Free Printable Holiday Gift Planner – Put Joy Back Into Gifting!

A six-page, four-week holiday gift planner that you can download to help you make gifting meaningful, stick to your budget, and enjoy the process. Used yearly, this planner will also help to keep track of gifts you’ve given to help you remember.

If you, like me, often feel the joy just suck right out of you at the thought of buying Christmas gifts, then I think you will LOVE this simple little gift planner!

I have found through the years – and with our emphasis on handmade gifts – that simpler is better and the thought really is the thing that counts. Not stressing as much about gifts means being able to concentrate on other holiday activities. It sets a good example for our kids. It saves money – and worry over money.

But here’s the thing: it takes planning.

If we just let the days go by thinking we’ll “get to it eventually” then we may find ourselves elbowing through the crowds and spending more at the last minute for things that really may not be good matches for the recipients.

So I created a gifting timeline that’s spread over four weeks, breaking down the tasks into bite-sized assignments that move you gently towards filling in your lists. While it can be used anytime, it was originally planned for the month of October before all the holiday hoopla begins and with enough time if you’d like to spread it out more than four weeks.

Whether you use it in October, start in November – or even December – this will become an invaluable tool in helping you not only decide what to give, but also as a record of what you have gifted.

This holiday gift planner is designed to help you with all different types of gifts for all the people on your list, both homemade gifts and store bought. The goal is to help you be a bit more strategic in your thinking to plan out your gifts, keeping in mind your time, money, and ability – and to find the joy in gifting again.

Holiday Gift Planner

The holiday gift planner includes 5 pages plus a User Guide with tips and notes on how to best use the pages.

In the file you’ll find:

• 2-page User Guide
• 4-Week Christmas Gift Plan Checklist
• Christmas Gift Record
• Handmade Gift Creation To-Do List
• Thankful and Handmade for You Sticker Labels template
• Gift Shopping Plan

You can use just a couple of the pages or use them all, printing out just what you need when you need it (TIP: print new pages for each Christmas season, adding the year to the top of the page).

The User Guide gives you a starting point and helps you to plan your process with the checklist. It’s includes hints about priorities, sticking to a budget, and having fun with the gift-giving process. Basically, all the simple homemade life things we talk about around here!

While I am a bit biased towards handmade gifts, I like any gift where it’s obvious that some thought and caring went into the selection.

Sometimes “handmade” gifts are store-bought items put together in some kind of container that’s geared toward the recipient’s likes. That’s handmade in my book – you can’t find that exact gift anywhere in a store, right? If someone buys me a book or magazine they know I’d love, that is thoughtful, too.

Through this planner I’m hoping to encourage us all to remember the reason for the season is to LOVE and not just give for giving’s sake. Let’s use the opportunity to show our friends and family love through our gifts, whether they be homemade or not, or even if they are simply the gift of our time.

Let me know what you think about this gift planner and how you use it!

Remember to get your planner!