*The Well-Designed Holiday Planner is free and delivered straight to your inbox. You'll also receive The Weekly Edit every Sunday.
A WELL-DESIGNED HOLIDAY
— AMANDA S.
— LAURYN R.
— Ashley M.
— EMILY C.
— RACHAEL T.
And then the holidays do what the holidays do.
We go into the holidays with the best intentions. This will be the year we slow down. We'll bake the cookies, watch the movies, keep the traditions we love and actually enjoy those ridiculously cozy nights at home with the tree lit.
The season you look forward to all year somehow becomes the one you rush through.
SOMEHOW, IT HAPPENS EVERY YEAR
The calendar fills up. There are gifts to buy and cards to send and food to make. Someone needs a teacher gift. You forgot the stocking stuffers. Shipping suddenly costs more than the actual gift. And that quiet night at home you pictured? Somehow became another night spent getting ready for the next thing.
Before you know it,
you’re not really experiencing the holidays. You’re managing them.
I know that feeling because I spent years doing exactly that. Working so hard to create the magic that I was exhausted by the time I was supposed to enjoy it.
Eventually, I realized I didn’t need to care less about the holidays. I just needed to stop waiting until the holidays were already happening to think about them.
A well-designed holiday isn't about fitting it all in. It's about choosing what matters and making enough room to enjoy it.
Turns out, I didn't need to become better at doing Christmas. I just needed to stop leaving all of Christmas for December. So I started earlier. Not decorating-in-September earlier. Just thinking-ahead-like-a-reasonable-person earlier. A few decisions. A few things handled each week. And a whole lot more room to actually enjoy the season when it arrived.
A little planning now,
a lot more living later.
A BETTER WAY TO DO THE HOLIDAYS
STOCKINGS & EXTRAS
Keep track of stocking stuffers, neighbor gifts and all the tiny details that somehow become their own full-time job.
HOLIDAY TREATS
HOLIDAY TO-DO LISTS
Plan what you’re baking, making and sharing before you find yourself decorating 36 reindeer cookies at 10:47 p.m. on a Tuesday.
Give every reservation, errand, order and easily forgotten detail somewhere to live.
ADVENT PLANNER
Plan the traditions, activities and meaningful moments you want to make room for.
CHRISTMAS CARD PLANNER
Organize your recipient list, addresses and mailing details without relying on your memory.
GIFT LISTS & TRACKERS
Keep track of ideas, purchases, spending, wrapping and everything still left to find.
HOLIDAY SPENDING PLAN
Set your budget, plan your spending and keep January from sending you a strongly worded letter.
DESIGN YOUR HOLIDAY GUIDE
Define what matters most and the kind of season you want to create.
FINISH WHAT DECEMBER DOESN’T NEED
PUT THE PLAN IN MOTION
MAKE THE BIG DECISIONS EARLY
November
October
September
Just one thoughtfully timed list each week. And a December with far less to manage and far more to enjoy.
PLUS, EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KEEP IT TOGETHER
No guessing what you should be doing. No realizing too late what you could have done earlier.
A week-by-week plan for getting ahead of the holidays... before December ever begins.
Each week walks you through the shopping, wrapping, mailing, food preparation and final details that can be completed ahead of time so December isn’t carrying three months’ worth of decisions and unfinished tasks.
Your weekly tasks begin moving the holidays out of the someday pile. You’ll start purchasing gifts, making reservations, planning Advent, handling cards and taking care of the details that become considerably less charming when everyone else remembers them in December.
Week by week, you’ll set your holiday vision, map out important dates, create your spending plan and start making decisions about gifts, cards, photos, travel and traditions while you still have time to be thoughtful about them.
From September through November, you’ll have a clear set of tasks to tackle each week in the order they actually need to happen. You’ll know what to decide, schedule, reserve, order, buy and prepare without having to hold the entire holiday season in your head.
18 thoughtfully designed pages to take you from September through the holiday season.
The Well-Designed Holiday Planner is free and delivered straight to your inbox. You'll also receive The Weekly Edit every Sunday.
Because December should be more than one long list of things you still need to do.
Everything you need to plan less frantically and live the season more fully.
INSIDE THE
WELL-DESIGNED HOLIDAY
INSIDE THE WELL-DESIGNED HOLIDAY
At the heart of The Well-Designed Holiday is a simple September through November roadmap designed to help you spread out the work, make important decisions early and take care of the details before they all start demanding your attention at once.
Because you shouldn't have to choose between creating an unforgettable holiday and actually getting to enjoy it.
MAYBE THIS IS THE WHOLE POINT:
What if the holidays could be everything you imagined and you actually had the space to enjoy them?
Starting early isn't about making Christmas longer. It's about making December feel lighter.
And yes, it's only September.
You don't need to start celebrating Christmas. You don't need the tree up, the music playing, or a single gift wrapped. You just need to make a few decisions while there's still room to make them slowly. Because the things you handle now are the things you won't be carrying when December gets here.
The best time to make room for December is before you’re in it.
You already know the kind of holiday you want to create. Let's make room to actually live it.
The Well-Designed Holiday Planner is free and delivered straight to your inbox. You'll also receive The Weekly Edit every Sunday.
Beautiful. Meaningful. Full of the traditions and little details that make the season yours. But also unrushed enough to enjoy them. Intentional enough to know what deserves your time. And thoughtfully planned so you're not so busy creating the holiday that you miss the best parts of it.
This year, let the
holidays feel the way you always hope they will.