How to Make a Google Sheets Christmas Planner

The Ultimate Christmas Planner

If you’re spreadsheet savvy, you can DIY your own Google Sheets Christmas planner. And you’re in luck, because today I’m sharing all the sheets I use in my Google Sheets Christmas planner, along with pictures of how I set it up.

If you’d rather have a ready-to-use planner to enter your budget, gift lists, baking lists, Christmas meal ideas, and so much more, download this Google Sheets Christmas Planner template from my Etsy shop for just a few bucks. Reuse it year after year for all your Christmas organization!

The Christmas season is the ultimate test of planning and preparation. You’ve got gifts to buy, treats to bake, and plenty of spaces to decorate. I’ve been using spreadsheets to plan my Christmas shopping and baking for years. Although I love pretty printable planning pages, you can’t beat a spreadsheet for big complicated lists.

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Christmas Planning Areas

There are a a lot of pieces to Christmas planning. Here are the areas I include in my planning:

• November and December calendar
• advent activity ideas
• Christmas budget
• master gift list (everyone except the kids)
• kids’ gift list
• 12 days of Christmas ideas
• baking list
• Christmas meal planner
• Christmas decor plan
• notes to remember for next year

Each of these areas becomes a sheet (or tab) in my Christmas planner spreadsheet.

Christmas Calendar

Sheet 1 in my Christmas planner template is a Christmas calendar.

There are a lot of Christmas activities and events throughout November and December. Holiday bazaars, tree lightings, and Christmas concerts all vie for your attention. When you hear of an event that you may or may not want to attend, but definitely want to remember, add it to your Christmas calendar. This will be a reference sheet throughout the Christmas season, not a replacement for your regular calendar.

Advent Activity Ideas

Sheet 2 in my Google sheets Christmas Planner template is a place to track multiple advent activities.

While my kids are young, I try to sprinkle a little bit of magic over the Christmas season. Part of this is including special activities leading up to Christmas day. Some years, I plan for a specific event, activity or memory each day from December 1st through December 24th. Other years, we just print out a list of fun Christmas activities and pick and choose some to do.

In my Christmas planner, I create dropdown menus for each of these categories. You can reuse the lists year after year, but change up the activities each year.

Read: Christmas Fun List

24 Days of Christmas Fun

Here are some suggestions you can use to plan out 24 days of Christmas fun. Cchoose a few bigger activities like a Christmas party or volunteer opportunity and add in plenty of Christmas cheer with low-key activities like watching funny YouTube videos or working on a puzzle together.

24 Days of Advent Gift Ideas

If you enjoy giving your kids little gifts for the 24 days leading up to Christmas, here are some small gift ideas you can fit into tiny gift bags or boxes. You could choose a theme or mix and match little gifts and treats. Alternatively, these ideas could be used as small gifts for a 12 days of Christmas activity.

Depending on the age of your kids and what they are into, there are many options for little gifts.

Acrylic paint tubes

Bath bombs

Bookmarks

Bracelet charm

Christmas candy

Christmas cookie cutters

Magnets

Hair clips

Holiday K-Cups

Lip balm

Beauty supplies

Mini notepads

Mini ornaments

Nail polish

Washi tape

Scrunchies

24 Days of Christmas Books

For years, I’ve wrapped 24 books for my girls to open on the 24 days leading up to Christmas Day. We have a huge collection of Christmas books, so I can swap out the titles and not have the exact same group of 24 books every year.

After Christmas, wrap and label the 24 books for next year before you put your Christmas decorations away. Next, label each book with a number, 1 thru 24.

If you have multiple kids, they can take turns opening a book each morning. Write their names on the label for the days they get to be the one to open. Another way to do this is to use a different wrapping paper for each child. For example, if you have three kids like me, use three different Christmas gift wrap patterns and wrap eight books with each design.

TIP: Assign individual Christmas wrap to each child for all their Christmas gifts. It’s so easy to distribute on Christmas morning!

If you’re just building your Christmas book collection, or want to add a few this year, here are some suggestions.

You can download this free printable list of these 48 Christmas book titles for easy reference.

Read: 12 Meaningful Advent Activity Ideas

Christmas Budget

Sheet 3 in my Christmas Planner is a Christmas Budget planner.

Gifts, food, tickets, and donations can add up to a pretty expensive month in December. Setting a budget can help reduce excessive spending. Even if you don’t budget for every little detail, simply coming up with a budget for each person on your Christmas list and writing it down can keep that in the forefront of your mind as you shop.

