[music intro 00:00:00]
Hi guys. Welcome back to my channel and to a get ready for Christmas with me video. Today,
I'm going to be trying to get few things done for the festive period. And yes,
I am aware that it is currently October, but this year I really want to try and be
more organized when it comes to Christmas. I find it quite tricky because I have three boys
and their birthdays are in September, October, and December. My husband also has a birthday
in December, so I always feel like I'm doing so much for the birthdays in terms of buying gifts
and planning parties that sometimes Christmas can get left to one side and then it's this mad last
minute thing that I have to try and organize. So this year my plan is to try and get much done as I
possibly can before December even starts and then I can actually enjoy the festive period this year.
So that's the plan. Whether or not it happens, we will see. But I've decided to actually get
a proper Christmas planner this year. I've just found this online and I thought it would just be
a good place for me to write all my notes in terms of what presents I need to buy,
the food that I want to organize, the Christmas cards I need to send, everything that I need to
think about, events and all of that. So I've written a little list of things that I'm going
to try and get done today. But I thought I would just talk you through it and show you what I get
up to today and hopefully it will give you some motivation as well or you might just see one thing
on my list and it might spark an idea and make you think, "Oh, I should actually book that as well."
And we can all get organized together. So I hope you enjoy this video. If you do,
give it a big thumbs up. And if you like Christmas content, I have quite a lot coming up,
so please subscribe if you're new. But first off, let's go to my list.
The first thing that I want to get done today is a toy clear out. It's so great, if you can,
have a look at all of your toys before you have an influx at Christmas. If there are anything
that your children have grown out of or no longer play with, it's a great time to donate toys to the
charity shop because then people can buy them for Christmas as well and then you can also have more
space in your home. So then I also want to have a good look in our freezer and see if there is
any food that we need to start eating up, so that we can make room for more food that is coming at
Christmas. And I'm also just going to clear out our fridge in general. Then I also want
to start writing a present list, a Christmas food plan. I want to look at advent calendars,
book the Santa's Grotto, book any nights out with any friends and family that we need to,
and just really start thinking about all the things that we need to get done.
So, as I said, first off, we're going to be doing a toy clear out. But before we do that,
I did want to let you know that we have a sponsor for today's video and I also have an
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But everything that comes in your KiwiCo crate is super educational, but it's also really fun
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for sponsoring this video. And with all that said now, let's get into organizing Christmas.
Okay. So this is my little Christmas planner that I'm trying this year. I love the way that
it looks and it has different sections for cards to send, present planning, food planning as well,
so hopefully this will get me nice and organized. But if you don't like having a written
planner like this, last year I actually used two apps that I really liked. One was called Trello
and one was called Google Keep and it's a great way to just keep track of the presents
that you've bought. And obviously, because it's on your phone, it's always on you, so if you're
out and about shopping, it's quite nice that you can refer to it. But I'm trying this this year.
So first off, I'm writing my to-do list. I actually went onto Pinterest and looked up things
you can do in October for Christmas planning and this is the list that I ended up compiling.
Obviously toy clear out, freezer clear out, write a presents list. A big one is to book the Santa's
Grotto. They get so booked up that if you did have a specific weekend in mind, it's a good
idea to just book it now. Also thought about some traditions that we wanted to do and then I also
started to text a few friend groups to organize Christmas nights out. Again, it's so important
to book those nights out because restaurants get so busy around Christmas, especially because last
year, obviously, no one could meet up, so I sent a few texts out and then I started to compile
a bit of a present list. But at the end of this video, I also show footage of me and Matt sitting
down and talking about presents. I thought I would leave that in. It's quite funny to get
it from Matt's perspective as well. So if you want to check that out, that's at the end of the video.
But we also started to text. I text my sister and said, "What do the kids want? What are they into?"
So just to get a few ideas now of what we can get. And especially because I have family in Canada,
I have to send it all out in November or just that bit earlier to make sure that it actually
reaches them on time. Then I called a restaurant. All my friends came back and gave a specific date,
so I called a restaurant to book that in. I feel like I'm not always the most organized
one in our friend group, but let me know in the comments if you are the organizer.
I would be interested to know. This year, I decided to just go ahead and do it.
Now that I've just sent out a few texts, done a few things, and have my to-do list, I'm now
going to start with the number one thing on it, which is to do the toy clear out. I'm literally
just going through all the board games and just looking at what we want to keep. What do they
play with? Have they grown out of anything? And then Matt is going to help me with this as well.
[musical overlay 00:07:56]
Now I'm going to have a good look in our fridge and freezer and see if there's any food that we
need to eat up in the freezer before we start getting things in for Christmas. I'm also going
to start planning out Christmas food. And a really good tip that I saw on The Organized Mum
over on Instagram is she said that now, in the lead up to Christmas, you can start adding a few
Christmas items onto every weekly shop to just help spread the cost a bit. So I think that's
a genius idea. So you can add things like the Quality Street that you're going to get,
or the biscuits for the cheese and biscuits, or some of the drinks that you're going to need. You
can just start slowly adding it on every week and kind of build up, so it's not this giant
bill in December. So I'm also going to look at that and start planning for food.
We are actually not hosting Christmas dinner this year. We're going away to Center Parcs and we're
eating actual Christmas dinner in a restaurant, but we do need to plan Christmas Eve. We also
need to plan a Boxing Day as well because we're going to do something for that. But first off,
I'm going to clean the fridge and freezer. Okay. So because we're not hosting Christmas,
I guess it's not as big of a worry for us, but it might be something to think about if you need to
make room in your freezer. I feel like we don't just have loads of stuff in the freezer that just
sits there for ages. We do tend to eat up the food that is in there. I tend to buy the same
things that we use all the time. There's always corn mince in my freezer. There's always chicken
burgers, fish fingers, chips and potato smilies, all of that, but it's on a constant rotation. Peas
and stuff. But it was good to have a clear out anyway and just have a look at what we do have.
