by: Janice Thomas

The idea was to help the Sisters build a Holiday Resource Planner at no cost. I wanted it to encompass everything from budgeting for the holidays to gifts to music.

I wanted there to be a gym full of display tables with different sections of the planner on display with copies of that section at that table. I asked about 12 sisters for help. They all chose a different subject to cover. I instructed them to come up with a display of that subject and a print out of that section of the planner with instructions, etc. The displays were to be nice, but not to go to much expense, just use ideas they already have, or can use afterwards.

The copying of their handouts were to either give them to me for copying at my work and at the church or if they had copy privileges at their disposal. Almost all of them were actually able to make their own copies. I set the number at 30 planners, as that is an average attendance for us. If I had the delightful problem of too many sisters, and not enough binders, than all of the committee members and participants would go without and I would make them a binder afterwards.

I actually ended up exactly with the right number. I had a sister generously donate 3-ring binders, but you could have sisters bring their own binder, or charge a nominal fee to purchase the binders. I had several sections already in the planner which I used as the first half of our program.
These sections were:

Finance & budgeting
Music
Stories
Gifts from the bath
We sang an opening song from the Music section which had words to most of the Christmas songs around. The Enrichment Teacher then shared one of the stories. One Sister then reviewed the finance and budgeting section, and then we had a demonstration in the kitchen on how to make gifts for the bath.
We then ushered the sisters into the gym where they were able to browse all of the tables and gather the sections to the planner. We provided 3 hole punches and tables for them to assemble their planners.

Refreshments came from the Gifts from the Kitchen table.

The sections of the planners were:
Finance/budgeting
Christmas Music
Christmas Stories
Gifts for the Bath
Gifts from the Kitchen
Kid Crafts
Ornaments
Advent Calendars
Quick and Easy Gifts: Make-a Kit gifts
Family Traditions & Activities/FHE Lessons
Clay Pot Crafts

The 1 inch binders ended up being completely filled with pages and when I went to make a copy of it to make as a gift for a relative, the copying cost $30.00! As you can see there are way to many pages for me to send out, and the truth is the idea is for the sisters of your ward to share their ideas with each other! I left the content of the sections up to each sister unless they requested some ideas from me.

It was a fun change of pace from the typical make & take Craft night we always have, yet the sisters left with a valuable resource to use for many years to come.

I did set the rule that if you didn’t come you don’t get a binder
later! I only made 2 exceptions when the Primary President had a sick child, and one sister gave hers away to an inactive sister she V.T.’s I surprised her with another copy. ( I didn’t advertise this rule ahead of time I just handled the request on an individual basis- I felt like it was too much copying and follow-up work afterwards and didn’t want the requests to get out of hand.)