31 Days of Inspired Holidays: day 4: Planning

Today is the New Moon, the day of St. Francis of Assisi and four weeks to Samhain day. 

Again, I turn to "Organized Christmas" to be inspired, and it works every time :-D
 
Create a Sabbath Planning Center, if you don't already have one. You can dress it up following the seasons around you, giving you some Holiday Spirit a good time before it's time to party and share that spirit with your loved ones :-)

 This is from Golden Boys and Me

 It's very much the style I see when I think about the holiday planning center.

Just not in those colors... and not with a picture by her kid. :-)

It would be really nice to change the chair cover by seasons, and all the other colors too.

I also have a Sabbath binder. I am planning on getting myself 8 of these, one for each Sabbath and the 6 1/2 weeks around it (4 weeks before, 2 1/2 weeks after), and decorate them appropriately. Right now I have my Sabbath papers in a folder of appropriate color, and I change the innards of the binder as the year passes. But - I have already noticed that my binder is very small, too small for the purpose... :-D
I am a magpie, I collect things...

Another thing to think about is the gifts. People usually love birthdays and Christmas, and I imagine it's because of the gifts. Not just getting things, but gifts. The tokens of love and appreciation. At least, that's what gifts are to me. I love gifts, because they to me mean someone has thought of me. I don't much care about the prize tag, if the thing is something I would have bought for myself, if it fits my decor or style, if I need it... the main thing, the most important thing is that someone thought of me. 

There is a word in Finnish, "tuliainen". It means "a gift given at arriving from a journey". The journey could be a visit to a foreign country, or one relatives or friends make traveling from their home to yours. "Tupaantuliainen" is a homewarming gift. ("Gift given at entering the new home")

I think it would be nice to give gifts at every Sabbath. It surely would make people, especially kids, interested and enthusiastic about the holiday :-D (And remembering Oprah Show's give-away episodes and all the participants for every give-away on-line, I think people like getting things. :-D)

There's also some historical information to support the idea of giving gifts on Samhain:

"Among the 7th century pagans of Flanders and the Netherlands, it was the custom to exchange gifts at the New Year. This was a pagan custom deplored by Saint Eligius (died 659 or 660), who warned the Flemings and Dutchmen, "(Do not) make vetulas, [little figures of the Old Woman], little deer or iotticos or set tables [for the house-elf, compare Puck] at night or exchange New Year gifts or supply superfluous drinks [another Yule custom]." 
- New Year's Day, Wikipedia

It is also a habit in Asia to exchange gifts at New Year.

This would be a perfect opportunity to share your harvest bounty with your loved ones, and give food gifts. There's plenty of wild mushrooms in the woods at this time of the year, and those can be canned or dried.
One thing you need to do today is to decide if you want to give gifts on Samhain and what to give, to whom, when, where and how. 

Consider the following: 
- A purposeful, peaceful Christmas 
In their printables there are some questions to ponder:
* Family vision (on giving)
* To give as a family:
* Secret Giving:
* New Tradition:
* What it means? (time 2 give)
* "Can you think of a way to include your school, church, sports team, Sunday school class, or a group of friends in a special giving project?"
* With my friends (giving)

- "At Christmastime it's customary to give something to the people in our lives who perform services for us during the year." Like postman, firemen, policemen, teachers, hairdressers, nurses and coaches. Maybe you could start giving already at Samhain, so that all those people got a little bit more in their pockets BEFORE Christmas? It doesn't need to be much, or a big gift, just a little token of your appreciation. But find out the rules and preferences before you give anything to anyone. Some people are not allowed to accept any gifts, some not money, some nothing but money... and the amount might be restricted as well.   

- Immediate family gifts
- Extended family gifts
- Adopted family/friends gifts
- Other gifts (teachers, neighbors, co-workers...) 

* Also, don't forget the October birthdays, namedays, or other special dates!

You need to decide if you will be sending cards, to whom, and if you buy the cards or make them yourself.

Write a Samhain card list. 
-People's names
-Addresses (check the addresses in good time before)
-Telephone number
- email? If you plan on sending electric cards, then you need this
-A square to cross when you have sent the cards, and another to cross, if you receive a card.

Buy cards or buy supplies for handmade cards (including thank you cards).

Think about labeling: nice pen, address labels, stamping?

Get stamps.

 A cute card made by "I am... Dreaming of Castles"

Make a holiday budget. There's plenty of free printable available on-line. Go through some of them to remind yourself of all the things you need to remember to put some money aside for.

- an article about planning your holiday budget with a free printable

- holiday budget sheets - gift giving budget, and all holiday expenses budget sheet

- holiday budget printable

- more about holiday spending with gift budget spreadsheet printable

- holiday gift budget worksheet

An article about holiday spending especially for Halloween.   