Then, I'm going to take everything out of the fridge. I just thought it was a good opportunity.
And whenever I do fully clear out the fridge, I think, "Oh, it didn't actually take me that long.
I don't know why I've been putting it off for such a long time." But I just took all the food out.
I'm just going to wipe down all of the shelves and then put everything back in some kind of order.
[musical overlay 00:11:01] And next up, I managed to grab
Matt for a little bit of time to talk presents and Christmas planning. So, this is how it went.
So cousins. Yeah? Could you mind texting your sister asking what they want?
Yep. Johnny.
Oh wait, you've bought your dads. I was thinking maybe we should get a few..
You know when someone just... Backups.
Yeah. When someone buys you present or they come around they're like, "Oh, I got
you this." And you're like, "And I got you..." [crosstalk 00:12:47] from work gives presents for
five years. Why have you suddenly bought them now?
Yeah. But I was thinking maybe we could put some wine or...
So if you get a bottle of wine in a gift bottle, in a gift bag...
With a blank card. You know we didn't actually
have a present for you. Sorry mum. Or you know like at Fortnum and Mason's
do those really cute little... Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Fortnum and
Mason for someone that we weren't going to buy a present for?
Okay, Aldi. And I get electric socks.
You like them. That's the best present I ever got you, those electric sock.
We could do Secret Santa. So out of the four families, one family just buy for
the other family. Guess not?
...bags. We've got three kids. And do you know what? They've been buying
for our kids for years. Yeah.
Okay. So we are going to buy for them,
but should we say don't buy for ours? Yeah.
Great. So we've just been looking at advent calendars. There are so many out there, but
Matt found a really good one that we think that they will just love. It's a fidget calendar,
so just each day you get a little fidget. They're totally obsessed with everything
like that, so I just know that they will love it. I actually made an entire advent calendar video in
the past of reviewing all different ones. Do you remember that?
But there are some amazing ones like the little book ones.
Yeah. They're cute. Yeah. You can get really good book ones
and you can get literally everything nowadays. Actually, do you want one? An advent calendar?
No, I'm alright. Okay.
I just... Can you get me a wine one?
Okay. No, just kidding.
Next up, I'm going to talk about Christmas food. But then on the 24th, Christmas Eve, we always
have steak and chips that you make. Yeah. Yeah.
So... The food's actually really good in the supermarket
at Center Parcs as well though, I think. Obviously the fridge isn't big.
No, that's true. Yeah, the fridge is very small.
So we do need to... It's very small. Yeah.
But then Christmas day itself, we're really lucky. We're not cooking. We go out for Christmas dinner,
but then we come back and we have, obviously, cheese and biscuits.
You don't want that, do you? And all of that stuff. That's all I want.
Yeah. But should we get
some cookies and Quality Street and? Yeah.
Next up, I was thinking about Christmas traditions. I've actually made an entire video
of 15 Christmas traditions that we do and that we love. Because we've been parents for a while now
and you do pick up things and you're like, "Oh, we actually do this every year."
Like Christmas pajamas, which he loves every year. So we need to order some new Christmas pajamas.
I'll choose them this year. Yeah? And each year we get a new
tree ornament. Yeah.
So last year we got a personalized one with us all wearing COVID masks.
Oh, yeah. Because it was
2020. But this year I was thinking... We've still got them on.
Yeah. I was thinking maybe we could do a little house one because it's been our first year.
Yeah. Yeah. So let's do the house. In the house.
Also, thinking about Christmas nights out. So I've texted the girls, texted your
group for your birthday... Thank you.
Night out. Thanks.
And then I've got a mum's night out and then... Don't go out that night.
I was thinking about having a Christmas work do on my own. Do you want to come?
Sorry, I'm busy. And the only other thing
I wanted to talk about is the presents for the boys. Caleb did write a list of what he wanted
for his birthday and some of that could move to Christmas. And Fraser... Now that they're older,
it's actually quite nice. They can just write a list of exactly what they want
and you just know that you're getting stuff that they like. Fraser wants some football bits.
Yeah. Skateboarding.
Oh yeah, I've got his here somewhere. Caleb wants some gymnasticsy stuff.
Yeah. It's a lot of simple Jolly ranchers.
We need to tell the boys that there is a cutoff of when Santa needs to know
everything they want. And then after that, that's it because he obviously needs to make the toys.
Yeah. So maybe we say
by like the 10th of December or something. Because it's just after Fraser's birthday,
so if he's like... Yeah. If he's like, "Didn't get that."
Not that he will. He's so grateful. Yeah.
Yeah. 10th of December. So what... If we agree with all of your audience that's what
everyone tells their kids though. If they talk about it in school, it's like...
No, it's that horrible on the 23rd of December, they see a TV commercial
for this toy and they're like, "I really want that. Can't wait to get that." You're like,
"I don't think you told Santa." Okay guys, I thought I would just
come in here because we did end up talking for quite a while,
but we did sort out a lot of things. So I hope you enjoyed this video. I hope it wasn't too random,
maybe it gave you some ideas of things to think about. And, as I said,
I'll have loads more Christmas content coming on this channel, so if you have any requests at all,
please put them in the comments down below and I'll see you in my next one. Bye guys.