How to Make this Holiday Season Festive and Fun

Whether you like it or not the holidays are going to be different this year.    Cookie swaps are canceled.  Places of worship are hosting services online.  Large holiday parties are out of the question and extended families will not be getting together.  With all of the precautions, I bet many of you wonder how to make this Holiday Season festive and fun. Whether you celebrate Hanukkah, Christmas, Kwanzaa, it’s a wonderful time of year despite Covid!

In a normal year, the holidays tend to stress you out, right?  Mostly because you want to create the perfect holiday for your family and friends.  Stress levels are already off the charts this year so we must find ways to lower our stress levels not increase them. The holidays are supposed to be fun so I have 10 suggestions to help you make this holiday season festive and fun.  Follow all of them or pick one or two that resonate with you or incorporate them all into your holiday so you can enjoy old customs, make memories, and maybe find a few new traditions, too!

10 Ways to Make This Holiday Season Festive and Fun

 

Decorate

My favorite part of the holidays aside from giving gifts is decorating my house.  I love trimming my Christmas Tree and decorating the mantle over the fireplace.  I relish in the memories each ornament brings.  One year I didn’t put up a tree and it honestly felt like a year without a Christmas.  You may not feel like celebrating but I assure you by putting up a few lights, candles, and holiday decorations around your house will bring out the joy and fondness that the holidays bring.

 

A Family that Bakes Enjoys the Holidays Together

 

If you know me well you know that I am a terrible baker.  Christmas is the only time during the year that I bake.   Years ago a family friend gave me a recipe for Italian Riccota Cookies that are amazing!  I can’t get them anywhere other than from my own oven. I find joy in making and sharing them with my family on the East Coast, my mom, and my friends. It’s even more fun when Mark joins me in the kitchen.  We usually make a mess along with new memories.

If you can’t be together consider a virtual bake-off with your friends and family.

 

Order Up!

 

Cooking a traditional holiday meal is exhausting!  It takes the same amount of time to cook for 12 as it does for 4 people not to mention the same amount of stress.  This year why not order up the main part of your dinner and focus on making the few dishes that you really love?  It’s easy!  Place an order with your local Supermarket, Wholefoods, Costco, or order from catalog companies like Harry and David and Wolfermans. Even Hello Fresh has made Holiday Dinners super simple.  Here is a list of 15 places where you can order up!  

Note: I personally would avoid the low-end restaurants listed but the other recommendations are worth checking out.

 

Virtual Worship

For the December Holiday Season places of worship are preparing to keep you safe during upcoming religious services and activities.  Many churches mosques and synagogues have turned to zoom and other video conference platforms live-streamed services to stay connected to their religious communities during this time.

 

It’s Zoom Time

You may be sick and tired of zoom meetings at work but here’s a new twist.  A Holiday Zoom Open House.  Send an invitation to friends and family and include a drink, cookie, or appetizer recipe with instructions for them to purchase the ingredients.  During the event, from your own homes, you can make and enjoy the same things.  It’s not exactly the same as being in the same room but as you practice social distancing, it may be the next best thing!

Holiday Libations

Holidays may look and feel different this year but they can still be festive and fun.  Serve up some traditional libations to keep things feeling normal. Eggnog anyone?  Why not a  cup of wassail?  I love having a mug of hot spiced cider this time of year.  Even better this is the perfect year to try something else like my Botanical Gin Fizzy with Tyme.

 

Set The Table, Please.

Your holiday table can set the tone for a wonderfully festive and fun holiday season.  Use your good China or your holiday setting if you have one.  Pick a color theme.  Will it be red and green?  Blue and silver or something completely different?  Use cloth napkins to match your theme, they are so much more elegant than paper napkins and remind you that this is a special meal.

 

Make It An Event

If you were going to attend a special event, you would plan your outfit meticulously right down to the last detail.  While you don’t need to go to those lengths for your at-home Christmas getting dressed up makes any evening and event!  The goal is festive and fun, right.  It is as simple as putting on an elegant sweater, a pair of pants, or a flair skirt and real shoes.  If you’re going to get dressed go all the way.  Besides nothing is less festive than walking around all day in your slippers.  Accessories are essential!  Whether you put on your favorite pair of sparkly earrings or your fanciest necklace, accessorizing makes you feel like a star!  In the Living Healthy List Magazine featured article this month our guest blogger, Ashley Schafer writes about Haute at Home for the Holidays and gives you amazing ideas or fun fashion at home.

 

Strike a Pose!

Photographs are true reminders of a festive and fun holiday season.  Take pictures of everything and everyone this season.   Kids love making funny faces and taking selfies, let them!  Make sure you get in the pictures, too!

 

Tell Me About It!

As you are sitting around the Christmas Tree or the diner table talk to eat others about your favorite things.  Ask the questions that you want to learn about from the people you love.  Here are a few to get you started.

• What is your favorite Christmas memory?
• Talk about the best thing that happened this year?
• What was your biggest accomplishment this year?
• Do you have a big dream for next year?