This year I have received so many thanksgiving messages that I almost feel it is my celebration as well! I do like the sentiment though: gratitude, appreciating and enjoying the company of those you love. I particularly like the non-commercial nature of the celebration, Christmas without the gifts…… Bah Humbug!

But now having mentioned the word – that thought moves me swiftly on to the subject of “THE Holiday Period”… yes it’s looming, how can I miss it given the carols and nativity preparations that are going on in my house… very sweet as I am reminded how lucky I am to be able to share in their enthusiasm and excitement for this time of year.

But there is a downside because just as I am enjoying the warm and snug feeling that these carols create a wave of anxiety passes over me – something I recognize as the start of my annual Christmas panic.

Thoughts such as:

• Are we really here/there already?
• There is still so much I want to do in 2011?
• Must get the lists written, the cards ordered, the presents bought, the food sorted, the flights booked.

Time to get my act together and be SUPER organized this year. 2010 was a real last minute panic and I am determined that I WILL NOT be panic shopping on Christmas Eve EVER again… I still have nightmares about how it could have ended, no how it did end, a few presents did not get purchased, I was mortified!

So – deep breath and CALM … visualize beautifully decorated tree, tidy, clean festive house smelling seductively of Christmas (mulled wine), filled with visitors chuckling delightedly whilst nibbling daintily on beautifully prepared canapés, perfectly iced cake and children  in beautiful Christmas dresses, giggling excitedly…..!?!

What makes Christmas such a panic for me is the fact that we always go back to the UK for Christmas. Any suggestion to do otherwise is met by screams of indignation from my daughters: Christmas means the wet, drab old UK and there can be no debate! Of course the weather is irrelevant to them, they want grandparents and cousins and it is lovely that they do.

But it is this very fact – that Christmas is there and not here, that lulls me into a false sense of security. Mentally for me, Christmas begins when I step onto that plane and not a moment before. All preparation and shopping can wait and will be done in the UK, no point in lugging it all over there in suitcases. All fine in principle but …..

I remember two Christmases ago ordering Christmas from Amazon, rather like the year that Margot in the Good Life (1970’s UK sitcom – yes I am that old!) ordered Christmas in a hamper from Harrods, nothing arrived and Christmas had to be canceled. In 2009, due to snow neither did many of my gifts… I remember my poor mum did particularly badly that year.

The other issue is the demand for our time. Now I love my friends and family, but trying to fit everyone for their desired date, period of time is a bit of a logistical nightmare. Packing and unpacking as we visit people in all directions and then hosting others when they visit us makes Christmas an exhausting and at times fraught affair.

So what’s to be done?

I think a Christmas pledge and plan for a peaceful, calm and enjoyable yuletide ride!

START NOW!

• Buy Christmas cards … and sorry I know this falls down on the environmental front BUT I Love to receive Christmas cards from friends and relatives, “copy all email cards” just don’t do it for me whereas a scribbled few words in pen and a tatty photo make me feel some connection with friends and family at least once a year. My pledge this year, buy cards, include photos and send by the second week of December, friends will be impressed!
• Write the dreaded present LIST and get online NOW. Order and so be sure that the presents will arrive in time for Santa, snow or no snow.
• Draw up a timetable. Sit down with my family and plan our time in the UK. Sounds wrong to plan a holiday to this level of detail… well to me at least BUT it will reap its rewards.
• Prioritize (that always feels good as though somehow I am in control) and then start to allocate time to each event/visit (cringe that sounds more like a work schedule than a holiday).
• Build in some US time… you know a few nights in which to just relax in front of the Christmas TV.
• Plan my work days – the beauty of being self-employed is the flexibility, the downside the fact that my family all think that I am constantly available. So assert myself and my working requirements this holiday.
• Make sure I get time to RUN…and not just to the shops.
• Write our list of things to pack TO include winter wear that we do not possess and need to purchase, preferably before the manic trip to the airport. Try to squeeze it all into fewer bags so my husband doesn’t replay his usual “why can we never travel with less than eight bags lecture”.
• Pack my Whistle because organization like this needs a master and yep you’ve guessed it, it will be me!
• Remember to discuss what other family members expect? Who do they want to see and what do they want to do. I’m conscious of my poor husband who looks rather like a startled rabbit at this time of year.

Note to Self: Remember Christmas is about the people, not the presents or the beautifully decorated house or the perfect food or the perfect clothes. It is about enjoying time with those I love and recognizing how lucky I am to be able to do so.
So all planned!?

I’ll let you know how it goes!
How about you, what will Christmas/The Holiday Season bring for you?