Parentkind’s Top 10 Tips for Christmas Planning
2am is the new bedtime, and your days are filled with endless checklists, but we’ve come up with our top 10 tips to help you plan your Christmas activities more smoothly.
1. Be organised – you can never have enough lists. Make a list for each event that you are doing, including all the tasks necessary, and columns for deadlines, indicating who will action the task. It may seem like a lot, but trust us, this will help!
2. Delegation – we’ve all been there, ‘I’m the Chair and I have to do everything’. You don’t. As your committee are all responsible for an event, make sure you delegate tasks to committee members and volunteers. Put your trust in them, give clear instructions and deadlines, and check back when necessary.
3. Licences – if you plan on selling alcohol at an event, or selling raffle tickets in advance, apply for your licences now. They are quick and easy to do online with your local authority. There is no way around these licences — you need them, or you won’t be legally allowed to sell alcohol or sell tickets in advance. (A free glass of wine with a ticket also requires a licence.) You can read more here.
4. Floats and Stationery – order cash floats in advance. Don’t assume a bank will have enough change available, and check opening times to make sure someone is available to collect your floats when needed. Make sure you have enough pens, tape, and float boxes available. Top tip: keep a box with all the necessary stationery in a central location for all to use.
5. Volunteer Rota – start asking for volunteers early. Break tasks and stall hours into smaller slots to encourage people to help. Many may not be able to help all day, but breaking stall times and jobs into 1‑hour slots will mean there’s something for everyone.
If someone offers to help all day, don’t let them get away! And remember to look after your volunteers – a free cup of tea and a biscuit goes a long way!
6. Logistics and Risks – your committee need a risk assessment for every event. One person can write it, but the whole committee should check and agree on it. We have guidance on completing this here. Look at the ‘flow’ of your event – determine where you need entrances and exits to ensure you can manage your attendees safely.
7. Add-ons – Guess the name of the bear, Find the Treasure game, Guess the number of sweets in a jar or the weight of a cake – all of these can be add-ons. Get someone to walk round with a cuddly toy and clipboard so that people can enter, rather than relying on everyone coming to a stall. Visiting people in Grotto queues with games or cookies to sell is a great idea!
8. Cash Up – the counting of money should be carried out during or after the event, and a note taken of funds raised. A committee member should be present, and at least 2 people should count. Make sure you have somewhere to store cash until you can bank it. If monies need to be taken home, please check your insurance policy, managed by Marsh Commercial, for levels of cover. You can view your documents here.
9. Clean Up – everyone remembers to get enough people to run a stall, but the event clean-up needs volunteers too. Make sure that you have enough equipment – brooms and bin bags – and there are enough people. The more helpers after the event, the quicker you can all get home.
10. Think Ahead — Consider using the January sales to start purchasing items for next year. This will give you the ultimate head-start!
Finally, when it’s all over, start writing a list to begin the process again for next year — after a delicious mince pie, of course!
