Rudolph Day
Preparing for Christmas Throughout the Year!

The month of May is Recipe Month! This month we collect and organize our recipes. We ponder dinner menus and othe food related items!  So get ready to have some fun, try some recipes, and get a notebook or file set up with your favorites!

I have a love hate relationship with Christmas dishes…I love them…they are pretty, colorful, and festive….I hate them because I can never seem to find good storage solutions for them and sometimes I feel like they are a hodge podge of colors and patterns.

Collections of dishes spice up holiday parties and make December family meals so cheerful!  I love so many patterns, hence the hodge podge feeling. That is not all a bad thing…but here are a couple of ideas that might help you “coordinate” your dishes a bit.

The ALL WHITE approach….I know…sounds BORING….but it can be lovely. You can collect only white dishes. The plus to this is they are available all of the time and you can pick them up cheap at lfea markets and dollar stores. Not very Christmas-y …you say. TRUE but with the right accents your white dishes can take you from Christmas through Easter and into Halloween. All you do is add the right placemats, napkins, centerpiece, glasses, and other accent pieces…in the holiday theme!  Use pastels for Easter and black, orange, and purple for Halloween!

Here’s a white set with lovely blue accents ….see how the white makes everything else pop!  Even if you don’t decide to collect white…you might want at least one good set of white dishes!

Another appoach to Christmas dishes is to pick a theme but collect it in different patterns or place settings. For example perhaps you will choose Santas or Snowmen….you wouldn’t just do a “matching” set you would be on the lookout for any plates that feature Santa or Snowmen. The fun part of this is you can collect a few each year so your set is constantly “evolving”.  This idea is not a versatile as white because you would use it only at Christmas or during the winter months.

Picture from: Gather Round Our Table. 

As you can see when you use a theme….it’s nice to use a solid color as the accent….so with Santa you may pick a cheery red or with snowmen a lovely blue. If you carry your theme into your accents it can get a bit “busy”. So a solid color makes your theme icon…POP!

Snowmen picture from: Make It Delightful.

Now don’t throw out all the dishes you have and start over….look for ways to group them or coordinate them so that you can pull together lovely holiday tables.  Soliday color glasses and mugs can help coordinate the look but patterned ones can work also. More later on creating table settings!

These free printable storage labels are available over at The Project Girl.  I know it is for holiday decor of all kinds..Christmas, Halloween etc BUT…..I thought we could also use it as part of our Crafty Kits storage….for those projects that need to be tucked away somewhere….when we need them…we can refer to this storage page rather than digging in closets and storage shelves!!

I just had to share this cute free subway art printable from over at Ocean of Notion!  I am addicted to subway art ….there are so many cute ones out there!  I am amazed at the talented people that make these and offer them to others!

I have been working toward simplifying Christmas for the past few years and that also means looking for simple ways to decorate. I often try to use things I already have on hand and use them in new and different ways. Here’s a sweet candy centerpiece that does just that!

Use a simple white tray or plate, some pillow peppermint candies, and three candles to create a sleek and tasty table decoration which could also serve as dessert!  I found this idea over at Good Housekeeping!

There are as many versions of the Christmas Notebook as there are people in this world. Some use a spiral notebook, some use a three ring binder, some use a lovely scrapbooked version and some use an electronic version.  The main thing about the Christmas planner is to have one. In today’s busy why try to keep it all in your head when there are som many ways to record it and track it.  Only you can decide the “version” that works best for you. Don’t spend too much time deciding, it is already February. Just pick one and play around with it this year. If it doesn’t work like you want it to you can always switch to something different.

Besides the kind of planner you want, the other item that is a very personal choice is the sections you choose to include in it. Everybody has different needs. I would caution that ar first you just pick 4-6 sections and get them working for you before adding others. Sometimes diving in can become overwhelming. Better to have a smaller WORKING notebook than a large one that gathers dust!

Here’s a list of sections to get you thinking but also think about YOUR Christmas. What are the things that are important to you? What areas seem to stress you out? Those are the ones to consider organizing so that when Christmas rolls around you are armed with a notebook tailored to meet those challenges.

Possible Sections:

• Calendars (I use October-December) Record party dates, deadlines, Christmas programs etc
• Card List: This is a mini address book for all people that I send cards to. It’s so nice to have it all at my fingertips. Some people prefer to keep this section on their computer for printing address labels.
• Master Gift List: Everybody that needs a gift(s). When I buy gifts during the year I record them on this list. I also have a small section to check once the gift is wrapped!
• Stocking Stuffer Lists: Same as the gift list except just for those I fill stockings for.
• Baking Plans: This section I redo each year. I try to pick the cookies/candies I am making ahead of time and print and keep the recipe in this section. It also eventually includes a master ingredients shopping list so I can buy ahead of time.
• Party Plans: Since we entertain several times during the season, I use this section for party menus and notes. I also put Christmas Eve Dinner and Breakfast plans in this section. Again after making selections I copy and put recipes in this part.
• Christmas Countdown: This section has the six week Christmas Countdown. I don;t always follow it exactly because by preparing throughout the year there seems to be less of a need for it but I still have it to refer to.                                   

Those are the main sections I use along with a St. Nick’s Day section and an Elf Adventures section. There are other sections that some people use: decor ideas, storage, movie and book inventory, reflection page, freezer meals, etc etc. The best way to pick your sections is to think about your own personal Christmas and the things you normally hope to accomplish.

September is Baking Month!  There are several tasks this month you can do that will save you time and make the holidays more enjoyable but the one that will also save you money is creating a Master Grocery List. After you decide which cookies, candies, and party foods you will be making it’s time to create a Master Grocery List. This list will ensure that you have all the ingredients on hand when your whipping up that batch of cookies, party dip, or candy for the church program!  September is the perfect month to start stocking up on non perishable ingredients because you can watch for sales and spread your purchases out over time, eliminating that huge grocery bill in December!

There are several ways to create the master list and the choice is yours!  However I did see a Master Grocery List template that I thought could be altered to help track items. Here’s the original list at I’m anOrganizing Junkie.   Just click on Grocery List template!

What I like about the template is the boxes. When compiling the Master Grocery List it can get confusing. One recipe calls for a half cup of walnuts and another calls for a fourth cup…and so on and so on. So in the end how many walnuts do you need?  Envision this type of Master Grocery List but instead of the categories she uses, create one with the ingredients as the title of each box. So one might be cream cheese, one might be powdered sugar, one might be walnuts, etc. After you decide on recipes go through them and write the amount in the ingredient boxes. In the end total up the boxes and you can see exactly how much of any one ingredient you need!  

September Rudolph Day will kick off  The Month of Baking so pick your list and get it ready!

Instead of your usual center pieces for Christmas time such as candles and what not.. why not go beyond that? I love to take things and make them work… Add beads, Christmas bulbs, and other pretty shiny objects to things like a cake stand. As you can see here, they turn out rather pretty and you are sure to get compliments from house guest’s when they see them.