meet your specific planning needs, decorated with gorgeous specialty paper, and personalized with a name or monogram of your choice. After all, it is impossible to stay on budget or keep track of what we have already done in our holiday planning, let alone remember whom we have already purchased gifts for, if we don’t keep our holiday information organized.

A plan of action before each holiday season does take some effort, but organizing your “plans & ideas” will have the payoff of a much smoother season, a well balanced budget and the ability to know where you left off for next year!

What’s in my “Holiday Planning Handbook”? Yours can be customized to meet your specific planning needs.

• A family needs assessment

• A detailed budget (groceries, family gifts, teacher gifts, neighbors and friends)

• A detailed gift list (I shop for impact, think local & stay In budget)

• Meal plans for family gathering and a pre-planned grocery list

• Contacts for my holiday card list

• Magazine clippings for gift & decorating ideas

• A record of all receipts to accurately track against my budget & keep for returns

• A gift log so I can avoid repeats next year & add to collections I have started

• A section for Christmas morning to store user manuals for the “new gifts & toys”

• Packing lists for holiday travel

• I also savor the memories by keeping one holiday card I have sent throughout the years plus one photo of the children with Santa and store it in my binder to cherish for years to come.

For your “Holiday Planning Handbook” contact us at (704) 724-9108 or email.

Reprinted with permission from The Simplicity Blog, produced by Simplicity Certified Professional Organizers of Charlotte.