Christmas Cheer Guide

Hey Friends! Well, we’ve hit the final countdown; less than a week till Christmas – 5 days!!! It was always so easy to stay excited for Christmas as a kid, with the prospect of Santa’s elves finishing up their tinkering and loading the sleigh. Impressively assembling the Xbox and those Ugg slippers you asked for from scratch. As an “adult” (in quotations because… I’m not one), it seems to get a little harder to stay pumped with Christmas cheer. Despite our best efforts, your bank account dwindling, buying gifts for every person you’ve ever spoken to and million errands to run, definitely has the potential to drag you down. Anyone else think that our normal bills shouldn’t be due in the month of December?? C’mon, throw be a freaking bone here.

This year I’ve decided to give a big middle finger to all the reasons that would Scrooge my Christmas cheer and just let my inner Elf shine. It’s all about perspective anyway, right? So why not focus on all the silly holiday reasons to be happy and toss the rest.

I decided to try to come up with the recipe that keeps my Christmas cheer a buzzin’. Throw all of these things in a mix (and maybe add in some vodka) and you’re bound to be annoy everyone with a little Christmas enthusiasm.

2018 Christmas Cheer Guide

(1) Have your favorite Christmas Pandora station blaring at all times – While I work, music keeps me sane. For the past month I’ve been trying to find the best Christmas Pandora stations… ones that don’t make you want to snap Santa’s head off after a couple songs. Let’s face it, Christmas music can get damn annoying after a month of it, no denying it. However, I’ve found a station that combines modern sound with the traditional Xmas tunes. Greensleeves Radio (2014), just rocks. Christmas songs with a little bump. I kid you not, there is Santa Trap music on this station! EDM remixes of all of your holiday favorites.. somehow pulled together in an incredibly likable way. Of course mixed in with some solid Trans-Siberian Orchestra.

My other favorite holiday station is unoriginally just the ‘Christmas’ Pandora Station.  This station gives you a little more tradition feel, like the radio. Whatever your jam is, keep them Christmas tunes flowing!

Let me know what other Pandora stations you’re digging! Always looking for new ones.

(2) Make Christmas throw up all over your place – I’m all about decorating every corner of the house. We’re slowly gathering Christmas decorations every year – mostly a plethora of sub-par hand-me-downs from our parents, but I’ve found it fun to even Christma-fy normal decorations! Check out this lantern I gave an extra Christmas twist. Simply take a lantern, fill it with the cheapest ornaments you can find (I found these at At Home for $4 a box!) and throw a Santa hat or bow on top. Vuala!

    

(3) Weekday nights of Christmas light watching & binging Christmas movies on the couch – Favorite week night activity hands down. Grabbing a hot chocolate + kahlua and taking a ride with the pup to check out all the houses that go all out! Immediately followed by crashing on the couch with Christmas lights on and some Christmas movie… or every Christmas episode on The Office. Here you go, you’re welcome!

(4) You won’t wear a Santa hat in public – You won’t do it!!! People might stare, worth it.

(5) Target Christmas PJs for the Win – No matter how old we get, my family has a tradition that we all spend the night at my mom’s on Christmas Eve and wake up to Christmas morning together! Just like when I was a kid, waking my siblings up at the crack of dawn to see if Santa came!!! This tradition has taken a slightly different turn with the addition of mimosas and festivities starting when the time hits the double digits.

My family started a tradition this year that the first gift of Christmas morning is a set of fluffy, comfy Christmas pajamas – all matching! The boys even have matching PJs, I’m sure they’re going to loooove that. Target has a great selection of super soft, Xmas pajamas for a totally reasonable price. Here’s a link to 9 pages of Xmas pajama options on Target.com. I told you, great selection!

(6) Holiday drinks – Hot chocolate or coffee topped with kahlua have been our jam this holiday season! Perfect for cold nights by the fire and to bring on rides to look at Christmas lights! I had no idea how delicious kahlua was!

Also, check out my last post on another fun holiday drink – Peppermint Mocha White Russian.

(7) Cookies, no matter how untalented you are – aaand this year I found out that I might be the most untalented baker on this side of the Atlantic. True, embarrassing story: my mom and I had a cute daughter-mama night shopping for ingredients, watching figure skating, drinking wine and baking Christmas cookies. My mother stupidly left me in charge of a couple batches. Apparently, leaving flour out of a cookies recipe doesn’t end too well, who knew! Basically rolled sugar, pure butter and some vanilla into balls – only to open the oven 5 minutes later to an ocean of butter (wouldn’t mind swimming in that though!). Still haven’t heard the end of that one.

In my defense, the other batches turned out deliciously! We crafted up Lace Cookies, a family recipe we make every year, Raspberry Almond Thumbprint Shortbread Cookies, my personal favorite, and Mexican Wedding Cookies, which were the victims to the savage story above. Click those links to view the recipes! The first two are definitely my favorite! Also, can we talk about the amount of butter in Christmas cookies? Whatever, I’ve still been eating these for breakfast every day this week. Tis the season, right? Right.

(8) Ginger Bread House Making – I have also found that structural engineering is not for me, as I watched our Ginger Bread House fall apart at the seems. Once we got it all glued together though, we had a fun time turning into a Hockey Ginger Bread House. Since Tony has played his whole life and lives to play NHL on Xbox, I shouldn’t be surprised that this is what happened to our Ginger Bread house this year! We’ve also made a Zombie Ginger Bread house, which was ridiculous. It’s pretty fun creating some crazy theme for our Ginger Bread House each year. Here’s a pic of this year’s creation!

(9) Actually make Christmas shopping enjoyable – If you’re like me, I avoid going out to the mall during the holidays like the plague. There’s nothing that sounds less enjoyable. Amazon has changed my life when holiday shopping. Even greater though, is smile.amazon.com! If you use this link, Amazon will donate to your charity of choice! So while buying to give gifts to all your loved ones, why not give to the gift of fresh water to those who need it. Could there be an easier way to give back and simultaneously stay clear of the crowds!

(10) Give – A Christmas idealism that’s changed the most for me over the years is that receiving a gift doesn’t give me near the amount of joy that giving does. Bringing joy to others is why we were put on this earth and this is completely embodied by the Christmas spirit. So give where you can and as much as you can. If it’s not money that you can give, give your time. Volunteer. Give kindness to those around you. Have everyone leave you happier than they came to you. Give compliments and love freely. These seem to be such simple tasks but so much of the world struggles with giving these kinds of gifts. These Christmas ideals are not ones that should stay in the month of December, but spread throughout the year. Keep giving all year long, it will change your world.