Thirty festive things to do, printed in two columns with a tick box against each one. They are deliberately ordinary and mostly free: walk a street lit up for Christmas, bake something and give half of it away, ring somebody you have not rung since June, catch the first proper frost on a walk. A Blank setting prints the same boxes and rules with nothing written in.
The suggestions are doable
A bucket list fails when half of it needs a budget or a train ticket. These are the sort of thing that happens in a normal December: making paper chains for the hall, leaving out a mince pie and a carrot, learning all the words to one carol, putting something in the food bank collection, giving the postman something.
A few are small enough to tick in a minute and a few take an evening, which is what keeps a sheet like this moving rather than stalling on item four. Only two are tied to a date: the walk on the 25th and the candle on the shortest day.
Two settings worth knowing
The first control chooses between Suggestions and Blank. Suggestions prints the written list as it stands. Blank prints the same two columns of tick boxes and rules with nothing against them, which is the version for a family who want to write their own.
The second control sets how many: twenty four or thirty. Twenty four gives taller rows and more white space, thirty fills the sheet. The subtitle changes with the setting, so a blank sheet reads write in your own rather than tick them off.
Where to put it
This is a sheet that only works if it is somewhere visible. On the fridge, inside a cupboard door or next to the kettle is the difference between a list that gets ticked and one that stays in a drawer.
For a classroom or a youth group, the blank version at twenty four works well as a group task: everyone suggests one thing, the sheet gets filled in together and one copy goes up on the wall.
Questions
- How many things are on the Christmas bucket list?
- Thirty as it opens, in two columns with a tick box each. The control above the sheet also offers twenty four, which gives taller rows and more space between them.
- Can I write my own instead?
- Yes. Switch the first control to Blank and the sheet prints the same tick boxes and ruled lines with nothing written against them, so a family or a class can fill it in themselves.
- Do the suggestions cost money?
- Almost none of them do. Most are walks, baking, carols, phone calls, paper chains and things already in the house. A couple mention a market or skating, and those can be skipped or crossed out.
- Is it suitable for children?
- Yes. The wording is plain and every item is something a child can take part in, so it works as a family sheet. For something a child does on their own, the scavenger hunt is a better fit.