Christmas organising

27 Jan 2012 by Marcia Francois 4 Comments

Christmas cards: how I display and store them afterwards

I know it’s been more than a month since Christmas (!) but I thought I’d show you how I display and store my Christmas cards so you can pin this idea for next year 🙂

Hang a couple of pieces of ribbon on either end of your doorway. I had two up but alas, I only filled the one. The rest of the cards arrived after I’d taken all the decorations down 🙁
Use clothespegs to pin the card to the ribbon. I got some really cute ones last year at a local stationery store (CNA) but in previous years I used the plain wooden ones.
I like them pinned this way rather than horizontally because you can get more on your string.

the whole string

top section – the other ribbon with an ornament added some bling

and the bottom section

more close-ups

can you see my reflection in the ornament?

here are the cute clothespegs and the grosgrain ribbon – a nice thick ribbon feels sturdier


and this was hanging at the top – I love these What are your favourite ways to display your Christmas cards? *********************************************

And then after you take down the decorations and the cards…

Sort through and see which ones you want to keep. Remember decluttering is always the first step of organising.
Punch holes in the cards
Make a Christmas card book with the binder rings.
I got the cover from the gals at Eighteen 25 but last year I just wrote the year on the top card with a permanent marker. No perfectionism.

What do you do with your old Christmas cards?

PS I have ONE box for all this kind of stuff. Once it gets full, I declutter 🙂

Filed Under: Organising, Personal Tagged With: Christmas cards, Christmas organising

11 Nov 2011 by Marcia Francois 2 Comments

Getting ready for Christmas/ the holidays

When I wanted to write about Christmas this week, I wondered if it was too early.

Then I saw two Christmas posts on a couple of my favourite “intentional living” blogs and I felt like I was in good company.

So… onwards and upwards.

When you think about Christmas, what are the aspects that overwhelm you and stress you out?

For me, it’s not knowing what’s happening.

I’m a girl who loves a plan and I like to know who’s hosting the lunch and what I have to bring.

I also like to have clear in my mind what we’re doing about gifts and cards.

Here’s a quick list I made just to get my high-level thinking going:

1. Who will we send Christmas cards to? Do I have enough or do I have to buy some more?
2. Who are we buying gifts for? What is our budget per person/ family?
3. What are we doing for Christmas lunch?
4. How much decorating are we doing?
5. Which activities do we want to participate in?
6. What caused us too much stress last year that we want to let go of? (too many socials, too much spending, etc.)

Does this list help you?

I suggest you print out these 6 questions and take 5 – 10 minutes over a cup of tea to answer them honestly.

Your answers may not look like those of other people but if you embrace YOUR vision, you’ll be a lot happier.

Personally I found that reading too many decorating blogs around this time made me feel inadequate as I’m very minimalistic!

That’s one thing I’m going to let go of 🙂

And a quick announcement

I’m doing a free workshop called Organising for a meaningful Christmas at Christian Family Church in Atlas Road, Boksburg on Mon 21 Nov from 7 – 8:30.

We’re meeting at Solo’s restaurant and everyone is welcome. Please bring R20 for your Christmas planner.

How do you get ready for Christmas/ the holidays?

Filed Under: Intentional living Tagged With: Christmas organising, purposeful time management

14 Dec 2010 by Marcia Francois 1 Comment

Get organised for Christmas

When you think about Christmas, what do you feel?

Do you feel overwhelmed and just a little bit stressed at everything you have to do? Or do you feel excited at the idea of spending time with friends and family?

My best Christmases have always been when I’ve been organised, prepared and more importantly, when I didn’t leave everything right up until December.

Here are a couple of things to consider so that you have an organised Christmas this year:

Your vision for a great Christmas

Decide, together with your family, if you want to celebrate with many spiritual activities, spend time at home with just your immediate family, do lots of baking, etc.

Christmas cards

Will you be sending cards by themselves, or with a family newsletter? Or will you be sending cards at all? Do you have a list of recipients?

Christmas gifts

Will you be giving gifts this year? Are you making any gifts or are you buying them all? Do you have a gift-giving budget? Remember to budget for gift wrap, gift tags and, if necessary, postage to your loved ones who live in a different city.

Christmas Day

Where will you spend the day – with your parents or his? Or will the family gather at your house? Who will cook the food? Which recipes will you use? Do you know where to find them?

How far in advance should you plan?

Well, that depends on how much stress you can tolerate! Personally, I like to have gifts done by the end of October and cards by mid-November. That’s because I really don’t enjoy the stress of having to get the perfect gift with no time to spare. Add to that the crowded malls and you can practically see my blood pressure rising!

I like to start planning at the beginning of October and I set myself mini-goals of compiling my card list first, then planning backwards so I write out a certain number of cards per week until they’re all done by my self-imposed due date. I do the same for gifts. I also wrap a few gender-neutral gifts just in case someone pops around with something for me.

It’s relaxing for me to prepare a beautifully-wrapped gift with a gift tag because I believe that presentation is part of the gift. Something I do that has saved me lots of money is I no longer buy Christmas gift wrap. Instead, I buy red and green coloured craft paper and matching ribbon. I can use the paper year-round with a different bow so that it doesn’t look Christmassy for birthday gifts.

This year, get organised for Christmas so you can welcome the season instead of dreading it.

On a scale of 1 – 10, how are you doing with Christmas prep right now?

Filed Under: Time management Tagged With: Christmas cards, Christmas organising, how to organise, planning, time management

23 Dec 2009 by Marcia Francois 2 Comments

Feeling overwhelmed about Christmas?

I read an absolutely fabulous post over at Beth’s place the other day called The Christmas Police.

What a great reminder to simplify!

If you’re feeling overwhelmed with all there is to do, STOP.

You don’t have to buy more gifts.
You don’t have to do more baking
You don’t have to send out Christmas cards even if you’ve received some.
You don’t have to decorate your house to match your neighbours’ houses.
You don’t have to put up another tree.
You don’t have to go to that party you don’t want to go to.

Just relax and BE.

After the initial bout of slight panic, it’s strangely freeing to go against the grain!

Give yourself permission to STOP and enjoy what you have done (even if it’s nothing). Nobody enjoys being around frazzled people, especially at this time of year.

Which is exactly why I’m avoiding the malls in Johannesburg… although I decided on the red daily planner and wouldn’t you know? They only had ONE left when I went last week so I snapped it up!

What do you need to give yourself permission to stop doing?
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P.S. Mine is in the comments 🙂

Filed Under: Time management Tagged With: Christmas cards, Christmas organising

20 Dec 2009 by Marcia Francois Leave a Comment

Do you send Christmas cards? Here’s how I get them done.

I make a list of everyone I want to send a card to.
Gather all the cards from my storage box
Address them all – I store the addresses in Outlook
Then when the cards are sitting on my desk with all the addresses peeking at me, I’m more motivated to actually write out the messages and get them done.
I try and write a few every day so that all the writing doesn’t become a burden. I don’t believe in just saying “To ________ From _________ ” so I try and put a bit of effort into it.
I took 10 with me to the hairdresser’s last week and while the colour was on my hair, I managed to write out 6.

In South Africa, people aren’t really big on giving Christmas cards. Or maybe that’s only in my circle???

This year I took about 40 from my stash (I buy them at half price just after Christmas every year) and I think 10 were for people in South Africa; the rest are being sent overseas.

Do you send Christmas cards? What’s your strategy for getting them done?

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