My brain is still in holiday mode and posting this morning is taking a bit more effort than usual. Hope those who celebrated Christmas had a marvelous holiday!

Those celebrating Kwanzaa are just getting started, focusing today on the principle of “Ujima” (Collective Work and Responsibility), described as “To build and maintain our community together and make our brother’s and sister’s problems our problems and to solve them together.” We could all use a little more Ujima in the world today.

Since most of the major holidays are over or nearly over for 2009, I wanted today’s post to give you a small challenge to think about your holiday experience this year and give you some ideas to plan for next year to reduce your stress and make your holiday more enjoyable.

This year was a different sort of holiday experience for many people. At our home, Christmas did seem a bit more scaled back, although this was not a conscious effort on our part. For the first time in years, we felt that the level of presents was just the right amount–enough to feel “special” but not enough to be overwhelming.

There were many wonderful things about this Christmas. Some of our favorite moments were:

• Christmas Eve dinner when our girls went down for a late-afternoon/early evening nap, affording my husband and I the rare opportunity for a quiet dinner together with uninterrupted conversation.
• The smells of soup and pot roast simmering in the Crockpot throughout the day.
• Eating home-cooked meals together at our dining room table, including fresh, soft cookies for dessert.
• The squeals of delight on Christmas morning.
• The rare white Christmas due to the recent snowfall.

There were also things we would change next year, including:

• Making the annual holiday card photo shoot less stressful and more fun.
• Reducing the amount of time spent sending out said cards.
• Reducing the amount of time and effort needed for cleaning the house right before Christmas.

Fortunately, we were able to keep our spending on holiday expenses to a comfortable level and will not go into debt as a result. After many years of opening surprise credit card bills in January and February, I have become a bit of a nerd about tracking holiday spending, dutifully recording each expense in a spreadsheet as we buy the presents. This helps me both maintain a budget and make sure that I have a gift for each person on my list. It also gives me a gift record to look back and remember what I purchased for each person in the past.

If your holiday drained you financially or stressed you out, I have come up with a worksheet that will help you understand where your money or time is going when it comes to holiday events. You can download the worksheet here:

• Ruly-2010HolidayWorksheet

Each category (Decorations, Gifts, Cards, etc.) is represented in two columns: Expenses and Time. This format helps you to see the tradeoffs between time and money. I have also provided suggestions for areas where you can either save time or reduce expenses if you are going over budget in either area.

As I worked through the worksheet myself, it was interesting to quantify exactly why it is that we feel holiday stress. When you add up the expense and the time involved, it is significant. Most of the to do list items cannot be done much in advance of the holidays either, with gift shopping and some food preparation the rare examples. Each year, there will always be a crush of activity during November and December. With a budget for time and money in advance, however, it will perhaps be easier to anticipate what needs to get done and feel less guilt about what is not going to get done.

I plan to take my list and mark in tentative dates on my 2010 calendar for when I will accomplish the various holiday tasks. I don’t like to get too firm on my scheduling to allow room for spontaneity or everyday “disasters.” For example, there is sure to be at least one weekend next November or December when we are all sick with the latest cold or flu virus and too exhausted to maintain a rigorous holiday schedule.

I hope that this planning worksheet gives you some insight into your own holiday planning. To best use it, make sure that you are keeping in mind the things you enjoy the most about the holidays and budget for those things first, then add in things that you “have to” do and “optional” things last.

What were your favorite things about holiday 2009? What would you do differently next year? Please share in the comments.