It happens every year. I celebrate Christmas in a pretty big way and always have lots of ambitions: cards, baking, gifts, decorating - but I am reluctant to start "too early." Then I end up 10 days before Christmas in a frantic jam trying to get it all done. I need a Christmas timeline! When do you do the things? What are your deadlines for getting things done? Specific queries below the fold. I think my issue is that I have this idea about "too early" but clearly I'm not starting early enough . This year we have no gatherings and things are a little simpler so it's a good time to plan for less stressful future Christmases. So I'd like to know specifically about your target dates for doing these things:
1. Starting your planning (list making etc)
2. Making or buying gifts (including beating shipping deadlines and out-of-stock issues)
3. Unpacking decorations
4. Actually decorating
5. Baking for food gifts (any tips on how you prevent things getting stale/yucky if made "too early?"
6. Writing cards
7. Actually sending cards
8. Wrapping gifts
9. House cleaning
10. What do you leave to do for pre-Christmas week itself?
11. What am I forgetting to plan in ahead of time?