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Binge-watch your favorite Christmas movies.
Are you dreaming of a white Christmas? Well, more than likely you're dreaming of getting your car door unfrozen, but in the meantime, you might want to break out the popcorn and hot chocolate and just enjoy the cold weather from your living room. Some of my favorite Christmas movies include, you guessed it, "White Christmas," "Meet Me in St. Louis," "The Holiday," "Elf," "Home Alone," "The Santa Clause," "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer," and "The Polar Express."
Winter activities.
So...it's snowing. What do you do? Go outside, duh! Snowfall doesn't mean outdoor activities are limited. There's snowboarding, skiing, sledding, snowball fights, public light shows, ice skating, ice hockey, and so many other things. One winter everyone was stuck on campus a few extra days because of a blizzard, and a campus-wide snowball fight broke out. In my opinion, that was way cooler than hanging out in hammocks in the quad.
Try baking.
If you're like me when I was a freshman and couldn't even make ramen without ruining it, maybe winter break is the perfect time to practice. Christmas is the season of baked goods and treats, and it's the best time to try your hand at it. Plus, it's likely you'll have aunts and grandmothers around who will teach you how to bake pecan pie whether you like it or not, so get your chef's hat on and get cooking!
Study abroad.
Why not spend your winter break in New Zealand or Italy? Winter is the perfect time to get your foreign exchange on. Imagine walking through the streets of Paris (that is, when you're not studying) with white snowflakes blanketing the streets. Or how about warming it up in Brazil while the rest of your family freezes in North America? The possibilities are endless!
Get an internship.
Winter internships or shadowing are a great idea if you know you're going to have a lot of time on your hands and want to be productive during the winter months. Apply early in the semester for an internship close to home so you can spend time with your family and get some experience under your belt. This is also a great time for you to test the waters for the future. Maybe you're studying biology and decide to take a medical internship in a private practice over winter break only to discover that you're more interested in being a veterinarian. A small-time internship can make a big-time impact on your life.
Give back.
The best thing you can possibly do over winter break is give back to those in need. There are numerous programs and volunteer opportunities where you can make a difference in somebody else's life. For instance, the Red Cross sponsors a program called "Holidays for Heroes" where you can send letters to soldiers who are mobilized or deployed. You can also get in touch with your local homeless shelter and help out in the kitchen or clean-up crew. Or maybe you're that veterinarian mentioned earlier who would rather spend your break helping homeless puppies and kittens feel loved at the local animal shelter. Whatever you do, do it with love.
Spend time with family.
Make sure you binge-watch those Christmas movies with your parents, burn that pecan pie with your Aunt Viola, and have those snowball fights with your younger siblings and cousins. Family is the best tradition of any holiday, so spend time with the ones you love doing things that make Christmastime special.
Remember the birth of Christ.
At the heart of it all, Christmas is not about Christmas movies and hot chocolate, presents under the tree, or snowball fights. Christmas celebrates the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ who gave His life for us so that we could drink as much hot chocolate as we like during the holidays.
"We love because he first loved us." - John 4:19
