A personalized calendar created just for your family is the ideal tool for getting everyone’s schedules synched up and posted centrally in your home. Or, create a personalized photo calendar as a gift for close friends and family members.

Pictures & Holidays In either case you’ll want to start by placing season-appropriate photographs in each month. Simply upload your photos into the Mixbook editor, and then drag and drop them into place. You can feature one photograph front and center or create a photo collage to showcase a series of pictures. Then add every holiday you celebrate; you might even consider adding holidays you don’t celebrate, as it’s always good to have them on the radar so you can remember to send good wishes to those who do. Knowing when all holidays are on the horizon can also help you anticipate everything from traffic patterns and commuter schedules to long weekends and vacationing friends.

Birthdays & Anniversaries If you’re creating a calendar to give as a gift to many close friends and family members, add the birthdays and anniversaries of everyone who will receive a calendar. And if you’re creating your calendar as a tool only for your nuclear family, go a step further and add the birthdays of teachers, administrators and even friendly local business people who might really enjoy a few kind words on their special day. You might even take some time to think of some elderly people – even those who you’re not particularly close with like church members to relatives of your close friends – in your life who would enjoy getting a printed birthday card in the mail. When those days come around, you’ll feel so good to have brought a little sunshine into their lives with a birthday wish.

Ongoing Schedules & One-Off Events If your calendar is custom-made for your family, it’s a great opportunity to get school schedules and team sports schedules in one place. And if you have multiple children you can color code by kid. You’ll also want to insert regularly recurring events like church, book clubs, gym classes, or standing lunch dates. And it’s a great opportunity to add standing family dinner nights like Taco Night, Pizza Night or Movie Night. Then add any business trips or vacations you have locked down. With all the predictable family schedules in one place, you might consider getting multiple copies printed: one for the home kitchen, office or entryway, and a couple for your business offices. It’s a nice way to ensure everyone is looking at the same schedule.

Identify Down Time To Either Preserve It or Fill It Finally, look at your in-process calendar and identify any periods of time where there’s not a lot going on. Take the opportunity to plan for how you’ll use that time. Even if you simply make a concerted effort to do nothing, it helps to have a premeditated idea of what that looks like so your period of down time doesn’t sneak by without you really enjoying it. Or you can capitalize on a slow time by planning to take on a project you’ve had in the back of your head for a while.

Fun With Stickers! Once all your “days to remember” are in place, go back in and add photos here and there on the actual calendar grid to illustrate the occasion. You can also take this opportunity to add fun Mixbook stickers to depict the activities on certain days: a soccer ball for soccer practice, a slice of pizza for pizza night, a cross for church, etc.

Creating a personalized calendar is not only a wonderful tool, it’s a great way to bond as a family. You’ll all literally be “on the same page,” and you’ll come to rely on the family calendar. If you give it as a gift, you’ll likely find that friends and family members will clamor for their yearly copy – and you’ll realize that yet another meaningful family tradition has been forged. Happy Mixbooking!