The weather in Boston is colder now (with those occasionally weird warmer days) and with that comes the desire to go out or stay in and do fun winter activities. The holiday season is always bustling with people rushing to buy gifts, spending time at home drinking hot chocolate and eggnog and waiting for that first snow day. While I’m working on crossing these off the list myself, here are some ideas for you to do with a few friends, a significant other, or family members this holiday season.
- Snowport
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One of the largest winter celebrations in Boston is the Snowport transformation of the Boston Seaport neighborhood. At Snowport, you’ll find a holiday market with stands selling jewelry, food, art and more all from local small businesses. It’s a great place to get holiday gifts and support the community. There’s also a tree market and an area where you can check out curling.
- Gingerbread houses
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The winter equivalent of carving jack-o-lanterns is decorating gingerbread houses. You get the same creative spirit while doing something festive. Kits are usually inexpensive at Target or Walmart, and you can gather a few friends to make it a contest for the best decoration. Another fun way to spice the competition up is to create specific themes that each house has to look like, and each person or group can draw the theme from a bowl before you start. There could be four themes: snowy, sweet (think Hansel and Gretel), peppermint and Santa’s workshop, for example. You can switch these out, make them non-winter themed if you want to, as long as you’re having fun building the cookie house.
- Hot chocolate and walking around
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If the weather isn’t too freezing cold to walk around with a warm drink, grab a hot chocolate from your favorite café and take a walk around the Boston Public Garden or Common. When it was warmer, it was always fun to get boba and lunch in Chinatown and eat at the park, so now that can be swapped out with winter drinks like peppermint hot chocolate or eggnog.
- watch christmas movies
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For a chill night in, a Christmas movie marathon makes for a great time. The classics I will always recommend are Home Alone, A Christmas Story, The Nightmare Before Christmas (because it’s perfect for both Christmas and Halloween), How the Grinch Stole Christmas and Mickey’s Once Upon a Christmas. Grab some popcorn, cookies and your favorite streaming service to get started.
- ice skating
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One of the cutest winter activities is going out ice skating. Taking a friend or a significant other and struggling together on the ice is every holiday romcom’s dream (and mine, let’s be honest). In Boston, the ice rinks in the 401 Park in Fenway and the Frog Pond in the Boston Common are both open and close to campus for the winter season.
For the next few weeks of the holiday season, spend a night doing one of these activities to get in the holiday spirit.
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