The ultimate Christmas planner: part 2

Your week-by-week guide to the most stress-free Christmas ever - print out and keep!

Part 2 - late November

 

Take the headache out of Christmas this year with the ultimate Christmas countdown planner to download, print out and keep to hand. Organised as a week-by-week checklist of what to tackle when, it's packed full of helpful hints, inspiring ideas and an invaluable address book of contacts - your complete guide to a stress-free Christmas. Now you can start to enjoy the party too!

 

Write a gift log

 

Keep on top of who you've got to buy for by creating a gift log. List the name of everyone you buy for in one column. You can then add additional columns for age, shoe and clothes size, budget, and a final column where you add what you've actually purchased and how much you've spent. A piece of lined paper will do but if you take the time to produce a simple Excel spreadsheet it can easily be updated year after year.

Find all the presents you need in our fabulous Christmas gift guide

 

Write a Christmas card list

 

Draw up a list of the Christmas cards you plan to send and enter the details in an Excel spreadsheet. These can then be used to set up a mail merge so that you can print the labels. Although pretty tedious, creating the spreadsheet is likely to take the same amount of time as writing the envelopes by hand and once it's done you have it forever.
TIP: Buy Christmas cards for charity online and support the charity of your choice; many cards can also be personalised just for you, visit www.christmas-cards.org.uk

 

Create a festive calendar

 

From November most families start to get inundated with Christmas commitments, so position the calendar where everyone can reach it and make sure that the whole family are jotting down their invites, school dates and other events, however large or small. Large families might find it helpful to colour-code events by family member so that clashes can be easily spotted.

 

Book the panto tickets

 

Christmas wouldn't be complete without a trip to the pantomime, a great family activity in the lull between Christmas and New Year. Book as early as possible for the best seats. Buy tickets online at www.lastminute.com, which also has lots of other great ideas for days out, from ice skating to Christmas cruises.
TIP: Ring the theatre box office and ask about group discounts – groups can be as few as 10 so why not get together with other friends and families to make the most of the savings on offer.

 

Book your Christmas dinner

 

If you're planning to enjoy Christmas dinner at a hotel or restaurant, make your booking early to avoid disappointment and don't forget to pay the deposit if required. If you don't fancy returning home to a cold house afterwards, why not book accommodation as well? Use our accommodation finder tool to search for a place to stay, or see our festive travel guide here.

 

Bake the cake

 

A real home-made Christmas cake needs to be made around a month before you plan to serve it, to give the flavours time to develop and to give you time to marzipan and ice it too. Christmas cakes aren't difficult to make so don't avoid making one because you don't consider yourself a baker; just follow your recipe carefully and always double-line the tin with parchment paper (whether the recipe says to or not) as this will help to prevent the edges overcooking and becoming dry.
Once it's cool, store the cake, wrapped in parchment or greaseproof paper, in an airtight box. For a really boozy cake, once a week for three weeks, poke a few holes in the top of the cake using a skewer and drizzle each hole with a teaspoonful of brandy or cognac before rewrapping. See our Christmas cake recipes here.

Or make it super simple - and follow this step-by-step guide to baking your cake.
TIP: If you really can't face the effort of baking it, buy your Christmas cake from Betty's of Harrogate, wonderful cakes to order online.

 

Buy a new calendar

 

In anticipation of lots of lovely nights out in 2010, buy your calendar now and get organising. If you are planning for more than just you, look out for a family calendar with an individual column for each member of the household – the easiest way to spot a clash of dates.

 

Make your Christmas pudding

 

Shop-bought puds are fine but you really can't beat homemade and Christmas pudding is one of the easiest things to make. Just throw the ingredients in a bowl and stir – that's all there is to it. It's possible to make your pudding up to three months in advance but one month is more than adequate. Try this recipe. Or see our step-by-step guide to making a Christmas pudding.

 

Pack gifts for posting abroad

 

If you have relatives abroad make these the first gifts you buy and get them wrapped and posted ASAP.
TIP: Make a note of the deadlines for posting cards and parcels in the UK and abroad. See Royal Mail's last dates for postage here.

 

Start the Christmas countdown

 

• Part 3: first week of December
• Part 4: second week of December
• Part 5: final countdown: the week before Christmas

 

 

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