Favorite Things During the Holidays

Happy Holidays! I hope you all had (and are still having) some relaxing time at home with your loved ones. I thought I would take some time to let you in on some of the things that I absolutely loved around this time of year. I never had the chance to last year, and there are so many things that I love to do during the holidays. So here we go!

• Christmas Shopping! Going to the mall and seeing all of the lights, and the decoration is just so thrilling for me. Everything seems so festive, even the people rushing everywhere. I love the smell coming from all the shops.
• Boxing Day Shopping Ok…Although I have never actually really gone Boxing Day shopping, the thrill of finding a good buy is awesome. BUT…I can NOT get up that early when I’m on “holiday”, and I don’t like buying stuff just because it’s on “sale”. The only reason I’ll buy something is if I want or need it.
• Driving around & Looking at Christmas Lights We have a few areas in our city that really go all out. We have something called Candy Cane Lane where everyone on the street agrees to decorate (some go to extremes), and it’s really pretty. Although I have found some even better decorated homes close to our museum downtown. Generally the really big mansions put on some good light shows.
• Singing Christmas Carols Although I have never been door to door actually singing carols to people, I enjoy the thought of that. I do however love to sing at home. We did get a karaoke machine this year, so perhaps we could put it to use around Christmas. Most likely though, I will gather up the family and sing good old Christmas Carols while we sit around our tree.
• Curling up under a blanket with a good book The best book I can think of at the moment is the Outlander series, A Breath of Snow and Ashes. It is the one I am currently reading at the time of writing this, but I am also looking into reading the Court of Thorns & Roses by Sarah J. Maas. (Also the author of The Throne of Glass Series). It’s hard for me to concentrate at any one given task for long because my toddler wants my attention 24/7, so usually if I read, it’s late at night.
• Watching Christmas Movies Two years ago, before I really got in depth with my online business, I had all these plans to watch close to 50 Christmas movies. I didn’t realize, but they started all the movies on the Hallmark Channel in November. I think I may have got to 20 or so, but in the years after that I am lucky if I get to watch even one. There are so many other good series out there. (I am currently watching Suits, and I love it!)
• Ice Skating Honestly, I think I am more in love with the idea of this. The last time I actually have been ice skating was when I was pregnant with my son. I went to the Edmonton Zoo where they had an outdoor rink and hot chocolate and there were lights everywhere. I think I would enjoy it more now for the excitement it would bring my kiddos.
• Tobogganing This is something that I do truly enjoy. We have a hill close to our house, which is perfect for our toddler daughter. We have the sleds that are not as good as an actual wooden toboggan, but better than a crazy carpet. (Remember those?) We have a lot of fun doing this on warmer winter evenings. There is usually a lot of light, since the hill is beside a community centre and it’s bright, even at midnight.
• Grabbing a Christmas Beverage from Starbucks before heading out somewhere Don’t even get me started on Starbuck’s Christmas Drinks. My favourite all time favourite is the white mocha. During winter, I really like the peppermint white mocha or the caramel macchiato.
• Making an eggnog-rum Beverage This is one of my favourite things to do whenever I am doing anything festive around the house — decorating, watching Christmas movies or singing carols. I don’t think I could drink more than two glasses of these at a time since the eggnog is so sweet, rich and creamy. But I add ice cubes, two shots of rum and a healthy dose of nutmeg, cinnamon and clove.
• Decorating the House This is my favourite thing to do at the start of December. I have always struggled with when to start. If you start decorating in November, you soon grow sick of all the festivity. If you wait too long, then it seems all the work you have to do is pointless. A few years ago, my fibre optic tree finally petered out so we started buying fresh trees and bought the watering stand. Picking out our tree together as a family is one of my favorite things to do. This is one of those times where I’ll pick up a Starbucks drink first :)
• Spending time with family In my opinion, all of this stuff that I’m talking about right now is pointless unless you do it with loved ones. I enjoy seeing the smiles on my kids faces when we do something they enjoy. That is where I get my pleasure. Also, it’s nice having my husband home from work and actually taking time off.
• Cleaning & Preparing the house for the holidays So technically, I hate cleaning. I think I wrote a blog about keeping your house tidied and organized. I really need to make sure this happens in our own home before we begin decorating. We have a pretty small home, and adding anything to the space also adds to the clutter. So I like to dust and put unnecessary things away before all the holiday decor comes up from the basement.
• Lighting Christmas-y scented candles or oil burners I am in love with the Bath & Body Works Brand of 3-wick Candles. I have two rubbermaid containers in my basement full of them. I like candles, but my favourite scented products have become the wall plug-ins from Bath & Body works, and the oil burner from the Body Shop. Unfortunately, they are no longer sold, but the Body Shop used to have holiday scented oils you could buy. I still have mine, since all you need is a few drops and a tea light candle. I love the scent of pine and cloves at Christmas time.
• Snowball Fights This is fun as long as your husband or son doesn’t take aim at your face. :P
• Making a snowman Again, this is something that I actually haven’t done for a number of years. Most of our days here in Alberta are really cold, but the biggest problem is our snow is dry. In order to make those beautiful snow balls, you need wet, heavy snow. The best time of year is early spring before the snow melts.
• Family boardgame night Fortunately, this is something that our son is just starting to get into. We also love the Wii Mario Party Games, Mario Cart and Monopoly. Recently, we taught our son to play Uno, so that’s another game we can add to his repertoire.
• Enjoying family time when people are off work I think our biggest downfall is that we are always working. We need an excuse (the holidays) to get time off from work. In our case, my husband has no choice since the jobs he works at makes it mandatory. There was one year where he actually went back up north to work over Christmas for some over time hours. If money was plentiful and we didn’t have debt to pay off, we would never even consider it. Unfortunately, bills don’t pay themselves. As a new entrepreneur, I never seem to have time off. This is going to be one of my New Year Resolutions — making time for family and finding a good work-life balance. Actually giving myself time off so I can relax.

I hope you guys enjoyed reading about my favourites at this time of year. I know that people have different hobbies and Christmas fun depending on where they live. What do you love to do during the holidays? Leave a comment down below!

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!