You know it; I know it; We all know it; we should start Christmas shopping earlier than we do.
Every year by that fifth trip out my husband and I are saying to each other, “You know, if we just bought a few presents here and there throughout the year….”
But we never do.
Somewhere I read the phrase, “Wrapped and done by December 1.”
Sounds rather dreamy.
I will admit that I do love the hustle and bustle of being out during the season; but! there are always last minute gifts or parties that seem to come up which would satiate said desire for hustle and bustle. Or you could always try to make Christmas cookies with five children.
So here’s my idea: let’s first make a list of everyone we usually buy for, brainstorm and keep an eye out for that perfect present for them, and buy them little by little -one or two things a paycheck- from now ’til December. And actually do it.
What do you think?
I even have an incentive for us!
Prepare Him Room from Sovereign Grace Music was our absolute favorite Christmas CD last year. (And as is my usual custom to enjoy some lovely Christmas music to combat the heat ofJuly, we have pulled it out and are enjoying it again!)
As a musician, how hard is it to find fresh, fluff-free Christmas music?
**Pretty hard!**
These songs are gospel-centered, theologically driven, and stylistically diverse. You’ll love them.
And…cue infomercial music… whoever has their list of people they need to buy Christmas presents for by this Friday is entered to win either a CD or a download of Prepare Him Room!
All you have to do is make a list.
Come back on Friday, comment here or on facebook that you made your list (spare us the details), and you have a chance to win my new favorite Christmas music.
Happy list-making! And Merry Christmas (in July). = )
small steps, big picture 
List is done. 🙂 Do I get bonus points for already having most of the presents bought for the next three years, not just from Seth and me, but from other family members, and shipped, and organized and waiting in bins? haha I also leave gifts behind in America for my nieces and nephews, labeled, but not wrapped. 🙂 My family…well… we are masters at planning ahead for gifts. We (sisters, Mom, and I) had a tradition of going shopping Dec. 26 and getting all the Christmas clearance sales. We tried right then the day after Christmas to find gifts for everyone else’s birthday and Christmas gifts for the following year, and often succeeded in finding several of them. Then we’d go garage saling together in the summer, and if we found something that looked like a nice gift, or if we knew that someone else wanted it, we’d say, “Let me get that for you,” and store it away for a future gift. In this way, we have all saved TONS of money. My mom and sisters even look for wedding gifts together (big church = planning ahead for all those bridal shower and wedding gifts). It doesn’t take away the fun. We have so much fun going shopping together at those times, so many memories. And there’s so much in America to make the Christmas atmosphere, that last-minute shopping for several people would probably kill it for us. Usually by the time we get a gift, we forgot that we had originally planned to purchase it ourselves!
Amy, that is amazing! And sounds so fun to do it together. You definitely get bonus points. = )
We have our list. We keep a running list of gift ideas for people. When we think of an idea, we add it to the list. Works well and it’s fun.
Love that, Jill! Do you have a notebook or put it on your phone? I don’t know how many times we’ve mentioned an idea and then not been able to remember it later when it was time to buy!
We keep a document on our computer. That way we never lose it.
We already have a list and in the last couple weeks bought some of the kids’ presents (they have fall birthdays, so we got those all covered). Great idea!
Wow! I am so impressed. Guess it really is time for me to get with it – Ursula, you have to keep me accountable! = )
I’ve got my list! I keep it on my computer and update it every year. I even have some gifts bought for this Christmas already. 🙂
I have my list ready! I keep it on a separate tab in my Excel budget – it helps to have previous years to refer to when I am making my current list. Haven’t purchased anything yet…but at least I have my list ready! Woohoo!
I start my list in August and I try to be done by Halloween every year. I have lots of nieces and nephews and extended family so there is a lot to do. Plus, every other year we celebrate christmas the same weekend as thanksgiving with my family so I need to be done early. Having done it for several years, I can tell you that I truly can slow down and enjoy December and all the festivities because I don’t have to worry about present buying or wrapping!!
Very cool!
We totally don’t have any gifts bought yet but we do keep a running list on the computer of all the people we buy for. Last year we had a baby the week of Thanksgiving so between Thanksgiving and Christmas we did almost our entire Christmas shopping via Amazon.com. Hooray for Prime!