Get into the spirit of the season because the holidays are just around the corner! After a year that is anything but normal, we all deserve a pat on the back.

There are many reasons for us to look forward to a jolly Christmas. However, its planning seems to be the most burdensome of the holiday season. To ease your mind, we have some tips and tricks that you can have up your sleeve—effective and enough for you to pull off an effortless yet classy Christmas holiday.

Find the Perfect Gift w/ Mind Maps

There is only so much time to buy gifts for all of your family members, from your seventh uncle to your third niece that just finished her first year at kindergarten. The shopping list continues to grow, and you are unsure if you got what they wanted. Mind maps undertake the challenge of gift-giving this season by neatly organizing your gifting ideas and keeping track of the budget. View this XMind file here, or click this image to access and download from XMind Share.

Creating subtopics of “Like”, “Dislike” and “Have” for your loved ones gives a clean layout in choosing the perfect gift, also store final ideas on what gift you’d like to purchase under the subtopic “Finalists.” You can insert amazon links in subtopics to keep track of the budget and make use of the label to remind yourself not to overspend.

Under each subtopic, you can categorize further to sort out the things liked by the gift receiver. Such as the color they like, the preference of clothing style, all that you can think of can be valuable in helping you choose the perfect gift! We hope the demonstration below can be helpful to give you some inspiration as to what to put under these subtopics.

Use mind maps to sort out what you’re getting for your loved ones this year! Gifting has never been so easy when you have mind maps along the way.

Prepare the Christmas Spread Using the Tree Table

Get ready with the tree table structure in XMind to prepare a spread that will amaze everyone at the table! Organize your favorite dishes with this template, print them out to keep or view digitally through XMind Share. Click here to view and download, or simply click on the image.

With the ingredients and time laid out, it would be a breeze when it comes to preparing for a magnificent feast. There will not be a last-minute run to the supermarket for that can of tomatoes anymore; the tree tables help you see what fresh produce needs buying at the start of the holiday and what non-perishables to purchase and store ahead of time.

Simply select Find & Replace from theEdit tab, then find your markers from the panel on the left. By clicking the icon beside the marker names, you can highlight only parts marked with the marker on the mind map. It is an efficient and visually pleasant way to find key info on your mind maps. Below is a demonstration of this feature.

Also, make use of the insert feature to add webpage URL or notes within your recipe, keeping everything neat and clean. Cook away and let the holiday gathering and feasting begin!

Plan Ahead for a Leisurely Day

Have yourself an organized and leisurely Christmas by using multiple mind map structures to build a Christmas Day planner in XMind. Besides creating a schedule of what to do on holiday, you can also store information on your mind map.

Before you even know it, you have built an information hub that’ll save an enormous amount of time on the day of Christmas. More time for family bonding and less time to search on the web.

Find some time ahead of the holiday to organize helpful information regarding holiday festivities. Such as the details on the Christmas tree lighting ceremony downtown or the address and opening time of the Santa photo booth. Also, consider making a list of Christmas movies and inserting links to their Netflix page for quicker access.

It’s the most wonderful time of the year. With hope for our fellow mind mappers to spend their Christmas Day with ease, we have put together this article with these tips and tricks. It has been a pleasure and honor to be by your side for fifteen years, and we look forward to many more to come!

Merry Christmas!