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Making Christmas lists is something that everyone does. It’s one of those tasks that develops and changes over time as we grow up. It starts off as kids when we write Christmas lists of presents that we’d like from Father Christmas. My mum used to always sit me down with the Argos catalogue to write my Christmas list. Then we write lists of things to buy for our family until eventually, our Christmas lists consist of everything under the sun!
Updated for 2020
Use my FREE ultimate Christmas planner to create these 3 essential Christmas lists with the handy pages I have created for you. Did I mention its free? Click below to grab yours for a stress-free Christmas.
These 3 Christmas lists are always good starting points.
Christmas Card List
If you are anything like me, then Christmas cards have never been particularly high on your priority list. Especially if you have to post them. I mean a First-class stamp is like 60p now?!….for one!! Then there’sposting dates and actually remembering to buy stamps and obviously the biggest thing when posting stuff. Addresses.
In today’sworld, I don’t know many people my age (20’s) that post Christmas cards. This means that we don’t necessarily have an address book like our parents and grandparents do. Which in turn means that we have to ask everyone for their addresses and add ANOTHER thing to our Christmas lists of things to do.
This can take up valuable time in the run-up to Christmas if you leave it too late because people are visiting people, Christmas shopping or blaring Christmas songs so loud they don’t hear their phone ringing….or the doorbell. (I am definitely not referring to myself with that last point).
By making this list early, you will know whose address you need (I know I will need them all). It also means that you can strategise who you ask for what address.
For example, my dad has an addressbook that he has had for years. This is like the bible of the family addresses. Which means he will probably be the one I ask for the majority of addresses. I also know that he gets extremely busy with work at Christmas time. So I have to do this early, hence why it is the first Christmas list I will make.
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Budget List
This is probably the most important Christmas list you can make. You need to know how much you are prepared to spend on the whole holiday. That’s including food, gifts, cards, decorations, and crafts. If you are new to this, it is easy to do; once you get your head around it.
This Christmas list has a few different stages, that should all end up totalling your total budget, or less.
Total Christmas Budget= Gifts + Food + Craft + Decorations + Stockings
Let’s break these Christmas lists down a little…
The Gift Budget- Who are you going to buy for this Christmas?
Close family, extended family, friends, children’s friends, teachers or even pets.
If you are on a tight budget, then maybe some gifts could be homemade. You could also suggest a secret Santa among your friends, that way everyone receives a gift, usually on a set budget and it’s always a bit of fun.
I know that many mums don’t buy teachers presents. Although I agree with this, I always think that something homemade is much more appreciated anyway. They receive about 20 boxes of chocolate every year. Plus it’s something your child can make.
These are things you can think about when making decisions about how much to spend on each person. Once you’ve decided on the main categories e.g. close family, friends etc. Start an individual budget for each person (or animal)
Related:How I use my Ultimate Christmas Planner.
Food Budget- A great money saver if you are eating Christmas dinner at someone else’s.
I always find it best to over-estimate with the food, as prices can fluctuate and vary depending on all sorts of things. Plus it’s always nice to get to the till and find out you have spent less than you budgeted for!!
A good rule to go by is that the meat is probably going to be the most expensive item for Christmas dinner. Then all the trimmings and dessert should not come to more than the turkey, or whatever you have chosen to cook. Alcohol always deserves its own slice of the budget, because if you cant at Christmas, then when can you?
If any of your gifts are edible gifts, now is. good time to decide if these are included in the food budget or the gift budget. I personally include them in the gift budget, but you may want to keep all foodstuff together.
Craft Budget
Craft shops often have bundle packs around Christmas time. These can be used for multiple crafts and saved for multiple years. I know I have tons of Christmas craft stuff, so this budget is quite small for me this year.
If you plan on making all your Christmas cards, as well as your decorations then this budget will be much much bigger, but your decoration budget will be very small.
Decoration Budget
I love to make my own decorations, so again this budget is quite small. If you are on a tight budget, then look in second-hand shops, charity shops or consider making your own. It’s much more fun and so much cheaper. I always end up buying a few new decorations, but never too over the top as I see this as a little treat while shopping for gifts.
Stocking Filler Budget
This is my first year of Christmas stockings. My mum, however, does everyone a HUGE one each year. I often wonder how much everything in the stockings cost!!
My version of a Christmas stocking will be much smaller and the budgetto match it. Yours may be the same if you have a few to make and may contain more jokey, sweet treats than mini presents or bigger ticket items.
Related:The Ultimate Christmas Planner for an Amazing Stress-Free Holiday.
Use the pages in my FREE Ultimate Christmas planner to create your Christmas lists and plan out your Christmas. Your card list, gift list and budget will be completely taken care of in a very simple way. Christmas should be a stress-free and enjoyable time of year. This planner will help to make it just that!
These are all aspects of your budget that you need to take into consideration. There may be other things you need to budget for, but I think that these are the basics for any family. By making these Christmas lists earlier rather than later, it can help you plan effectively how much money you either have to save each week or spend each week to get everything done. I always include a minimum and maximum spend so it gives me a bit of wriggle room on gifts.
Gift List
Once you have decided on the budget, then this is fairly easy. Especially if you already have an idea of what to get someone. I have a great page for this in my free ultimate Christmas planner.
It will mean you can list everyone your buying for, what you want to get them as well as the price and allocated budget. For the bargain searching person, I have also included a saving/overspend column.
I love seeing if I’ve saved money! What do your Christmas budgets usually look like? are you going to start one this year?
There we have the 3 essential Christmas lists that you need to make first. Don’t forget to download your free ultimate Christmas planner, and save this post for later using one of the images below.
