Skip to Content

Welcome to Organized Christmas!

Our mission: to help you simplify your holidays and get ready for Christmas.

Browse our articles for great ideas to simplify the holidays. Choose a holiday plan, and print a free Christmas planner to get organized for Christmas.

Try easy gifts and crafts, recipes and free printables to celebrate the season.

organized christmas

Cutting Costs at Christmas?

Try these ideas to celebrate like Santa (but spend like Scrooge):

christmas countdown
Christmas is coming!
Will you be ready?

“A merry Christmas to everybody! A happy New Year to all the world!”

— Charles Dickens

Christmas Countdown Poll: When Did You Join?

Submitted by Cynthia Ewer on October 25, 2009 - 4:35pm

Christmas Countdown Day 1: Get Organized!

Submitted by Cynthia Ewer on October 24, 2009 - 11:50pm

Welcome to the Christmas Countdown!

Today, we kick off Get Organized Week, and get the Countdown off to an enthusiastic start toward an organized holiday season. Ready to begin? Let's Count Down!

today's message ...

Welcome to the Christmas Countdown! I'm Cynthia Ewer, editor of OrganizedHome.Com and author of this six-week interactive plan to get organized for the holiday season.

I'm a wife and mother, grandmother of two, and the manager of my home. The tips and information you'll find here have been road-tested by my own family, and by the thousands of readers who have used this plan since its Web debut in 1998.

This year, we celebrate the 11th anniversary of the Christmas Countdown. Since our first beta test in 1998, this online organizing plan has helped thousands of families--like yours and like mine--simplify the holidays and prepare for the holiday season.

Each year, I receive hundreds of testimonials from families who have used the Christmas Countdown to create a stress-free holiday season. Like this one, from Dottie:


Read more »

Houseworks Holiday Plan: Public Space Week

Submitted by Cynthia Ewer on October 24, 2009 - 11:40pm

It's Halloween week! Along with the trick-or-treaters comes a new pace to the season. Thanksgiving is on the horizon, so we turn our attention to the public space in our home: the living room or great room.

In holiday prep, we'll celebrate Halloween, then tuck its decorations away, replacing them with Thanksgiving themes. We'll complete Christmas cards and buy holiday stamps, and start saving mailing boxes so that we can recycle them to send gifts.

Finally, we'll prepare for Time Change Sunday with a household safety check.

Public Space Week Assignments Read more »


BOO-tiful Gift In A Jar: Halloween M&M Cookies!

Submitted by Cynthia Ewer on October 23, 2009 - 8:03am

Looking for a quick and easy Halloween craft gift? Check out this BOO-tiful gift in a jar from Living Locurto blog: Halloween M&M Cookies!

This layered Mason jar gift shows off Halloween-colored M&M candies to spooky perfection! It would be a great addition to a Halloween BOO basket!

The free printable includes the recipe, cover circle and gift tag to make it easy to assemble your own spooky Halloween treat.

Halloween M&M Cookies Gift Tags

More Recipes for Gifts in a Jar Read more »


Get Organized! Christmas Countdown Starts On Sunday

Submitted by Cynthia Ewer on October 19, 2009 - 5:47am

Ready or not, here it comes: the Christmas Countdown begins on Sunday, October 25 here at Organized Christmas!

Led by editor Cynthia Ewer, we'll work together to create a calm, stress-free holiday season for ourselves and our families. Organizing Christmas preparations into small, easy-to-finish tasks, the Countdown will see us to the first weekend in December, prepared and ready for Christmas.

Beginning Sunday, we'll start a six-week Christmas organizing plan. We'll create a personalized Christmas planner to simplify the holidays, make decisions about our holiday values, and spread out holiday activities so they're easy to complete in good time.

Each of the next six weeks will focus on one area of holiday planning:

Get Organized
Reality Check
Gifts and Giving
Get Cooking
Decorate
Celebrate

Each day, Cynthia will post an inspiring daily message right here, on our Organized Christma home page. To make it easy to keep up with the Countdown, follow us on Twitter, or add our RSS feed to your feed reader.

