Your Free Calm Christmas Planner
A free Christmas planner spreadsheet that keeps the guest list, the potluck, the jobs and the baking in one place. It is the planning companion to A Calm & Simple Christmas. Use it on your computer, share it with the family, and let the spreadsheet do some of the remembering for you.
Family Christmas Hub · Guest List · Potluck Planner · Shared Duties · Christmas Day Plan · Hosting Supplies · Baking Plan · Cookie Exchange
The planner is an Excel (.xlsx) file. Save a copy to your computer before filling it in. No email address or sign-up is required.
A little planning should give you more time to enjoy Christmas - not give you another job to manage.
Most Christmas stress isn't the work itself. It's the remembering: who's coming, who's bringing what, whether anyone told Auntie Joan about the nut allergy, and why you're the only one who knows where the gravy boat lives. This planner takes the remembering out of your head and puts it somewhere the whole family can see it.
What's inside the planner
There are nine tabs. Use the ones that help and ignore the rest. Fill in the cream-coloured cells, and the totals and checks work themselves out.
How to use it in four steps
- Download and save a copy to your computer before you start filling it in.
- Share it with the family. Upload it to Google Sheets or OneDrive and send the link, so people can add their own dish and arrival time instead of texting you.
- Make the big decisions first on the Family Christmas Hub: who's hosting, the gift plan and the dinner time.
- Print the Shared Duties tab a few days before and put it somewhere everyone will see it.
A calm Christmas timeline
You don't need to start in September. You just need to do the right things in the right order, so the last week is for enjoying, not scrambling.
Three gentle rules for a calmer Christmas
1. Everyone gets a real job
Not "bring a bag of buns", but a job that matters: carving, coffee, dishes, entertaining the little ones. People enjoy the day more when they're part of it, and you get to sit down.
2. Decide early, then stop deciding
Most holiday tension comes from decisions left hanging. Settle the gift limit, the guest list and the dinner time early, write them in the Hub, and you won't need to talk about them again.
3. Plan less than you think
If the Baking Plan says you have plenty, believe it. Five lovely things are better than twelve made at midnight. Nobody will remember the seventh kind of cookie, but they will remember whether you were laughing.
Questions people ask
Do I need Microsoft Excel?
No. The planner is an .xlsx file, which also opens in Google Sheets (free with a Google account), Apple Numbers and LibreOffice. The automatic totals work in all of them.
Is it really free?
Yes. There's no email address or sign-up. Just download it and use it.
Can the whole family use it at once?
Yes. Upload it to Google Sheets or OneDrive and share the link. Everyone can add their own dish, job or arrival time.
Want the whole plan, not just the spreadsheet?
This planner is the companion to A Calm & Simple Christmas, a warm, practical and slightly cheeky guide to spending less, doing less, laughing more and enjoying more.