Hello everyone!

Merry Christmas Eve! Christmas is almost here and Hanukkah has begun, so what better time than now to do something fun with the people you love? Whether you’re bored over the break and wanting to make plans or searching for an activity to do with your family at your Christmas Eve/Christmas dinner festivities, you’ve come to the right place. My family likes to keep busy and we’ve implemented many different types of things into our holiday celebrations over the years, so here are a few of my favorites.

• Ice skating – A winter classic, everyone can enjoy going ice skating at least once during the holiday season. My local rink even decorates for Christmas with a fake snow mound in the center and fake trees for photo-ops, coupled with Christmas music playing and hot cocoa served. If you want to do something more active, this is perfect.
• Going to the movies – Another somewhat basic activity that most of the family or group will enjoy. I think my family plans on going to the movies Christmas afternoon- we did last year, and it was a pleasant time.
• Post-Christmas shopping – If you end up getting a lot of gift cards or money, you can go shopping and pick out some nice things for yourself. It’s a good time to shop with all the post-holiday sales; I recall there were a lot of good deals last year.
• Holiday movie binging or movie binging in general – Sometimes you just don’t want to leave the house, and why would you? Between Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime, and Disney+, the streaming options are endless. I’m personally not that into holiday movies, but curling up on the couch and watching any movie feels festive to me. Bonus points for hot chocolate!
• Craft night – My family has done this every Christmas Eve since I can remember. My mom gets supplies to make some sort of festive craft (often an ornament or something similar) and everyone can customize it to their liking. It’s perfect because it’s lighthearted and fun- people can get super into it if they want and make it a masterpiece, or they can make it silly and mess around. It also makes a good gift for little kids to give to their parents!
• Baking something sweet for everyone to enjoy – My mom likes to bake cookies and cakes around the holiday season, and it’s something everyone can benefit from. If you’re the person who likes to bake, make something to bring over to whatever holiday party you may attend. If you’re the person who wants someone else to bake, organize the ingredients and find someone in your family who would like to do most of the work, with you being their trusty assistant.
• Secret Santa/white elephant exchange – It’s a little late in the game to organize one of these, but I can’t leave it off of this list. I participate in at least one Secret Santa or white elephant gift exchange every year, and it’s such a fun thing to do with friends to get in the holiday spirit. I love seeing people open their gifts and guessing who got it for them.
• Potluck – Another way to reduce the cost and effort in hosting/organizing a holiday gathering is having everyone bring their favorite recipe or dish. There’s usually more than enough food if everyone follows through, and who doesn’t love a good buffet?
• Drive to the snow – This is pretty dependent on where you live, but I think it would be really fun to take a mini-trip to the snow. If you live in Southern CA like me, snow is hours away, but if you live in a snowy place already, all you have to do is walk outside! I’ve actually never seen real snow in my life besides the last remnants of snow melting on the ground when I visited Washington D.C. at the beginning of spring in eighth grade, so it would be really fun to go to the snow.

I hope these ideas inspired you to add a little flair to your holiday celebrations and helped you figure out what to do with any company you may be having these next couple of days. Personally, I will be celebrating Christmas Eve at my aunt’s house with most of my mom’s side of the family, and Christmas will be a smaller affair with just me, my mom, my dad, and my brother. Our celebrations have definitely scaled-down as I’ve gotten older, but I’m always excited to see everyone and fulfill our holiday traditions during this time of year.

Happy Holidays!

Brooke