Even if Christmas is months away, you might already be starting your Christmas gift planning efforts. And that’s ok!
A lot of people find giving Christmas gifts to be stressful. What if someone doesn’t like the gift you bought for them?
How many gifts is too many for Christmas? How much should you spend on Christmas gifts for each person? In total?
Christmas gift giving doesn’t have to be a struggle. Once you have a plan in place, it’s easy enough to shop for the Christmas gifts they actually want – and stay on budget!
Christmas Gift Planning the Easy Way
In this Christmas gift planning guide, I cover some simple steps you can take today to map out your gift giving this holiday season.
Use these guidelines to get ready for Christmas gift giving no matter the time of year. Whether it’s months ahead of time or last minute shopping on Christmas Eve, have a plan for Christmas gifts and stick to it.
How to Plan Christmas Gifts This Year
Learning how to plan Christmas gifts ahead of time involves a few simple steps:
- Create a Christmas gift budget
- Brainstorm Christmas gift ideas
- Make a Christmas gifts list
- Go shopping, especially during sales
- Wrap presents, stay organized
- Give & enjoy!
As we take a look at how to plan Christmas presents for the upcoming year, let’s review these steps a little more in depth.
Set Your Christmas Gift Budget
No one likes to budget, but without one, it’s really easy to overspend around the holidays. For many people, Christmas gifts will be the biggest part of their Christmas budget.
This is especially true if you have children at home or are big into gift giving.
So before you buy anything, make sure you have a plan! There’s no sense in going into debt over the holidays, especially over Christmas presents.
For some tips on how to set a Christmas budget, check out this post: Christmas Budget Planning Mistakes – How To Stop Christmas Overspending
To start your Christmas gift budget, create a list of all the people you plan on giving gifts to. Consider:
- Spouse, partner, boyfriend, girlfriend
- Children
- Parents
- Siblings
- Grandparents
- Aunts, uncles
- Nieces, nephews
- Cousins
- Pets
- Friends
- Teachers
- Delivery, service personnel
- Neighbors
- Coworkers
- Charity donations, gifts
How much should I spend on Christmas gifts per person?
There are no hard and fast rules about how much your should spend on Christmas gifts. Most Christmas spending is based on income level.
Still, it can be helpful to have some guidelines. Consider the following spending suggestions for Christmas gifts:
$200 Christmas Gift Budget for Kids
- Kids aged 10 to 18+
$100 Christmas Gift Budget for Kids
- Kids aged 0 to 9
$100 Christmas Gift Budget for Couples
- Spouse, partner, boyfriend, girlfriend
$50 – $75 Christmas Gift Budget for Family
- Parents
- Siblings
$25 – $50 Christmas Gift Budget for Family
- Grandparents
- Aunts, uncles
- Nieces, nephews
- Cousins
$25 or less Christmas Gift Budget for Friends & Others
- Pets
- Friends
- Teachers
- Delivery, service personnel
- Neighbors
- Coworkers
Will your budget cover gifts for all the people on your list? If not, make adjustments until you find a spending amount per person that works. This will determine how much to save for Christmas gifts this year.
Brainstorm Gift Ideas
Now that you have a list of people to buy Christmas gifts for and a Christmas gift budget, it’s time to start brainstorming gift ideas.
Of course you can just browse the shops or online for gift options for Christmas. But it can be helpful to have a few ideas in mind up font. Consider:
- Hobbies they enjoy
- Music they listen to
- Movies & TV they watch
- Book subjects/authors they read
- Board game/video games they play
- Foods & beverages they enjoy
- Their favorite color
- Local places they frequent
Start to write down Christmas gift ideas as they come to you. Don’t forget about stocking stuffers and Advent calendar gifts! Check out various gift guides for Christmas present ideas.
What is the 5 Gift Rule for Christmas?
Is one gift enough for Christmas? Yes, absolutely! For many people on your Christmas gift list, you’ll end up giving them just one gift. And that’s ok.
But what about those that will receive multiple Christmas gifts?
How many gifts are too many? What is the appropriate numbers of gifts to give at Christmas?