How to organize holiday shopping

organize your holiday receipts

* Write the menu. I think this is a really nice walk-through on how to plan dinner parties. And holiday dinners are exactly that. Whether you plan to feed only you and your familiar, or the whole extended family, the same rules apply. If you plan on inviting the whole family, or all your friends, write the guest list and send invitations with RSVP. And then start hunting the responses people will not send... :-D

On a guest list should be

- name

- address and email

- telephone number / mobile number

- RSVP

- food allergies and other such details

- room for other notes

- gifts received, given, and thank you notes

and here's also a very nice "ultimate party planner" printable, with very good reminders.

This is very nice as well: Holiday Menu Planning

Here's some worthy ideas as well: Menu Planning for Holidays, and so is here: 10 tips on how to plan a holiday menu

I prefer to serve all vegetarian for harvest feasts (Lammas, Mabon and Samhain), but Samhain is also the meat harvest feast, as it's beginning to be very cold outside at this time of the year, so animals can be slaughtered without the meat spoiling so quickly. 

Also, 11.11 is St. Martin's day, and Mortensaften is a Danish tradition, so I wish to serve goose on Samhain.

Holiday menu planner

Party menu planner

You need to plan the holiday menu, not only the dinner, but every meal you plan on eating on Samhain; breakfasts, snacks, dinner, supper, lunch and elevensies included. 

Because you should be able to take care of as much of preparing, baking and shopping as you can before the last week. 

You can freeze cookie dough and many baked goods manage freezing well. I think the Finnish Christmas caseroles (carrot casserole or kugel, swede casserole and others) are very nice Samhain sidedishes, and can be made in good time beforehand, and then just warmed for the dinner. So is Danish red cabbage or Swedish brown cabbage. All these are very nice with fatty meats like pork or goose.

You should also be able to buy most of the non-perishables needed for holiday cooking now, so that you can spread the budget more, and not need to buy everything with one salary.

(Also, if you plan on serving food for several guests, you need to go through your table setting and dishes, serving dishes, cutlery and table linen, and decide what you are going to hire, if you need to borrow some dishes from someone etc.)

Other things you need to plan:

- Activities. Are you planning on going to see some concerts or plays or other events? You need to get the tickets, now. Are you planning on going to pumpkin picking or hayrides? Get your spot, now. Make all the necessary arrangements, call people, see that everything is prepared and ready and just waiting for the time to come. 

- Parties and entertaining at other people's homes. Visits to make. Are you going to spend the holiday at someone else? You should still remember host/hostess gift and weekend bag packing lists. What else?

- Look at October schedule and find things that can be done in advance. Draft October schedule, day by day. Plan doing 15 minutes every day, be prepared to update your schedule according to unexpected problems. See when, where, why, how, with whom and with what. What can you do beforehand, and how much beforehand?

- Costumes - other clothes. Do you have appropriate underwear, all the necessary corsets, underskirts and hoops and whatnots? Do you have all the necessary accessories, the belts, pouches, wings and glasses? Do you have nice clothes for every event you have planned? Does your family? Is everything clean and patched and mended (if something was broken)? Batteries for lights? Lamps all fixed and working? Hair and makeup? Masks?

- Write a long-term shopping list divided into: canned foods, perishables for each holiday, linens and dishes, decorations, etc.

31 Days of Inspired Holidays: day 2: Cleaning

"Holiday house fever? Cure it with a holiday home spruce-up exercise"

These people have been doing this for some two decades, THEY KNOW WHAT THEY ARE DOING. And you can take advantage of their knowledge, work, experiments and try-outs, and do exactly what she tells you to do.

I have been doing that too. Every time I clean the house for any feast or holiday, I go through all the rooms with a list, on which I write everything that bothers me.

I don't cross out anything, I go through the list and think what I can do right now with what I have, if I could spruce up something I have in stead of buying new things, if switching furniture around would make any difference, what I can do with soft furnishing and decorations, candles and such. (No, I don't suggest burning anything :-D)

I have also noticed that I notice more from a photo than in reality. I can see what needs to be fixed when I see a photo of my home, because for some reason I look at a photo as if it wasn't my home. Somehow I see what's under the piles of stuff, and don't see the dust and stains in real life. I can also appreciate what I have done with "before and after" photos. :-) With digital cameras and computers one doesn't even need to save "the evidence", if it's too "incriminating" :-D

I agree with Cynthia, that it's not time to start changing anything big right before a holiday. (On the other hand, with a big holiday 8 times a year, divided evenly, it's ALWAYS "right before a holiday". :-D) Write the things you want to change in the home management/decoration/renovation list, and put it in the right place in your household binder for future. :-) (It is ok to buy a new sofa right before a holiday, if you have planned it in your yearly budget, and have decided to buy it, of course. Just don't buy a new sofa, because you think it would be better right now, right here, than the old one.)

There is a thorough cleaning list at Organized Holidays, but it's only a little bit more than 4 weeks to Samhain right now, so you can't follow those lists exactly. I suggest you share the lists like this:

Week 1: October 1st - 6th  - get the backbone of the home straightened, and fix the first looks
Front Porch
Entryway, Foyer
Storages (Garage, Attic, Pantry and Closets)
As you go through the storages, you'll be picking up the holiday decor and going through that. What needs to be cleaned, replaced, mended, thrown away or purchased?

