Keeping a Christmas Journal

There are many kinds of journals to keep. There are planners and lists, diaries and calendars.  All are useful and each person usually has one or two that works for them more than the other.

Devoting a journal to a theme is probably something you get if you are a journal-type person. Maybe you have some you’ve started and have abandoned. A Christmas Journal is a journal that you will find yourself using to its capacity. Ten or Twenty years will go by and you will have a beautiful scrapbook and document of all the Christmases in your life.

 

Here are some suggestions and ideas to help you begin your Christmas Journal.

• Choose a journal with a hardcover, so it will last. Other than that, the size and page style is up to you.

• Start each year off with a title and the year and anything that may be unique about that year – like Christmas in some other town, or a theme Christmas

• Use it to make your Christmas gift list each year. Include ideas for gifts and what you ended up getting each person.

• Use it to make a Christmas card list each year. Include who you sent to and who you received from. 

• Add anything else, like dishes you’re making or crafty gift projects you’re working on.

• Add decorations of washi and stickers if you want to. While writing cards or wrapping gifts you may have little bits left you can throw on the page

• After Christmas, grab a few leftover Christmas tags or paper you like and add to the journal.

• Add in what you received as gifts if you want, note special dishes you liked or funny things that happened. You could even throw in a couple of pictures.

The most important thing is to make sure you use it to make your lists. Because this journal has your gift and card lists you’ll reach for it every year. It’ll help you create your list each new season because you can base it on last year.  Soon, you’ll have this cool scrapbook that shows you a snapshot of Christmas with your family over the years. You will see the way the gifts change, you’ll see how the names of people come and go on your lists as lives change and friends move.

It’s a very cool document that your kids will love to see. Adding in the scraps of gift tags and paper lets you save some of those pretty illustrations (that will be vintage one day) and you’ll have a preserved a sweet Christmas tag from loved ones forever.