A minimal budget would be to set an amount per person, and then a general amount for a few categories: cards, baking/food, decorations, entertainment, travel, and giving. Budgeting is meant to work for you. You can change your budget if it become clear that your budgeted amount is way off, but having a number in mind can help you think twice when your brain is bombarded with messages screaming SALE, BEST PRICE EVER, or BUY NOW!

Christmas Gift Guides

Master Gift List

Sheet 4 included in my Christmas Planner template is a master gift list.

The master gift list is a place to keep track of gifts purchased for everyone except your kids. The kids get their very own sheet because typically you’re purchasing multiple gifts for them.

The master gift list sheet has the following columns:

• recipient name
• item name
• cost
• checkbox for purchased or made
• checkbox for wrapped/labeled
• where it’s stored

Kids’ Gift List

Sheet 5 in my Google sheets Christmas planner is a kids’ gift list tracker.

The kids’ gift list sheet is where I started my Christmas planner. Keeping track of kids gifts is a big deal when you’ve got multiple kids and multiple family members wanting to buy things off their wish lists. Plus, if you like to shop throughout the year and tuck things away here and there, you have a place to record everything you’ve purchased. This sheet gives you a place to track everything you’re buying so you can keep it fairly “even.”

First, there is space to record gift ideas. You can link the item named to the product on Amazon or another website for easy reference.

I’ve included a separate area to track stocking stuffers. Below that is a space to track gifts that will be shared by multiple kids. You probably still want to track the cost, but may not want to include these in their individual columns.

As your kids create a wish list, or you hear them mention something they really want, add that item to their wish list on this sheet. When friends or family ask about items your kids would love, you’ll have a place to reference. You can check off items that are purchased for them by others and list who is giving it to them.

The final section on this sheet is a list of items that you know friends or family has purchased for you kids. These are things not on the kids’ wish lists, but if you know in advance they are receiving something from a family member, you can add it here.

12 Days of Christmas Ideas for Men

Sheet 6 in my Christmas Planner is a 12 days of Christmas planner.

Some years I like to do a fun little 12 days of Christmas for my husband. And we all know that men are THE HARDEST PEOPLE to buy things for. So I have a sheet dedicated to 12 days of Christmas ideas. As you think of small gifts that might work for this, add them to the dropdown menu list of inspiration.

Grab a set of simple countdown cards in my Etsy shop

Baking List

Sheet 7 in my Google sheets Christmas Planner template is a baking list to track your holiday baking.

I do a lot of holiday baking. My husband’s co-workers have come to expect huge trays of Christmas treats, and I’ve sold them at holiday bazaars as well. I love using Pinterest to find great cookie and treat recipes, but I wanted a way to track the recipes I used from a variety of sources, make notes about them, and keep a list to choose from each Christmas.

That’s exactly what my baking list sheet does. There is a column for the item name with a dropdown menu of choices. You can link your recipes to an online recipe source, or use the column labeled “recipe source” to list the cookbook name or recipe binder. The third column is for notes such as recipe adjustments, a specific person you want to give them to, or whether you want to make them again next year. I included one final column with a checkbox for to click if a recipe is amazing and you want to add it to your regular rotation every year.

Christmas Meal Planner

Sheet 8 in my Christmas planner is a Christmas meal planning record.

My Christmas meal planner sheet gives you a place to record your Christmas menu with links to the recipes you want to use. I use a dropdown menu here also, so that you can add ideas and have plenty to choose from each year.

Christmas Decor Planning

Sheet 9 in my Christmas planner template is for Christmas decor planning.

The sheet for Christmas Decor Planning works as a place to record specific items, themes, or color schemes you want to use in various areas of your home. You can add decor you want to purchase and links to images or items you want to keep as inspiration.

Plan Ahead

Sheet 10 in my Google sheets Christmas planner is a place to plan ahead for next year.

The plan ahead sheet is your place to record gifts you purchase at those after-Christmas sales, or throughout the year, that you plan to gift for next year. There’s plenty of space to add notes related to things you want to remember or adjust for next year too.

Organize Christmas Planning with Spreadsheets

Spreadsheets work well to organize Christmas planning because they offer the ability to set up neat columns, quickly perform math calculations, link from one sheet to another, and utilize dropdown menus that can be used year after year.

Plus, with Google sheets, your complete Christmas planner is accessible anywhere you can access the internet!

Visit my Etsy shop to download my Christmas Planner Google Sheets Template and start your organized Christmas planning today!

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Google Sheets Christmas Planner