See the irony in that title? Happy Planner... But I am sad. Yes, I am very sad.

So for those of you unaware. I live in Europe. I like paper planners. And while I was initially a Filofax and Carpe Diem girl for many years, I switched over to disc bound planners a few years back. I was so determined to keep using Filofax style rings. Because I didn't think the paper of the Happy Planners would really hold up on the discs.

I was wrong, by the way.

But yeah. Initially I purchased a Happy Planner style punch so I could punch my own inserts. I still had my bulky laser jet printer, which I was going to use to print my custom designed planner inserts. I have a lot of experience designing inserts because of the Retro Hugs planner shop I had a few years back. So I figured, I can do this! The downside? The classic size paper is very unique, size wise. Regular planners here are either A5 sized, personal size or even mini. A lot smaller and easier to obtain or cut paper for. Another problem I had was my dysfunctional guillotine cutting machine, which doesn't cut straight no matter how hard I try, I cannot deal with pages that are uneven. So I ended up designing a file for my Silhouette Cameo, which would cut one classic size page per run. I wanted a week on 2 pages, which rendered me with 140 cut pages, so you can imagine I spent a day cutting all these pages to size. But hey, the end result was really nice. The pages were exactly the same size. I used paper I really liked, thick 160 g/m², off white/cream coloured paper. It was bliss. I did it this way for two years in a row.

Unfortunately, last year we were in the hospital (unexpectedly) for most of December. Our lives were twisted upside down. When we finally got home it wasn't over, and I was exhausted. So I hadn't had time to design, cut and print new inserts for the new year. And I didn't want to start on them either. So I went out to look for an official Happy Planner I could use. Then I found this one. And I fell in love with it.

Now this year I discovered that my laser jet is also getting to the point where I need to replace a lot of things, need to hire a mechanic and basically, in order to use it for professional things again, I need to spend a fortune on it. I am not willing nor capable of doing that right now. So I won't.

For the second time I went out to look for an official Happy Planner for the new year.

But like I mentioned, I live in Europe. This is important to this part of the story. Because you see, I checked the 2 websites in Europe that carry Happy Planners. Yes, I do believe we have a whopping number of 2 stores who have the brand. And I was not too pleased to find out there were barely any vertical layout classic planners! But I need the classic size, and I need the vertical layout!

I also hadn't really warmed up to the new collection yet. Or at least what I could find in Europe. But then I checked the official Happy Planner website. And what do you know... I saw a planner I immediately fell in love with. The Nightmare Before Christmas, classic, vertical layout. It was so so so pretty. But as with many things, this did not ship to Europe!!! 😭 Happy Planner refuses to ship anything from the Disney series outside the US and Canada.

I debated asking a friend. But I was too shy. I mean I barely talk to people in private these days, I just don't have the energy, and to then start a conversation after months only to ask for their help. I don't know, I couldn't do it. Even though there is a good chance they would have said yes.

The alternative would be to hire a company in the US where I could have my order shipped to, and then they would have to ship it to me. But on top of that being unreasonably expensive, I found so many people have bad experiences with what turns out to be pretty shady companies in the end. And I'd rather not lose all my money this way.

Did I also mention Happy Planner is currently having a 25% off sale too? I could've had a good portion of the collection, including accessories and stickers for a very good price.

I let it simmer for a bit. All day in fact. That seems like a short time. In some cases it would be. In this case, stock is usually low and the moment it's gone, it's gone for good. I thought about asking my friend's help all day. And I didn't. I went back a few times to look at the planner. I will admit, it is very pretty and if they sold it in Europe, it would've been on its way to me already. But the fact that I have to ask someone else for help to get the goodies to me, and then have the added shipping and taxes on top of that. It just did not tempt me as much.

I also looked at the planner a few more times. And as much as I loved the look, it was very dark, very purple, and lots of repeated images (and style) throughout the planner. If all I had were celestial, dark and purple washi and stickers, I could spend a full year decorating this planner. In my head, it needs to match. And I have too many amazing washi tapes and stickers I want to use, that I would not be able to combine in this planner. So as much as it pained me, I decided to let the idea of this one go.

So which one did I pick in the end? I decided to dedicate a different blog post to that. Click here to reveal my new planner!

In the meantime, to at least appreciate how pretty the Nightmare Before Christmas collection is, I want to showcase it here!

This was the planner I was going to buy, the 2025 Disney Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas Celestial Planner (vertical layout, classic size):

I was also going to buy the matching Classic Accessory Pack:

And this Value Pack Stickers (Big) set:

And this Value Pack Stickers set as well:

I also set my mind to these pumpkin discs! Aren't they amazing?!

That's the one thing Happy Planner would in fact ship to Europe. But I am not going to place an order abroad for just those discs, you know...

Unfortunately the Nightmare Before Christmas planner goodies will never be mine. I will get over it, eventually. The more I look at them, the more it saddens me that after all these years, companies like Happy Planner just don't seem to care about their international fan base. I am a little salty, not gonna lie.

Do you already have your 2025 planner sorted? Which one did you get/are you going to get?

Click here to find out which planner I ended up getting instead!