There’s no better distraction from the impending gloom of finals than preparations for the holiday season to sweep you off your feet. This year will be like no other; unfortunately, conventionally large family gatherings and Christmas parties with your friends can’t quite materialize. Accordingly, we have prepared several short and sweet ways for you to sink deep into the December festivities—without blowing your budget!
- Create Your Own DIY Holiday Playlist
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Boost your mood throughout the day while studying, cooking or completing chores with a fresh playlist full of holiday jingles. Fill it with songs from the approximately million seasonal playlists available across Spotify, Youtube and all other music streaming platforms. Replace the cover image with one of the many cheery options on Unsplash, and voila! You’ve got a freakishly addictive mix of songs to dance to when nobody’s watching. (Alternatively, if all you want for Christmas is a break from doing things for yourself, follow “Christmas Hits” on Spotify for an easy fix.)
- Organize a Virtual Secret Santa Exchange via Postmates
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For the last two years, I’ve celebrated the holidays via a secret Santa gift exchange and BBQ party at my best friend’s house. In the interest of keeping all in-person activities within households, we’ve opted for a virtual party this year, complete with secret Santa food delivery surprises! By setting a delivery time window and collective budget that we can agree on, we can each procure any different number of combinations of food items for the person we were assigned. Your group can randomize assignments with this generator that allows you to list preferences—don’t forget to include any allergies!
- Bake Traditional Linzer Cookies
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Delicately spiced and tucked full with any kind of jam (or any other spread, really; this recipe calls for a Biscoff cookie butter filling), linzer cookies are perfect for the holiday season. Dress them up extra special by spiking the jam with some citrus or lemon zest—it cuts through the rich almond flavor well. Fun fact: These shortbread cookies originate from Linz, Austria, and are traditionally paired with a black or red currant jam filling!
- Donate Pre-loved Goods to Those in Need
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It’s no coincidence that the end-of-year holidays mark both a time of charity and of renewal. Many of us have gotten re-acquainted with all our myriad of household items and possessions while staying indoors during the pandemic. If you haven’t used something in your house by now, you probably never will—so only keep the things that continue to bring you joy and those that are of great utility. Everything else that was loved and cherished in the past but has become obsolete to you now can be passed on to someone else that needs it!
- Throw a Netflix Party for Holiday Specials
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We get it, we miss movie theatres too.
For now though, this is a perfect way to turn movie-going experiences long-distance; hunker down with some pre-made snacks (psst, maybe those linzer cookies) and stream Netflix’s recently released holiday specials together via the Chrome extension ‘Netflix Party‘. With this extension, you don’t even need to do the ol’ count-down-together-and-press-‘start’ dance, nor do you have to worry about pausing and restarting it at the same time for bathroom breaks or snack refills—when the host starts or stops the screening, it starts and stops on everyone else’s screens as well. Netflix Party works on Hulu, Disney, HBO (and Netflix, duh) to bring you HD quality movie screen-sharing for a maximum group size of 50 friends!
“This time next year, everything will be different.” I have no idea where or when I first came across this quote, but I’ve kept it close to my heart for the last couple of years now. I hope you know that even though the holidays—like all other major life events and an infinite number of small daily things—look incredibly different this year, you can keep the spirit of giving, gratitude and warmth alive.
Have fun jazzing it up this year, and happy holidays!