I have heard the term ‘December Daily’ being floated around the Internet for some years now but I have never really gotten involved in it. This year, I thought I would change that. I started out by figuring out exactly what it is and doing some research into what others have done in previous years. If you want to lose many many hours staring at beautiful pictures or watching videos, just search for the term on Pinterest, Instagram or YouTube. This project is a mix of journalling and scrapbooking. You can focus on either option or do a mix of both, as you see fit.
What is December Daily?
December Daily is a term coined and registered by Ali Edwards. She came up with this challenge as a way to capture her memories. It’s such a lovely idea that I wanted to share it with you. It’s also become incredibly popular over the years. The challenge itself is very simple. It encourages you to capture the festive season on paper. This usually means a daily recollection of how you prepared or what you did. Perhaps it was the glimpse of lights or the festive menu you tried at a restaurant. You do not need to celebrate Christmas to do this. It is called December Daily as it’s about writing your day’s thoughts in the month of December. You can do the same thing for whatever festive holiday you celebrate or capture the spirit of winter, if you prefer!
Ali Edwards runs the December Daily project from the 1st of the month to Christmas Day. However, I have seen others adapt this to include some of November or to the start of January. The idea is still the same, whatever you choose to do.
For me personally, December is all about spending time with your loved ones. We occasionally put up a tree, have decorations or take part in some sort of gift giving celebration. But mostly, it’s about socialising and just hanging out together. Since I have always wanted to do more memory keeping, I felt it was apt to give this a go. I want to see if I can manage to do it daily for the month.
I set up a very simple December Daily album to prepare for the month, just so I have a place to start collating my memories. As the month has gone, I am trying to fill it with more memories.
My December Daily Album:
Picking the place I wanted to store all of my memories was, by far, the hardest decision. As a stationery addict, I have so many different options laying around my house – and the desire to buy even more things. But in an attempt to actually use my supplies, I decided to set up the whole album with things that I already have at home.
Picking the Album or Book:
The first step to this was deciding what I wanted from my December Daily. Did I want to dedicate one page every day or just do a free-for-all? Would I want to stick things down or move things around? Answering these questions was a big part of deciding where to house my memories.
I wanted something versatile, that I could quickly add more to or move freely. In the end, I opted to use one of my old ringbound planners. This allows me to punch in whatever I want but also to freely remove or move things around when I change my mind. The chosen planner is used to store A5 paper but I have decided that I do not need everything to be uniform. If I add in something smaller or slightly bigger, that’s fine by me! This freedom makes it a little less stressful for me as I do not feel like I have to fill an entire A5 page on any given day or worry about the edges not lining up.
Using a folder also allows me to keep an additional tab with my plans for the month in the same place. This could be some gift ideas or who I need to send cards to. But it just allows me to store everything holiday related together for the month. Essentially, the folder doubles as my Christmas Planner for the month.
What have others picked?
At the end of the day, you have to pick what works best for you. I have seen some people use a single notebook for each year, whilst others use folders with pockets. Adding pockets to your album can make it a lot easier in some ways. You don’t have the pressure of filling an entire page. Instead, you can easily add a journalling card into a pocket, a photo in another one and bam, you’re almost done. I opted for the flexibility of using either option. I don’t have a ton of pockets in my stash so it will be mostly paper, which is more versatile. However, since I have a few anyway, I might throw some in on the days where I cannot bring myself to do a whole layout.
This year, Ali Edwards went with a 6 x 4 album (the same size as a standard photo), which is really adorable size. You could easily just put a photo in, add a quick note at the back and voila! The page is done! She also shares a blog post on her daily pages, so you can see how she makes her pages.
Reminder:
It’s very easy to get overwhelmed by memory keeping – especially when you are worrying about keeping everything beautiful and trying to do a lot. If you find yourself stressing about it, take a breath and step back. The idea of this project is to capture the holiday spirit in a fun, creative way. It should not make life harder for you! Being flexible in the size of my pages eases up a little bit of that stress for me. No longer do I have to worry about the edges lining up. Nor do I have to worry about the pages being punched perfectly. It all becomes unnecessary when you’re flexible on page sizes.
My December Daily Project:
Over the past two weeks, I have been adding more to my own album. Admittedly, I haven’t been able to do it daily or as much as I’d like. However, I am trying to make it a habit. Over the next few weeks, I’ll share a few of my pages. I will be printing my photos together at the end, since I don’t have a printer. So unfortunately, some pages are a bit bare at the moment. However, I intend to add more once my Christmas break rolls around and I get some time off work. For now, I just wanted to bring this idea to you and let you sink into the world of beautiful images or videos.
Get Involved!
If you want to get involved and create your own December Daily album, or get an idea for next year, visit the Ali Edwards website. She has all of the information you need about it and tons of blog posts on her current or previous albums. It’s a great place to start. She also sells a variety of products that will help you create your own album. I haven’t been able to try her products yet but they do look amazing. Get involved in December Daily here.
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