It’s July 1st. I’m having trouble getting my head wrapped around that. It means half the year has passed. It means all those things I committed to doing in July (when it was still months away) are suddenly due now. And it means the Christmas holiday will be here before we blink.
I know—you’re probably groaning because I mentioned Christmas. I’ll admit it. While Christmas is, in many ways, my favorite time of the year, it also brings with it increased pressures and demands. One way you can relieve a few of those demands is to plan and prepare your holiday-related products and specials now instead of at the last minute (which I have been guilty of doing so many times in the past!).
If you create printables and curriculum for the homeschool market, there is, in my opinion, no more exciting time than the Thanksgiving and Christmas holiday season. Opportunities to bless your readers abound, and the opportunities to reach new audiences also flourish. Blogs everywhere will have special link-ups and roundups for holiday resources. The Pinterest boards that are dedicated to sharing holiday content are too numerous to count. And who hasn’t at least considered shopping those Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales?
The first year I was blogging more seriously, Black Friday took me totally by surprise. In October, I started seeing calls on social media to submit Christmas-themed products. Thanksgiving doesn’t generally cross my mind until the calendar flips to November. I was unprepared. I had one Christmas freebie I had made in the past. I guarantee you that I shared that one freebie almost everywhere I could find out about that year!
The next year, I am embarrassed to say, I didn’t start planning much earlier. But a few intense weeks of work produced a Thanksgiving activity pack and a Christmas activity pack. The Thanksgiving pack has been downloaded more than 1,300 times; the Christmas pack more than 3,000. While small numbers for some, they absolutely stunned me.
I learned something that year. There are a LOT of Thanksgiving and Christmas materials out, but there is also a HUGE need for it. Kids need activities to keep them busy on long car trips to visit family or during unplugged holiday time at home.
This brings me to this year. I can expect to start seeing requests for holiday material within the next four months. What can I do now to prepare? I can:
- Brainstorm and develop ideas
- Determine if there are graphics I will need to purchase and find them now so I can buy them on sale if the opportunity arises (I love Black Friday sales on graphics, but that won’t help me prepare my Thanksgiving products.)
- Start creating holiday products
- Plan sales and decide if there are additional new items I need to create to release at the same time
- Locate and join group Pinterest boards that share holiday content
- Be sure I am connected with online groups who will share opportunities for holiday-themed promotions
Have I started getting ready? Well, I bought some really cute fall graphics and I have one idea of something I’d like to do for fall! It’s not much of a start, but I’m learning.
One month at a time.
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Bonnie Rose Hudson lives in central Pennsylvania. Along with spending time with her family and writing, making kids smile is her favorite thing to do. Her heart’s desire is for every child to feel the love of God and know how special they are to Him. She loves creating curriculum and working for SchoolhouseTeachers.com, the curriculum arm of The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine, as the site’s executive editor. At TOS, she found a place where her love of God and history combine with her love of writing to bring encouraging, educational, and entertaining material to students and their families. She would love for you to visit WriteBonnieRose.com to discover how you can write for the homeschool market.
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