Christmas Eve is 11 months from today.

How did you feel as Christmas approached last year? Were you calm and ready or stressed, tired, and short-tempered? Were you able to celebrate the Christmas you wanted? The purpose of this countdown is to help you do a little bit at a time so that your holiday preparations are timely and relatively stress-free.

Even though Christmas is far away, there are still some things you should be working on:

• If you haven’t done it already, complete your holiday evaluation.
• Sort and store your holiday decorations.
• Continue updating your Christmas card list. If you don’t have a card list, start building one. I use a spreadsheet, but you may prefer a database or a simple file of index cards. Throughout the year, you may need to correct addresses, add some folks, and delete others. If any cards were returned to you, update the address if at all possible or delete the recipient.
• If you had cards and wrapping materials left over, be sure to put them somewhere where you’ll be able to find them in the fall.
• Develop your holiday budget and set up your saving plan. You may even want to have a separate account. Saving a little bit at a time makes it easier. Remember, you never want to go into debt because of holiday expenditures. If you start saving now, by the time the holidays arrive, you’ll be ready.