It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...But it's not even Halloween yet!

Seasoned mums know to slowly accumulate for Christmas across the year. Sales, stuff you get given that would be perfect for someone else, where ever the inspiration comes from. Often we pile it in the back of a closet. Then we forget what we have, go to the shops and then buy more than we need and still have Christmas stress.

I do presents a bit differently. I keep a spreadsheet of all my gift giving. Oh. My. Goodness. When you see it all written in one place. The amount of gift giving when you have kids is insane.

I do my spread sheets with Google drive. Then I always have access to the list. When I am at the shops and thinking of getting something for someone I can check my phone and decide whether I already have enough for that person yet. I don't need to rely of memory :)

The spreadsheet allows me to have a different tab for each year. Its fun to look back on what you did in previous years.  A lot of it repeats itself. The one that sneaks up on people is the end of year school and extra curricular teachers gift giving. There is the teachers, maybe the teacher aides, the music teacher etc... I like to give my teacher gifts on the Tuesday of the last week of school. They are extra appreciative as they haven't received many yet and if your child was sick for a the last two days you have gotten it out the way.

Having last years list means that you remember everything and everyone you did last year. It stops you from getting caught out and having to hunt down candy canes for the classmates that have disappeared from three different department stores, even though you saw them everywhere in mid November.

Its about saving time, money and stress.

It means being done before the school holidays hit so you can spend more time holidaying and less time dragging the kids around the shops. It is about minimising the the stress of an unavoidable annual social event.

I aspire to be done with Christmas shopping by the 1st of December, save for those entirely optional last minute bargains that you can only buy from mid December. I am to have everything ready to be posted in that first week so that it has heaps of time to get there, but doesn't get there too freakishly early.

So along with a spreadsheet reminder it is important to see everyone's stuff in one place. To gauge if its enough and to have it ready to go I love these little gift bags for this. In the past I have used click zip bags, they work well too. I have put sticky notes with a little bit of sticky tape to stop them falling off.

They store pretty well in the cupboard and my kids presents go in pillow cases. Hiding presents in pillowcases makes them pretty much invisible to the kids.

There is nothing better than having Christmas out the way with as little effort as possible.

Well not gaining weight from the stress and having a bit of smug satisfaction comes a close second lol.