Even though we may not want to think about it, winter break is around the corner. We’ll have major projects due, papers that we’ve worked on for weeks, and final exams we know we want to kill. Then, after all of this, we’re faced with the biggest time of the year for most of us. With winter break comes holidays and for anyone that can be an anxiety nightmare. You stress about what to buy those close to you as a broke college student, you worry about what to wear the night of New Years Eve, or you may even be stressed about the classes that you will be getting into the following semester. So what would be your favorite things to do around that time? Maybe spend time catching up with family, sleeping, working, eating or maybe even binge watching shows you’ve missed being away from home. No matter which way you spend your time, this should be as stress relieving as possible before you come back for spring semester. With that being said, here’s a few ideas of how to make your winter break the most fun and stress free.
My favorite thing to relax with when I know my semester is over would be a day of Christmas movies and sweets. My favorite is to tune into Freeform’s (A.K.A ABC Family) 25 Days of Christmas movie marathon. I adore movies such as 12 Dates of Christmas, Snowglobe, Holiday in Handcuffs, Mistletones, and I could really go on and on. My all time favorite movies has got to be A Diva’s Christmas Carol or This Christmas, of course! My mom and I turn these on and our eyes are glued to the screen for hours. I love to bake sugar cookies while I watch this. Pillsbury brand please! Save all the hard work for later. This would probably be one of my favorite activities during this break because I can spend time with my mom all bundled up and enjoy great movies and feel all of the holiday love and spirit.
A second idea would be to actually bake some treats. Baking is such a stress relieving activity (if you know what you’re doing). My favorite people to bake is with are my grandmother, sister, and cousin. We’re kind of like her little helpers. We make our cookies from scratch for the holidays. This includes her infamous sugar cookies, chocolate chip cookies, and fudge. I love being able to throw on sprinkles, icing, and cute things to the sugar cookies. You also get more of that family bonding that makes you feel so loved and comforted after being away for so long. If you guys are anything like my family, cookie cutters are the move. They have some in Christmas tree shape, bell shape, and really any Christmas themed design. It’s also fun to do this with nieces, nephews, or little cousins. It’s extremely entertaining. Making them from scratch tastes even better too! Here’s some recipes below:
The third idea would be to catch up with your friends from home. Go see some movies. There’s so many anticipated releases for December and January. A few I’m excited to see are Bright with Will Smith, Pitch Perfect 3, Proud Mary with Taraji P. Henson, and Insidious: The Last Chapter. You can make a complete movie date out of those. Don’t forget that New Year’s is around this time too. Make sure that you’re still thinking about all of the fun and exciting things you can get into around that time. You can hit several of your favorite spots and possibly go shopping for that perfect outfit for your New Year’s Eve outing. Catch up on a bit of reading while you’re home too. I highly suggest the To All The Boys I’ve Ever Loved Before trilogy by Jenny Han. Have fun and do not completely focus on what you want to do or need to do for next semester. Leave that up for a few days after New Years. Then you can really throw yourself into what you really want to do. It’ll be your clean slate.
Right upon you ending your winter break make some lists of goals you want to achieve. Make a list of things you want to do, organizations you might want to join spring semester, plans on how you feel you can better improve yourself, and anything that’ll make you feel good. You want to make a plan on how to best handle and make the most achievements your spring semester. Perhaps apply to scholarships, read up on your professors, and simply try to plan a great semester ahead of time. I’m a strong believer in speaking things into existence. Speak your glory into existence for the spring of 2018. DO NOT let it intimidate you. Winter break can be very rewarding and relaxing if you allow it to be. So, how do you plan on spending your break?