Christmas 2022 Preparation Checklist: Your Handy Guide For This Holiday Season

When you’re a kid, each year seems to take forever. The days feel long, the weeks longer, and the months longer still. The holidays seem like a magical, drawn-out stretch of time, with so much to do and see. However, as you grow older, your perception of time changes. The years begin to zip by. We’re already in September of 2022, and it seemed like the new year came around just a few months ago.

The end of the year always means Christmas, which can be such a hectic time. You need to juggle finishing up for the year at work, arranging the kids’ school holiday activities and the family Christmas. It can be stressful. That’s why we’ve prepared our Christmas 2022 preparation checklist, which we’ll share in this helpful article. Read this for your handy guide for this holiday season.

Do The Gift Shopping Early

Have you already thought of some great Christmas gift ideas? If so, there’s a strong argument for getting the gift shopping done early. September through to October is an excellent time to wrap up your Christmas shopping. By getting in early, you avoid the hectic crowds at all the major shopping centres at the end of each year. Also, it means you can shop online with a reasonable amount of confidence that your gifts will arrive in the post well before Christmas. Also, the end of the year is often expensive, as you’ll have many functions to attend and the school holidays. By buying gifts now, you can budget for those upcoming expenses ahead of time.

Buy The Meat Ahead of Time

Another thing that you can do ahead of time to prepare for the big Christmas lunch or dinner is to buy all your meat early and freeze it. Ham and turkey can be frozen for up to six months before it begins to turn, so you can buy these now, pop them in the freezer, and defrost them for your function.

Again, this will save you time at the busy end of the year and guarantee you get the cuts you want. The stores might sell out just before the big day if you leave it too late, and what is Christmas without the ham and turkey?

Who’s Coming Along?

Now is the perfect time to figure out who is coming to the Christmas bash. Will it be family only, or will some of your friends come along? Does everyone invited get along well, or do you need to strategically “forget” to invite someone to ensure a smooth, argument-free day?

You’ll also need to figure out where all the guests are staying if heaps of people are coming for the event. You may have a spare room, or they may have to reach out to other family or friends for a place to sleep for a few days.

Prepare Your Menu

You don’t want to leave planning the menu until Christmas Eve. By knowing what you’ll serve in advance, you can buy ingredients a week or so before the big day and have a leisurely time preparing the food rather than a mad rush the night before.

It makes sense to plan a few starters, the main course and then a few treats for dessert. You could try a mix of traditional and modern dishes to mix things up a touch.

Don’t forget to buy some drinks for guests to enjoy, as well as soft drinks for the kids.

Plan Activities for the Kids

Christmas lunches can be a bit boring for kids, as all the adults eat and drink and enjoy each others’ company. It is worth planning out some activities for the kids to do while you enjoy the food and adult conversation.

You can arrange some colouring-in or other arts and crafts, board or card games, a scavenger hunt or a game of hide and seek. Try and plan a few activities, as kids’ attention spans can be short, and the last thing you want on Christmas Day is a chorus of “I’m bored!”.

Prepare Your Decorations

Finally, the last thing to do to prepare for the festive season is plan the decorations. You might want to sort through all your ornaments and tinsel and throw out the ones that are a touch faded or sad looking. It’s also a perfect time to upgrade and get some new decorations, ornaments and other bits and bobs to add to the cheer.

A Christmas Conclusion

In this helpful article, we’ve shared a handy guide for this holiday season. Follow these top tips, and you’ll be prepared for the big day with time to spare and will spare yourself the stress of a last-minute rush to buy food, gifts and other items you need. Make sure to relax and enjoy the time you’ve saved by preparing early.