Getting ready for Christmas – 5 weeks to go
Over on my social accounts I’ve been sharing how I get ready for Christmas as a way to fight the overwhelm from the bombardment of Christmas content that landed on our phone screens on the 1st of November! Now you all know by now just how much I love Christmas but for me November is all about the getting ready for Christmas. I’m writing my lists, shopping for gifts and planning my Christmas decor before going out to buy anything new, doing the Big Christmas clean and finally getting the decorations up. Then in December I’m all ready to go for the carol singing, drinking mulled wine and hanging out around the Christmas tree!!
I thought it would also be a great idea to share a weekly round up here on the blog. Sharing what have I done so far and what my plans are for the week ahead.
So for the first couple of weeks in November I was very slow in getting going to be honest! The last week or so though I’ve started to get a few things ticked off my list with a little help from my Christmas planner from Pretty Perfect Products. This planner has categories for everything and clear space for all the lists you need which really helps me to plan clearly without feeling overwhelmed. You of course don’t need a fancy planner but pretty stationery never hurts does it!
Last week I had a good look through my photos of last year’s decorations. I don’t want to spend a huge amount of money on new decorations this year but I always make a few additions. I didn’t do this blindly though which is why I looked through last year’s photos first. Let’s have a look at the photos and the decisions I made while planning my Christmas decor.
Getting ready for Christmas – Planning my Christmas Decor
I am still absolutely in love with my living room Christmas decor! So really there will be very little change in this room. I may switch up what I put on the coffee table and slightly change the placement of the ornaments on my scaffolding shelves (not pictured here). We also updated the rug this year so that will look a little different but I didn’t plan any new purchases for this space.
My hallway is another space that I am 100% happy with the Christmas decor. The second Christmas tree may be in the dining room but I think because you can see it as you come in the front door it’s the best feature for the hallway. So the decor will stay the same in here but we have redecorated this space so I’m looking forward to how that changes how the decor looks. The blog post for the hallway update will be coming soon!
The photos of the dining room do look good but I definitely think the space needs adding to. The colour scheme will stay the same, I love the traditional red and green I just want to add more. We didn’t have. fireplace in this room last year, there was a sideboard on the other side of the table so a garland for on the mantle was my number one priority when it came to new purchases. Looking at this photo I am also a little underwhelmed with how the table looks. With two kids I can’t keep the table set at all times as it’s used all day for different things but this table centre just didn’t have enough wow for me. I’ve seen some ideas where people add hangings from the ceiling over the table and this is something I would love to try. So planned purchases for this space are lots of greenery and garlands for both the table and the mantle. I’m also thinking candlesticks to add some height to the table decor. We also got a new sofa in this room at the beginning of the year so some blankets and cushions to dress that for Christmas will look great. I also want to try the viral tension rod hack over the island and again will need garlands and greenery for this.
Lastly, the kitchen. I don’t like to add anything in here that gets too much in the way. I still need to run my cake decorating business and can’t have the counters too cluttered. I was happy with the hot choc station I created last year so that doesn’t need anything else but this view especially does not have enough wow for me! I want to make a bit more of the window dressing and some more to the shelves maybe. Some mini Christmas trees and again more garlands will be perfect for this so those things are on my shopping list. I will share a full haul of my new Christmas decorations soon and see if planning my Christmas decor prevents any extra purchases 😀
Getting ready for Christmas – shopping for gifts
Christmas is something we save up for throughout the year so we have our Christmas budget ready to go but working out what we plan to spend where is a job in itself and one that I use my Christmas planner to work out. We don’t have a long list of people that we buy for. The kids are the main priority for us. My step children, Ben and Sophie are all grown up now so we just send them some money but they both have Children of their own now so there are the grandkids to buy for as well as Mason and Noa. At this point we’ve made a good start. I would say 80% of the presents are purchases but we still have a few more things to get and then also they all need to be wrapped! That is such a task! I think next week we will be taking a trip to Smyths to buy the last few things.
Planning for Christmas – Days out
The final thing we have started to plan are our Christmas days out. We are trying to get the main bulk of the gifts purchased first so that we know what budget is left but we have a few things in mind but booking all of these before they sell out is a priority for sure! We will be heading to Butlins next week as Shaun works there and that is our first real Christmas activity. We are also looking at going to Norwich Winter wonderland and Belvoir caste. We are also National trust pass holders so we need to look what Christmas things are going on near by and finally we will be planning a day to meet up with Ben, Sophie and all the grandkids.
I think that covers everything that I’ve planned so far. I still feel very behind and like there is still so much to do. I am also starting my Big Christmas Clean this week which I will be sharing on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and YouTube so make sure you’re following on socials if you’re interested in that. For now I will say goodbye and good luck with your own Christmas planning. Let me know how you’re getting on with your own plans in the comments and I’ll be back with an update next week!
Lianne x
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