The holidays are so near, we bet you’re feeling both confused and excited.
While you’re juggling your family and work schedule, how will you even plan for it?
With less than a month till Christmas, prepare for the celebrations now so you can focus on having fun later.
We’ve listed down a few things you could start preparing for as early as now.
Your Holiday Budget
Celebrating is definitely fun, but you shouldn’t spend all your hard-earned money on it.
Make a list of all your expected expenses, such as food, gifts, and decorations.
Determine how much you’re willing to spend on each of these categories and be sure to stick to it.
For example, if you have a budget of PHP 5,000, you can allot about PHP 2,500 for gifts, PHP 2,000 for food, and PHP 500 for your decorations.
If you still have decorations from your previous holiday celebrations, it’s best to reuse them and allot the money to something else.
To help you manage and track your budget for the Holidays, make use of budgeting apps like Monefy or Goodbudget.
With these apps, you can organize your expenses into several categories such as groceries, transportation, and utilities; add a category for your gifts and allot a budget.
After you do this, simply input your gift expenses in the app and it will help you stay within your budget by letting you know if you’re about to go above your designated range.
The Noche Buena Menu
It’s best to think of what you’ll be preparing for your noche buena now, so you have more time to strategize.
Make a list of all the food you’ll be cooking so you can make a checklist of the ingredients you’ll need to buy.
If you already have a list, group it into categories. Segment your list by beverages, canned goods, dairy, dry goods, frozen food, meat, and produce.
If you’ll be using disposable items for your noche buena such as paper cups, plates, and utensils, don’t forget to put those on your list too.
Now that you have a list, you can start planning on when you should buy it.
Purchase your dry goods such as pasta and flour, your canned goods, and disposable items as early as now so you can cross them off your list once you start buying the other products near the celebration day.
If you’re out of ideas for what you want to cook, you can use recipe apps.
There are usually hundreds of recipes categorized into different types of main ingredients.
Browse through Pinoy Food Recipes or Yummly and discover a wide variety of dishes.
For vegans, you may download Food Monster. These apps will also let you see the ingredients, so you can plan better should you decide to use their recipes.
Opting for cooked meals? Start looking for places or restaurants now.
If you want, you can also order some as early as now and have a taste test before your noche buena.
Browse through GrabFood or Food Panda and search for dishes you might like.
Christmas Celebration Theme
Planning on having a themed celebration? Then it would be a great idea to start planning now.
For a holiday reindeer-sweater-themed celebration, inform your family now so they can prepare their holiday jackets.
If you’re looking to have a celebration filled with bright sparkling lights, you’ll probably have to buy some that will go well with your theme.
If you’re having a hard time coming up with themes, you can always search for inspirations online.
You may try looking for some themed celebrations on Pinterest and choose one that would fit you and your family.
You may also go a bit more extra. Buy your decorations through your favorite e-commerce sites like Shopee and Lazada for hassle-free shopping.
Get decorative shiny balloons (and air pump) online and bedazzle your home.
Order Christmas trees, Christmas lights, Bluetooth microphones, Santa stockings, and your traditional Parol so you won’t have to worry about going to the malls or shopping centers.
If you want some classic Bibingka and Puto Bumbong, you may use Lalamove and Toktok’s purchase service features, but you need to know where to buy these (they’re usually near the churches during Simbang Gabi).
Thoughtful Gift List
‘Tis the season to spread love! Let your family feel extra loved by giving them gifts for the holidays.
For the best gift buying experience, list down the names of all your family members (and friends too if you want).
To make sure your list is complete, you can group them by families.
List down your parents and grandparents, then list your brothers or sisters’ families.
If you’ll be giving gifts to your cousins, list them down as well. Once you’re all set, jot down gift ideas for each person.
To make it extra special, give them personal gifts. It could be something as simple as a basketball for your sporty cousin, a pair of shoes for your sneakerhead father, a Bluetooth microphone for your aspiring singer brother, or a ukulele for your quirky niece.
You may also want to do the Secret Santa activity and exchange gifts with your family.
Use apps like Elfster or Secret Santa Service to randomly generate names for everybody.
For fun ninongs and ninangs, you may use spin the wheel or random number generators for your favorite pamangkins and inaanaks and have the app choose how much aguinaldo you’re going to give them.
Use apps like Spin The Wheel Picker Decides or Pretty Random (Click here for Android and for iOS).
For Spin The Wheel, input the amounts your nieces and nephews can win; and for Pretty Random, remember to set a limit.
Spread the Warmth and Cheer Online
If you’ll be celebrating your holiday season with your friends and family virtually, make sure your video conferencing program is ready.
For apps like Zoom, the free version can only hold group meetings for 40 minutes, but a paid version will let you host up to a 100 participants with no time limits.
Make sure you’re ready for this whenever you decide to use video conferencing software.
There are also other free alternatives like Google Meet, Discord, or Skype.
It’s best to test your software of choice before the day so there won’t be any problems.
You may also help others in setting up the application on their devices so they don’t experience any hassle when joining the virtual meet on the day itself.
Celebrate the holiday season with your loved ones, but remember to stay safe. Maintain minimum health protocols especially when going out to buy groceries and party supplies.
If you’re not vaccinated yet, it would be best for you to schedule your vaccination through your LGU’s Health Offices. This way, you can spend your holidays safer.
Dont’ forget to download the Smart GigaLife app from the App Store or Google Play, and subscribe to Unli Data or 7 Days Unli 5G so you can surf and plan for your Holiday celebrations.
