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Effortless Holiday Planning: Your Free Printable Holiday Planner for a Stress-Free Season

Embark on a journey to a more peaceful and joyful holiday season with our ultimate free holiday planner. Designed meticulously to help you navigate the bustling months of November and December, this comprehensive planner empowers you to curate a holiday experience that truly reflects your desires and values. Say goodbye to overwhelming stress and reclaim the inherent joy of the season by mindfully choosing activities and tasks that matter most to you and your family. Our thoughtfully crafted pages will guide you every step of the way, transforming chaotic holidays into cherished memories.

Why a Dedicated Holiday Planner is Your Season’s Best Friend

Since 2016, I’ve poured countless hours into refining this holiday planner with one core mission: to help you (and me!) plan, clarify, and deeply enjoy the holiday season. We all know how easily the holidays can become a source of stress rather than celebration. From managing gift lists and party preparations to coordinating family gatherings and keeping track of traditions, the sheer volume of tasks can be overwhelming. This planner is your personal assistant, designed to mitigate that stress by providing a structured yet flexible framework, ensuring you remain in control and focused on what truly brings happiness.

Far more than just a Christmas planner, this versatile tool kicks off at the end of October with a strategic 9-week countdown checklist. This thoughtful timeline allows you to begin your preparations well in advance, whether you’re planning for Thanksgiving feasts, Christmas celebrations, or simply navigating the general holiday rush. It seamlessly integrates aspects of a gift planner and a Thanksgiving planner, ensuring all your major holiday events are covered under one cohesive system. This proactive approach helps spread tasks out, preventing last-minute panics and allowing you to savor each moment of the season.

This planner isn’t just about checklists; it’s about empowerment. It includes all the beloved planning pages our community has come to rely on, complemented by beautifully designed printable holiday menus and undated calendars. The undated format means you can use this planner year after year, making it an invaluable, sustainable resource for your holiday planning needs. With a grand total of 30 pages, this comprehensive guide is offered completely free to all An Oregon Cottage subscribers, providing exceptional value and a pathway to more organized, joyful holidays.

Your Ultimate Holiday Planner for November & December: A Deep Dive

Included Pages: Your Roadmap to a Joyful and Organized Season

Each page in this extensive planner serves a specific purpose, designed to work together to create a seamless planning experience. Here’s a closer look at what’s included and how each element contributes to your stress-free holidays:

Pretty Cover: More than just aesthetic, this durable cover marks the beginning of your organized holiday journey. Its attractive design makes it easy to spot and encourages continued use, year after year, as a cherished part of your holiday preparations.
2-Page Getting Started Guide: Essential for both new and returning users, this guide provides clear, concise printing tips and practical advice on setting up your holiday binder. It also offers strategic tips for maximizing the planner’s effectiveness, ensuring you hit the ground running.
9-Week Countdown Checklist: This is the backbone of your holiday planning. Starting in late October, this checklist meticulously breaks down overwhelming tasks into manageable weekly steps, ensuring no detail is overlooked. It helps you spread out your efforts, preventing last-minute rushes and allowing for a more relaxed pace throughout November and December.
Undated Monthly Calendars for November and December: These evergreen calendars provide a crucial big-picture view of your schedule and events. Use them to block out important dates, note appointments, track school holidays, and coordinate family gatherings. Being undated, they offer complete flexibility for use in any year.
Activity Wish List: This page encourages a family brainstorming session to list all the activities you’d love to do. From ice skating to movie nights, it helps you prioritize what’s truly important and select a few cherished experiences, ensuring your holidays are filled with intentional joy, not just obligations.
Week Before Thanksgiving Checklist: Specifically designed to tackle the busiest cooking day of the year, this checklist includes a super helpful timeline for cooking your turkey to perfection. It’s a true lifesaver that minimizes stress and maximizes efficiency in the kitchen, making your Thanksgiving meal preparations smoother than ever.
Baking List: Organize all your holiday baking endeavors in one place. This list helps you plan what to bake, when to bake it, and ensures you have all necessary ingredients on hand. From cookies to festive breads, manage your baking schedule effortlessly.
Holiday Traditions: This page is dedicated to listing and remembering your family’s most beloved holiday traditions—favorite foods, classic shows, special activities, and more. It helps ensure these cherished customs are carried forward and planned for, making the season truly unique to your family.
Generic Party Planner Page: Perfect for any holiday entertaining, whether it’s a casual get-together or a more formal event. This versatile page assists with guest lists, menu planning, decorations, and logistics, ensuring you host with confidence and ease.
Gift Record: An absolutely essential page for tracking all your gift-giving. Keep tabs on who you’re buying for, what you’ve purchased, how much you’ve spent, and when gifts have been wrapped and are ready. This prevents forgotten gifts, manages your budget, and brings peace of mind.
Holiday Card Tracker: This ingenious tracker can be reused year after year, allowing you to easily remember who you sent cards to and who you received them from. It simplifies the often-daunting task of sending holiday greetings, saving you time and ensuring no one is missed.
Holiday Thank You Tracker: An important part of gift receiving, this tracker helps you remember who to thank and for what gift. It promotes gratitude and ensures that all thank-you notes are sent out promptly and thoughtfully.
Blank Page: Offering ultimate flexibility, this blank page is your customizable space. Use it for journaling, jotting down favorite holiday recipes, creating a holiday budget, noting inspirational quotes, or anything else you want to remember or plan for.
General Holiday Season To-Do List: A comprehensive list for all those miscellaneous tasks that crop up during the holidays. It ensures everything from decorating to errands is captured, providing a clear overview of remaining responsibilities.
Holiday Weekly Meal Plan Pages: Beyond the special holiday meals, these pages help you plan your regular weekly meals throughout the busy season. PRO TIP: Aim to keep these everyday meals simple and easy to prepare, freeing up valuable time and energy for more festive activities.
Holiday Activity List Ideas: Feeling stuck for ideas? This page provides a wealth of inspiration for family-friendly activities. It’s a fantastic starting point for brainstorming sessions, helping you choose new traditions or revive old favorites to add to your customized activity list.
Favorite Holiday Recipes: Beyond just baking, this dedicated section is for all your cherished non-baking holiday recipes—savory dishes, festive drinks, appetizers, and more. Keep track of family favorites that you want to recreate and enjoy year after year.