Ready to get organized for a great holiday season? Here we go! The 2009 Christmas Countdown starts on Sunday, October 25 ... see you there!


Read more »

Houseworks Holiday Plan: Family Space Week

Submitted by Cynthia Ewer on October 17, 2009 - 11:59pm

Christmas is a time for family, so center the season around a clean and organized family space. This week in the Houseworks Holiday Plan, we take aim on the family room, playroom or family area. Where does your family go to relax together?

In holiday prep, the family room theme continues as we decorate for Halloween, review holiday movies and music, and craft a holiday housework plan.

Mailing deadline: mail overseas gifts this week!

Family Space Week Assignments Read more »


Holiday Grand Plan: Kitchen Week

Submitted by Cynthia Ewer on October 17, 2009 - 11:51pm

Week Eight sees us down and dirty in the heart of the home: the kitchen. It's Kitchen Week!

This week, we'll clear the decks for the holiday cooking to come with a kitchen clean-up and declutter. In holiday prep, it's Checkpoint Week and time to make plans for Halloween night.

Ready? Let's get organized with Kitchen Week in the Holiday Grand Plan!

Kitchen Week on the Holiday Grand Plan


Candy Corn Cookies: Easy Halloween Treat

Submitted by Cynthia Ewer on October 15, 2009 - 9:59am

candy corn cookiesIt's a sweet--and easy--Halloween treat: Candy Corn Cookies!

Shaped like the familiar Autumn candy, this recipe from BettyCrocker.com uses packaged sugar cookie mix and innovative shaping to cut time in the kitchen.

Dividing the dough into thirds, you'll tint two portions in holiday colors and combine them with an uncolored vanilla layer.

Surprise! There's no rolling required! Instead, the dough layers are stacked in a loaf pan, chilled, then cut to shape. They're as easy to make as slice-and-bake.

Just the thing for classroom parties or office treats!

Candy Corn Cookies Read more »


Pumpkin Carving Templates: Free Printables for your Halloween Jack O'Lantern

Submitted by Cynthia Ewer on October 14, 2009 - 6:15am

Fright night ahead! Will a glowing Jack O'Lantern guide trick-or-treaters to your door?

For a festive touch, try these free printable pumkin carving templates from HP.com. From spooky smirks to ghastly grins--and a few more unusual designs--these templates will help your pumpkin stand out from the holiday crowd.

Don't miss the nature-inspired designs from the World Wildlife Federation! In .pdf format, you'll need the Adobe Reader to view and print:

Pumpkin Carving Templates

Wild Pumpkin Carving Templates Read more »


Boo! In Which I Surprise My Neighbors

Submitted by Cynthia Ewer on October 13, 2009 - 6:42pm

Make no mistake: I love holiday traditions.

To wit, I love them so much that if it weren't for the fact that I've lived in my current neighborhood for 13 years--and my neighbors know me well--I'd be considered a suspicious person, and need the intervention of law enforcement.

What's the problem? My newest neighbors haven't yet found their BOO basket yet!

What else would have a 54-year-old grandmother making multiple, unprecedented trips to the corner to see whether or not the BOO basket had been claimed?

So let's back up. Earlier today, my BOO baskets were ready. Compiled 90% from the gift closet, I filled two little green pails (Big Lots Christmas clearance circa 2005!) with a variety of bought-ahead Halloween treats. Ghost pencils. Pretty pumpkin dish towels. Harvest-themed magnetic note pads. Pumpkin-shaped cookie cutters.

A quick trip to the supermarket for cookie mix, frosting and some wrapped candies, I was ready to BOO the two newest neighbors on our block. With both households having school-aged children, I was ready for the ULTIMATE BOO-ing fun.

Next challenge: delivery. Read more »


Syndicate content