opinion-rockettes
Opinion

Ways to Spend the Holidays, From Traditional to Unique

Want to spice up your holiday season? With a little cinnamon, a little nutmeg, and a dash of pumpkin spice (this combination would hopefully taste delicious), you’ll find yourself a super-awesome-fantastic-unforgettable holiday season.

Okay, so adding spices to your holiday might not exactly “spice things up”, but you get the point.

A lot of people are looking for new and creative ways to make their holiday season unique and special. Sometimes the holidays can be so frantic that people forget to sit down and enjoy a nice cup of hot chocolate with mallows.

What about spinning the holiday season 180 degrees, doing things that you hadn’t done before, or maybe doing the same thing but amp it up a little?

One idea that could freshen up the holiday season would be to host a holiday pot luck. All of your friends and family can come together bringing their favorite dishes to make for the holiday season. By the time that everyone gets together, there would be all different kinds of food, ranging from entrees to desserts. Talk about all those yummy leftovers. There will also be plenty of food, laughter, conversations, and memories.

Another idea that could sizzle the season up would be having a holiday scavenger hunt. Come together with all of the families in your neighborhood (or hey, maybe even in your dorm floor or building) and compile a list of holiday themed items to find. Divide everyone into teams, and every time they get a holiday item, they have to take a photo with it. By the end of the scavenger hunt, they’ll have a holiday photo album.

Now I’m going to pull out the big guns, but don’t worry, tickets to this gun show happen to be free.

Pinterest is the Holy Grail when it comes to crafts and recipes for the holidays. If your sweet tooth and craft hands are calling for you, answer the call. It is the greatest thing you can do.

Go through your Pinterest (if you don’t have one, it’s not a problem) and search for holiday recipes and crafts. They have their own tutorial on how to create your own gift tags for presents and recipes that will have your mouth watering just by looking at the photo.

Pinterest has plenty of monthly challenges, so for December, bake something or craft something every day.

You’ll have a festivus for the restivus. Haha, get it?

Another way to spend the holidays to is host an ugly sweater party. People love to hate and hate to love ugly sweaters. It gives everyone a chance to spread holiday cheer while wearing a sweater with a little too much holiday cheer on it.

It is also a riot to see who has the ugliest sweater at the party. The ones that light up are the best ones.

But what if you just want to do something on a whim during the holidays? Buy a plane ticket and don’t look back on the past year until the New Year starts. If you can do it, why not?

Spend your holidays in another country or with relatives in a different state. It changes the scenery and gives you even more of a break from the frantic holiday scramble.

However, let’s not forget some traditional ways to spend the holidays. Seeing the Radio City Christmas Spectacular, ice-skating in Rockefeller Center, and going to New York City to see the ball drop on New Year’s Eve are just some of the classic and traditional ways to spend the holidays.

New York City always has something for everyone to do. It resembles past times for everyone. Something as simple as window-shopping on 5th Avenue in New York could be considered a traditional pastime for the holidays.

You would think that going ice-skating would be no big deal, but during the holidays it is a little bit surreal. You’re surrounded by all of these people, some who can skate and others who can’t, but everyone is there for the same experience and to make memories that they’ll remember forever.

Seeing the lights, listening to holiday carols, being a part of a global New Year celebration can make anyone’s holiday special. Sometimes, the holidays do not have to be anything extravagant, but keeping traditions just the way they are makes the holidays special no matter what.

There are always new ways to spend the holidays. It is perfect because it supplies the freshest memories for a brand new year. You have to ring in the New Year with something zesty to remember, right? So buy a ticket to a different country, host a scavenger hunt, or bake and craft the entirety of Pinterest. If you want to keep it classic and go to the city with your family and ice-skate in Rockefeller Center, then go right ahead. Just be careful not to slip and fall on your bum, like a certain someone did (me). But for right now, Happy Holidays everyone, I’m going to make myself an ugly sweater.