Holiday Planner FAQ

Do you have to use all the pages of the holiday planner?

Absolutely not! My primary goal is to provide a wide range of options and maximal usefulness, but the beauty of this planner lies in its customizability. If you don’t host parties, plan activities with children, or send holiday cards, there’s no need to use those specific pages. My deepest hope is that you will thoughtfully pick and choose only the pages that genuinely help make your season smoother, allowing you to concentrate on what is truly important to you. Use it as a tool to spark conversations with loved ones about what genuinely matters during the holidays and what can simply be considered “added noise” that you can comfortably let go of.

Is a multi-page holiday planner really helpful?

Yes, unequivocally! But don’t just take my word for it. Here’s what one An Oregon Cottage reader, Kristin, had to say: “I love that the holiday planner keeps me organized all in one place instead of having notes all over my house. I also like that the planner puts me at ease knowing that I will not forget anything over the holidays since there is so much to remember!” Kristin’s experience highlights the power of having all your holiday thoughts, plans, and lists consolidated, offering both organization and invaluable peace of mind during an often-hectic time.

Integrate Your Planning: Combine with the Free Holiday Gift Planner!

To achieve truly holistic holiday organization, this comprehensive planner works exceptionally well in conjunction with our dedicated holiday gift planner. Also available in the exclusive Resource Library, the gift planner helps you meticulously plan and track all your handmade gifts, store-bought presents, and gift ideas. By combining both planners, you create a powerful, all-encompassing system that ensures every aspect of your holiday preparations, from activities to gift-giving, is perfectly coordinated.

PRO TIP: Elevate your organization by creating a dedicated binder for your main holiday planner. Then, simply add the gift planner as a separate, distinct section within the same binder! This keeps all your holiday planning resources neatly together and easily accessible.

Should you prefer a more streamlined approach, a simple gift record is already included within the main holiday planner. The choice is entirely yours, allowing you to customize your planning level to best suit your personal needs and preferences.

Beyond the Planner: More Ways to Help Make Your Holidays Better

Our commitment to helping you achieve a stress-free and joyful holiday season extends beyond just the planner. Explore these additional resources designed to simplify various aspects of your holiday preparations:

Free Printable Holiday Gift Planner to Put the Joy Back Into Gifting: Dive deeper into gift management with this specialized planner, designed to help you budget, track, and personalize your gifts, ensuring the act of giving remains a delightful experience.
Easy Gift Wrapping System: Discover a methodical approach to gift wrapping that saves time, reduces clutter, and makes the process enjoyable. This system is complemented by our guide on How to Wrap a Box with a Lid, a fundamental skill for an efficient wrapping station.
31 Days of Handmade Gifts for Christmas, Birthdays & More: Unleash your creativity and give truly unique presents with this inspirational series. It provides ideas and tutorials for crafting thoughtful gifts for any occasion, perfect for adding a personal touch to your holiday giving.
Favorite Things Gift Guides Series: Struggling for gift ideas? Our curated gift guides offer inspiration for everyone on your list, making present selection easier and more enjoyable.
Christmas Recipes: Explore a collection of festive recipes to inspire your holiday menus, from comforting classics to exciting new dishes, ensuring your holiday table is both delicious and memorable.
Christmas Decorating & Crafts: Find creative ideas and practical tips to beautifully adorn your home for the holidays, fostering a warm and inviting atmosphere without feeling overwhelmed.

We’d love to see how you’re using this planner to create your perfect holiday season! Tag us on Instagram or upload a picture to the site’s Facebook page to share your organized and joyful holiday moments with our community. Your insights inspire us all!