This is where the 5 Gift Rule for Christmas comes in. It’s a simple list of Christmas gift ideas to give to someone. These include:
- Something they want
- Something they need
- Something to wear
- Something to read
- Something special just for them
If you tend to go overboard with Christmas gifts, or don’t know where to start, consider using these 5 rules for Christmas gifts. You can also make it into a 3 Gift Rule or 4 Gift Rule. Whatever works best for you and your family.
Want to give more than 5 gifts? Add these extra ideas to the 5 Gift Rule to create a 7 Gift Rule or 10 Gift Rule:
- Something to do
- Something for the family to enjoy together
- Something for service/charity
- Something fun
- Something practical
These gift rules for Christmas are just guidelines. In reality, it doesn’t matter how many gifts you buy someone, but rather that you buy gifts with intention instead of just purchasing items at random.
Putting It All Together – The Christmas Gift List
You have now have your Christmas gift budget and a list of possible gift options for Christmas. It’s time to put it together and make your Christmas gift list.
This is a big list of who you need to buy for, how much to spend on each person and gift ideas.
If you’re looking for a printable Christmas gift planner printable, check out my Ultimate Christmas Planner! It’s got several Christmas gift planning worksheets that serve as a Christmas gift list planner.
Grab the Ultimate Christmas Planner printable HERE!
The Ultimate Christmas Planner includes a Christmas gift planning template, that you can use to track Black Friday & Cyber Monday sales, plan out stocking stuffers & more. It also includes a Christmas gift budget planner to track your Christmas savings & spending goals.
Go Shopping
Now for the fun part – shopping! Shopping for Christmas gifts can be exciting, but it can also make you anxious. Christmas gift planning upfront will ease some of the tension of buying gifts for the holidays.
Technically, you can shop for Christmas gifts all year along. Keep an eye out for Christmas gifts at:
- End of season sales & clearances
- Gifts shops on vacation
- Farmers markets & craft shows
- Street fairs
Buying Christmas gifts throughout the year is a great way to spread out the money you plan to spend on gifts.
As you shop for gifts, don’t forget to write down how much you’re spending so that you can stay on budget.
Money within you gift budget can be shifted around as needed based on how much the Christmas gifts actually cost.
Wrap Gifts & Stay Organized
Wondering how to organize Christmas gifts and where to store them?
Closer to Christmas, wrapped gifts can be stored under the Christmas tree or displayed on a sideboard, in front of the hearth, etc. Closets, attics, storage units, etc. all make for great places to hide gifts until Christmas.
Don’t want someone snooping on a gift you bought them? Give it to a friend or extended family member to hold onto until the big day.
Some people like to wrap Christmas gifts as soon as they buy them. Or have the store wrap the gifts for them.
Other people like to doing a big gift wrapping session or two closer to Christmas. Either way, be sure to stay organized with your presents and keep track of what you bough and how much you spent.
Don’t forget to write down who the gift is for and what it is before you wrap it. Otherwise you might have to undo your wrapping if you forget!
Give & Enjoy!
Hey, Christmas gift giving is stressful sometimes! Hopefully it’s worth all the effort when you see the positive reaction on their face as they open their gift 🙂
Looking for printables to help with your Christmas planning? Check out my FULL Christmas Planner HERE!
More Christmas Planning Ideas
For more info on how to plan your best Christmas yet, check out these posts:
- The Complete Christmas Planning Guide For Busy People
- Ultimate Christmas Planner Printable – Best Christmas Planner for This Year
- Christmas Dinner Planning Guide For The Ultimate Holiday Feast
- Now Or Later? Here’s When To Start Planning For Christmas
- 48 Hours Of Awesome – How To Plan Christmas Day & Eve
- Christmas Budget Planning Mistakes – How To Stop Christmas Overspending
- How To Plan Christmas Decorations The Easy Way
- 72 Christmas Planning Tips For A Surprisingly Easy Christmas
- {Free Printable!} A Christmas Planning Checklist For This Year
- {Free Printable!} Save Money With This Christmas Budget Printable
- {Free Printable!} Christmas Meal Planner Printable to Prep a Feast
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