Image by © Tammy Hanratty/Corbis

It’s precisely 37 days to Christmas Day and I’m officially panicking. I’m still adapting to the demands on my time of my new baby (this blog!) in addition to my own Little Chap and the demands of keeping house while working part-time. How I’m supposed to pick up the Christmas bauble without dropping another, I have yet to discover…

My to do list (for Christmas alone!) currently looks like this. I may or may not keep you posted on progress. It all depends entirely on how organised I am…

1. Book Christmas groceries delivery – check! (small yay!)
2. Add crackers to Christmas groceries delivery
3. Bring forward Christmas to do list to diary
4. Get advent house out of loft and fill with daily treats/stories/activities (see below for clues as to what these ‘activities’ might involve…) for the Little Chap to enjoy while learning the Christmas message – this is the most stressful bit as I don’t want it all to be chocolate/sweets and it has to be done by 1st December, not 25th!
5. Buy Christmas cards
6. Write Christmas cards with the Little Chap (he’ll more than likely pass on signing, but will LOVE sticking on the stamps  – for the first five envelopes at least, then I’ll be on my own I expect)
7. Buy and send December birthday cards (imperative that I have this one written down, otherwise they just get lost in the pile of Christmas gift wrap!)
8. Post Christmas cards with the Little Chap (he likes feeding stuff to the red monster!) – UK Christmas posting dates can be found here
9. Write the Little Chap’s Letter to Santa with him
10. Buy/order Christmas gifts (have already ordered the Little Chap’s – another very small yay!)
11. Buy gift wrap
12. Make paper chains with the Little Chap (I have some left over from last year – phew! at least I don’t have to buy some as well!)
13. Colour in Christmas pictures with the Little Chap (one for the advent house!)
14. Play Christmas snap with the Little Chap (ditto above)
15. Cook Christmas biscuit gifts – well this is my intention – it is the though that counts right?
16. Wrap gifts – not sure after last year how much I’ll be involving the Little Chap in this…
17. Make gift tags from last year’s Christmas cards (ditto above!)
18. Hand deliver cards to neighbours (preferably before it snows, unlike last year – it was so icy I didn’t dare deliver them until Boxing Day!)
19. Find Christmas tree and decorations in loft and decorate house
20. Finalise Christmas grocery order from Ocado – this isn’t such a biggie this year as we’re out to the in-laws for Christmas, but there was talk of us  me bringing/cooking something this year so there’s all that to work out, make a note of etc. We’re also bound to be entertaining someone at home over Christmas so we’ll need appropriate provisions. It all needs thought and planning…
21. Read The Night Before Christmas to the Little Chap (think I need to delegate this one to Mayfair Dad)
22. Take the Little Chap to Christingle service to see the baby Jesus (note: arrive earlier this year to get a seat – I am so not carrying a 3 year old for the duration of the service!)
23. Collapse in a heap and drink Santa’s whisky and eat his mince pie 😉

Have I forgotten anything?

I would really love to think I could also manage to post to my blog during this manic time of preparation and stress. Perhaps a kind of  NaBloPoMo (that’s National Blog Posting Month if you’ve missed out!) for December, rather than November. You’ll be sick of me by the end of it, of course, but it might be a lovely memento for the Little Chap one day. I’ll have to see what is achievable…

Good luck with your own preparations. Do you have a list of things to do for Christmas? Are you planning a huge family Christmas or a more modest affair? I’d really love to hear from you. Or write a post for your blog and link back to me here in the comments.

Enjoy the season!

Mayfair Mum x

© Mayfair Mum, 2012