Canadian Personal Finance Blog

Every year I keep thinking, “Next year I’m going to do it better”, when it comes to Christmas. I usually enjoy Christmas a great deal, but I always strive to make things just a little better the next time. With our family things change every year, with our kids getting older, and our family getting older, each year things change on how Christmas can be celebrated.

If you want to make Christmas 2012 better in terms of things you think you might have done wrong this year, you need to write down your ideas right now, so that in November 2012 you can look back and remember what you think you can improve on (and maybe write down the things you think went well and you want to make sure you do that again).

How is all of this going to work? My methodology is pretty simple, I use Microsoft Outlook (which is also connected into Google Calendar, and Synchronizes with that) as my calendar, so on Canadian Thanksgiving there is now a Calendar entry called: Christmas Improvement Plan, which has in it a small document.

In the document I have two headings: What Went Well for Christmas and What To Improve For Christmas 2012.

Under each heading a have a simple set of bullets with the ideas that struck me on Christmas night on what would make Christmas 2012, and that is it. On October 8th 2012 I will get a reminder from Outlook (and Google) to check the document and then start actually planning for Christmas 2012. What is a point on the list? Start Christmas work on Remembrance Day (November 11th) not on American Thanksgiving! I also need to put in a reminder to start decorating the house, as well!

Yes, Christmas planning can begin on December 26th, but it isn’t that much work, now is it?