Week 2: October 7th - 13th - so that it's all ready for all the holiday baking and such
Kitchen

Week 3: October 14th - 20th - make the parts of home the visitors see clean
Living Room, Family Room, Entertaining Room, Home Office, Hobby Room, Play Room, Dining Room

Week 4: October 21st - 27th - the rest
Master Bedroom, Kids' Rooms, Guest Room
Bathrooms

Last 4 days:
Finish up and keep up

This photo is from Thanksgiving in Canada

31 Days of Inspired Holidays: day 1: Holiday Values

I am going to share with you my journey through October to Samhain, 2013. The last month of a Witch's year.

I love Organized Holidays.  One of the most important things they stress is holiday values.

WHAT DO YOU WANT?

What do YOU want to celebrate and how?
What is it about Samhain you want to celebrate?
What does Samhain mean to you?

Holidays are there to give us a well needed and wanted break from the everyday, toil and trouble, blood, sweat and tears. Holidays are to be something quite opposite. No toil, no troubles, no stress, no blood, no pain, no sweat and no tears.

(At least no tears of sadness, pain and anger. Happy tears are OK :-D Though kids and animals can't see the difference, and you might need to think why you are crying happy tears... and do something about the matter. Maybe you have been too hard and too stingy with yourself, and not given yourself enough rest and joy in your life, so when you finally get it, you start crying. Think about it. Now, we women tend to have easy to cry for everything, and that's hormonal and nothing to do anything about, and if that's the reason why you cry, then it's ok. Just remember that children and animals and other sensitive living beings find tears confusing and stressful.)

I want my holidays to be Movie Magic. The Stuff Movies Are Made Off. Picture perfect... But I don't want fake. I don't want "staged".
Or I do, but just as much as is needed to set a stage for true joy and happiness, pleasure and rest, to create a space outside the time, where we don't need to worry about anything, do anything, take care of anything. This is why I think it is important to set the date apart from all the others, to lift it up, to shine it, to make it sparkle and create joyful memories :-)

It is said that for a dream to come true, we need to set a date, make a plan and break the job into small, manageable steps, and then take action.

The date is set, by God, as far as I'm concerned. I believe the equinoxes and solstice are put in place for a reason, and that is so that we would "keep the Shabat", and get the rest we need and break the year into "manageable steps". I think it is important to mark the dates, like graduation, birthdays, first blood, marriage and death. So it is also important to mark the seasons.
Samhain is in between Autumn Equinox and Winter Solstice, marking the end of Autumn and the beginning of Winter.

The plan is personal for every one of us. You want something different than I do.

To me it is important to dress the home for a party. That is, clean it better than just for everyday, decorate it, put bows on and a cherry on the top, if you understand what I mean.

To me it's important to appeal to all the five senses (and the others too, though that might be difficult, even impossible, in same cases :-D http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sense ).
It's easy to remember sights and flavors, even smells, with decorations and food, but how to appeal to ears and touch? And what sensory elements will lift Samhain up from the rest of the Autumn?

Here's Melissa's "20 little things to treasure in Autumn". Write a list like that, for Samhain. What happens at this time of year that happens never in any other time, that you love?
You don't need to be able to write the list right away. Just add the list in your Samhain binder, and add things as you come across them. Maybe you'll find more than 20 :-)
Until then you can use that list. Those are nice things, too. :-)

Another thing that is important to me, is the spiritual meaning of the holiday. At this time of the year I feel the connection to my ancestors very strongly. In summer the connection to Mother's beating heart is strong, and now, with the vegetation disappearing, the connection with the ground, soil, dust, history, burial mounds and graves dug in the earth, comes stronger. I can feel the silver line binding me with generations before me, all the hundreds and thousands of people that were part of making me me. I remember all my relatives, my family, my people...
I have always loved the Silent Suppers and felt the closeness of Absent Friends.

To find out how YOU want to celebrate this time of the year, focus on this question: why do you do what you do?
Why do you clean, shop, bake, cook, decorate, and all the other things you do?
That is the best way to give time to things you really WANT to spend time with and in, and not waste it to things you really don't care about.

Make yourself a promise. Start collecting things, pictures, recipes and ideas that make you think and feel Samhain.

Look at other traditions and religions, and what are they celebrating, how and why.
Look at other celebrations at this time of the year.
Look at the deities associated with this holiday, and their celebrations and other traditions involved in their worship.
Look at other people and their traditions, and what you like, what you would like to bring in to your holidays.
Look at the different seasonal activities, and what would you like to add to your Samhain.
Look also at the other seasons and feasts. There might be something in Easter celebrations you could adjust to Samhain, for example. I use Yule (and Christmas) very much as a base to build on my other Sabbaths.
Look at your family and how you have celebrated the Sabbaths and other holidays. What went right? What went wrong and why? What did you forget?
Look at other parties your family has celebrated.

Now, then... it's actually time to start thinking about not the next holiday, but the holiday after that... For you to be properly ready for Yule, you should have started thinking about it already a month ago.

Little Devil by Alan Dart

Would work nicely as your "elf on the shelf"