Planning For The Perfect Christmas – 17 Weeks To Go!

Storage and Stocking Up

Last week’s post was all about lists, (if you havn’t made yours yet, you can start here), the all time saviours of Christmas! With lists you don’t forget things, you have everything at your finger tips and when the Christmas is approaching fast you know what you have done and what is left, a very comforting feeling! 🙂

This week is all about making space and filling it with Christmas cheer!

I have cleared a shelf in my linen closet, funny thing is that I seem to be the only one that ever ventures into that zone at our house, so is a great place to hide goodies that prying eyes and nimble fingers won’t go near.

If you have not already done so, go and find a spot where you can safely store your santa stash. Get one or two large plastic storage containers or some cardboard boxes from the supermarket. A quick glance in the cupboard won’t give away the goodies hiding in boring looking boxes. The fun thing is that you are creating your own Christmas Hampers with exactly what you like in them!

This gorgeous hamper is from www.bestchristmashampers.com

For the last few weeks I noticed that fruit mince pies have been available for purchase. This week things have started to ramp up, with Woolworths stores now having a full display of Chrismas baked goodies. Fruit cakes, puddings, gingerbread and mince pies are now sitting on the shelf ready for you to pick the ones you like best and hide them away for the big day.

Everytime you go grocery shopping add an item or two or three and put these away. So many products have very long use-by dates and the budget won’t blow out if you slowly start stocking up now! When items you like are on special that is the best time to add them to your hamper.

FILLING YOUR HAMPER 

• Baking supplies – flour, sugar, brown sugar, icing sugar, colourings, sprinkles, essences.
• Soft drink, juice, cordial.
• Biscuits – sweet, savoury, shortbread.
• Chocolate – blocks to be melted, chocolate chips, chocolate drops.
• Alcohol
• Frozen foods – turkey, ham, chickens, pork, whole beef fillets, berries – it’s great to have these more expensive items safely stashed in the freezer.
• Sauces, condiments, olives, spices, oil, gravy, stock, pasta, dried herbs and vinegar.
• Tins – fruit, condensed milk, soup and tomatoes.
• Baking trays, tins, storage containers, cling wrap, baking paper, aluminium foil, matches, bbq supplies and candles.

For a few years, I used to participate in the Chrisco Hamper Club, and it really was a fun day when box after box after box got delivered, but no hamper was perfect, there were always some items my family just did not eat, and custom designing your own with only the goddies you like, and making use of supermarket specials, is way more cost effective.

If you have a NO JUNK MAIL sign on your mailbox, I would strongly suggest you cover that up soon or remove it completely, and let all that glorious Christmas planning help be delivered right to your door. Brimming with bargains and inspiration, you can plan your purchases and hide them away until it is time to start wrapping. This is so much easier than walking around stores for hours looking for suitable gifts or supplies. Many stores will allow you to purchase on-line, that is making things super easy.

That is enough for this week, what are the first goodies you are going to grab when you hit the shops this week?