How to plan a great Christmas with PDFs.

Tips for Christmas planning.

Some people love Christmas planning. Others, not so much. Whether you buzz with excitement at the thought of getting everything and everybody together at Christmas months in advance or prefer to leave it until closer to the day, here are some tips to kick off your Christmas planning.

1. Get started early.

Leaving everything until the very last minute is one way to add a layer of stress to the festive season! Start thinking about your Christmas plans early to work out what you need to do and when.

2. Work out a budget.

Christmas is an expensive time of year. Work out what you can afford for extra food and gifts and any travel over the holiday period. That way, you don’t find yourself still paying for it all months later and into the following year.

3. Write lists and checklists.

Break up things to do for Christmas into smaller task-orientated lists of what you need to do and by when.

4. Make your lists easy to access.

Creating your lists in PDF format means you can open them on any device, including the free Acrobat Reader Mobile App. PDF files also use less electronic storage space than many other file formats.

Even if you start with a long PDF with a lot of detailed Christmas planning, you can make changes to it at any time with Acrobat. Or drag and drop PDF files to our web-based app to

• Split a PDF
• Edit a PDF
• Rearrange a PDF
• Add pages to a PDF
• Delete PDF pages
• Convert a JPG to a PDF
• And more.

Types of Christmas planning checklists.

For any kind of checklist list that can potentially become long and overwhelming, it’s always a good idea to break it down into smaller lists based on categories.

Here are a few different types of Christmas planning lists to get started with —

Christmas budgets.

Budgeting for Christmas means taking into consideration absolutely everything you want to and can afford to buy for however you celebrate the season. Things to include in an overall Christmas budget PDF include —

• Gifts, wrapping paper, Christmas cards and postage (if applicable)
• Decorations
• Food and beverages for meals, snacks and socialising
• Travel to visit others or take a holiday through the Christmas break

Christmas present lists.

Creating Christmas gift lists helps with sticking to your budget and making sure you’ve got everyone covered. Whether you shop online or in-store, if you’ve always got a PDF file handy you can check your list when you see something that might be the perfect gift for someone else. They’re also good to keep from year to year so you don’t buy people the same presents again — unless they want you to! Things to include on Christmas present list PDFs include —

• People to buy/make gifts for
• Wish list items that you’ve already ascertained someone would like ahead of time
• Costs/budget per person/gift
• Postage and mailing dates if you need to send to another state or overseas
• Extra presents for unexpected guests/visitors
• Wrapping paper

Christmas menu planning.

Whether you’re hosting and creating the entire menu, organising a shared meal and having everyone ‘bring a plate’ or creating dishes to take to someone else’s house, plan it out. Things to include in planning a Christmas menu PDF include —

• Any food traditions, such as Christmas recipes made in your family for generations
• Number of people to cater for
• Dietary considerations
• Beverages
• Time needed to cook on the day/prepare ahead
• Budget

Christmas party planning.

Create a plan for any travel you plan to do over Christmas. It’s a time of the year when things are easily forgotten with everything else going on, and there are a lot of other people on the road or using public transportation. Items to include in Christmas travel planning PDFs include —

• Bags to pack — clothing, medicines, toiletries, passports
• Transportation — vehicle readiness, flights, travel routes
• Home preparation — plants, mail collection, rubbish disposal, security systems
• Pet care — supplies if taking pets with your or to have fed at home or vaccination requirements to board at catteries or kennels

How to create Christmas planner PDFs.

Have a bit of fun creating PDF plans and lists for Christmas. Get creative and add and insert festive images that bring you joy and make your list something you enjoy interacting with. There are a few ways to create PDFs for Christmas planning —

1. Download and adapt Christmas planner PDF templates or to-do lists online from sites such as Adobe Express. Then edit and customise your lists with your Christmas plans and tasks leading up to the day.
2. Use Acrobat to create your PDF lists from scratch. Include interactive features such as tickboxes, buttons and links to websites for online shopping.
3. Create your Christmas planning documents in Word or Excel and then convert files to PDF or print them to PDF from within the programme.