Do you use Excel to help with all of your holiday planning? It’s a great tool for shopping lists, holiday budgets, dinner preparation, and even holiday games!
Holiday Dinner Planner
Every time we have a holiday dinner, I use my Holiday Dinner Planner to create a timeline for the preparation steps.
Just pick your dinner time from the drop down list, and the schedule readjusts automatically.
Dinner Checklist
The dinner planner also acts as a checklist, to ensure that everything is prepared, and on the table, at dinner time.
Without that checklist, something might be left in the fridge – like the dish of cranberry sauce! (Don’t ask me how I know that.)
Decorate a Christmas Tree
Are you an early Christmas tree-putter-upper, or do you wait as long as possible before doing that chore?
My daughter had her Christmas tree set up and beautifully decorated at the beginning of the month. However, I’m not that ambitious, so our tree only went up a couple of days ago.
And if you don’t have room for a Christmas tree, or the energy for that exhausting task, there’s good news! You can decorate a tree in Microsoft Excel!
To see the Christmas Tree file in action, watch this short video. The written instructions are on the Excel Christmas Trees page on my Contextures site.
Christmas Games
On Christmas Eve, our family tradition is to play a few “Reindeer Games”
Some of the games have us up on our feet, and acting silly. For example, the kids loved the “Silly Christmas Walks” game, when they were younger. I made little cards in Excel, and printed them out. The kids took turns picking from the hatful of folded cards, and then did the walks. For example:
- Sneak like an elf
- Twirl like a snowflake
- March like the Nutcracker
- and several more!
Timeline Game
Other games, like this Excel timeline game, shown below, are played sitting down, with pencil and paper.
In Excel, I’ve collected a list of classic Christmas traditions, and the years that those traditions started.
- Before playing the game, I choose 8 to 10 traditions from the list.
- Everyone gets a pen and paper, and they guess where each tradition falls on the timeline, as I read them out.
- At the end, check how you did, and score your results (or don’t bother with scoring!)
You can get my Excel timeline game file on the Excel for the Holidays page on my Contextures site.
Get the Excel Holiday Templates
For more Excel files that have holiday planning help, and a bit of fun, go to the Excel for the Holidays page on my Contextures site.
This short video shows a quick demo of the Excel holiday planner, Advent calendars, Christmas trees, and more.
More Holiday Help with Excel
______________________
Excel for the Holidays 2023-Planning-Games-Trees
______________________