Thursday, June 21, 2018

June's Christmas Club meeting


(The pretty vintage card above is available in my Etsy shop.  I love the pastel candles tucked in among the berries and greenery!)

So yesterday, our little Christmas Club had its June meeting at a local library.  Only three of us attended, but it was an encouraging and productive meeting!

Actually, as I informed the other ladies, we had a fourth, long-distance member who was with us in spirit: Vicki, from Christmas 24/7/365.  Vicki lives in Arizona, so obviously she could not get to the meeting, but I have told her she can be an honorary member of the club. We are delighted to have you, Vicki!

Another blogger who was unaware of our meeting but was in a way present at it was Pamela, from The Lady of the House Speaking.  I had printed out copies of her post presenting 5 ways to make Rudolph Day fun and productive, which is truly worth the read.  Pamela suggests fine-tuning a craft on Rudolph Day, as well as a festive recipe.  She adds several other ways to make your Rudolph Day special, so head on over and read the post!

We agreed that it probably wasn't likely, with our busy lives, that we would do all five things on any given Rudolph Day, but Pamela provides a wonderful plan if one has an entire day.  I know some people celebrate Rudolph Day on an adjacent weekend, if the 25th of the month is too busy.

We discussed our summer and fall plans a little bit.  All three of us will be traveling during the fall at various times, so we agreed it's even more important to meet during the summer and get ahead of the game as much as possible.

One of Carrie's goals was to get her Christmas gift list started.  She did get money for Christmas gifts  put in the  budget.  And she actually began the list yesterday, so that's a good start on her goal.  I have my gift list started (I admit I usually begin it in January, after I've seen how the previous year's gifts went over).  Susan still has her list from last year, as she didn't use it.  So one of our assignments for the July meeting is to get our gift lists completed and fine-tuned.

I shared that I had purchased my Christmas stamps for the coming year.  (I actually ordered these in January. ) You can find all sorts of stamps at usps.com and I highly recommend doing so right away.  The only downside might be that if new holiday stamps come out between now and then, you might wish you had waited.  I ordered global stamps as well for my out-of-country Christmas cards.  It's going to be so nice to have these all ready to go when the Christmas cards are.  No last-minute trips to the post office for Christmas stamps.

Susan brought up the topic of neighbor gifts.  She has done gifts of cookies, and also small loaves of banana bread.  I usually do cookie trays, but have also done other things like hot cocoa mix, tea breads, scones, even granola.  One of our neighbors always makes a sourdough rye bread which we look forward to every year.  Another family makes jars of salsa using ingredients from their garden. There are loads of ideas on my Kitchen Gifts Pinterest board, so if you are looking to change up your neighbor gifts, or start a new tradition, you will want to check that out.

We set a tentative date of July 19 for the next meeting.  In addition, I'm hoping to post every day that month for Christmas in July, and planning a Christmas in July sale for my Etsy shop, so it should be a festive month indeed!

8 comments:

  1. I'm so excited to be a long distance member of the Christmas club and have already marked July 19th on my calendar. I have been purchasing stocking stuffers since the last club meeting and have also made a few gift purchases. Thanks for the tip about purchasing stamps from usps.com, I'm definitely going to check that out. Christmas in July is just days away now and I've been putting the finishing touches on my posts. Thanks again for letting me join you!

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    1. We're excited to have you, Vicki! Other than the three of us local gals (and a couple of others who attend when they can) our little club is not finding a lot of interest locally, so we love and welcome long-distance members.

      I enjoyed reading about your progress since the last meeting and that you have marked your calendar for the 19th. I will let you know if anything changes with that. Susan travels quite a bit, so it may be subject to change.

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  2. That would be great to have a club like that. Here people laugh at the Christmas pep so far ahead but several do like to hear about it. I have also gotten a few to start buying earlier over the years.

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    1. Good for you, Lana, getting a few others to start their Christmas buying earlier. It does help, it really does, to prepare all through the year. I'm never as good about that as I'd like to be.

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  3. Thanks for the shout-out and if you're taking long-distance members, I'd love to join you. It's wonderful to find fellow Christmas lovers to share ideas, tips, and memories. That's a great tip to head over to check out the Christmas stamps. I also use Amazon Wish Lists to file away ideas when my husband or daughter talk about a new tool or fashion/beauty item that interests them.

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    1. Oh, sure, we will welcome long-distance members! We'd love to have you join us, and I will make a point of "introducing" you to our members at the next meeting.

      Yes, Amazon wish lists are wonderful. Most of my grandchildren have them and I am so thankful that they do. It would be very hard to keep up with their Lego kits, in particular, without the lists. I use them for birthdays and Christmas both.

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  4. What a beautiful idea for a club! I will love reading about what happens at your club.

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    1. Thanks, Lucie! I try to post about each meeting.

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