Today’s blog will be different from the past blog posts. As we are approaching winter break, I have become more and more excited to do all of the holiday activities. In this post, I have a short list of things you can do with your family this holiday season.
Go see the Chicago Christmas tree
The tree was put up November 18 and will stay up until January 9. To see this 55-foot Colorado Blue Spruce, visit Millennium Park. This extravagant set up is located near the intersection of Michigan Ave. and Washington St. You can stay and look at the tree for an extended period of time or stop by quickly and enjoy the sight with many other people. While in Chicago, I recommend you also check out…
Christkindlmarket
There are locations in Chicago, Aurora, and Wrigleyville. Some of you may be familiar with Christkindlmarket as it was located in Naperville from 2016 to 2018. Or you may be asking what is Christkindlmarket?
Christkindlmarket is a German Christmas event held Sundays to Thursdays: 11am – 8pm and Fridays to Saturdays: 11am – 9pm. Known for the quality gifts, holiday cheer, and the food that you can smell down the block, Christkindlmarket is an event for everyone. This year, the Chicago location is located in Daley plaza. Check it out if you want a fun European Christmas experience!
Morton Arboretum Tree Lights
I have done the previous two activities before, but I haven’t seen the Tree Lights at the Morton Arboretum yet. The Morton Arboretum is in Lisle, and the closest event I’ve mentioned thus far! I will try to bring my family to come see the lights this year, and I will make sure to watch out for sales. There are certain dates that are discounted, so make sure to check those out using this link: https://mortonarb.org/explore/activities/exhibitions/illumination/#ticket-prices.
With 50 acres of lights, visiting the Morton Arboretum this winter break would be an excellent opportunity for you and your family or friends to kill some time at the very least.
Good news… you don’t have to leave your house to have a great winter break! You can…
Make cookies!
My sister has already started doing this, believe it or not. Her Honors English 1 project includes making many cookies that have information about first-generation immigrants on the packaging and then selling them to other students at Naperville North. So far, she (and her groupmates) have made sugar cookies, snicker doodles, and peanut blossoms. I’ve tried a couple, and wow, I’m getting super excited to eat many more cookies more towards Christmas. The process of making cookies is fun for all ages, even the little ones can just use a cookie cutter to make their own cookies without doing any of the cooking. Everyone can spend time decorating, enjoying the smells, and then devouring. Hopefully, all of your cookies will turn out well, but if not, simply the experience of baking cookies can be a great Christmas time activity (can heat the house too).’
Hot chocolate too
Hot chocolate is good. It is better when it is cold outside and even better yet when you are surrounded by your favorite people. I am fortunate enough to be taking AP Environmental Science right now. We are going to have a chocolate bar right before finals. Ms. Katsenses has built up the hot chocolate bar for us, so hopefully, it is as good as she says! Up until recently, I hadn’t heard of the APES hot chocolate bar, and I have not heard of any other teachers doing anything special for winter break or finals. The closest celebration I have had was the Halloween demonstration put on by Mr. Farrell and the science department. The other departments need to step up because the science department is up 2-0 for thematic celebrations as of now. I’d like to thank Ms. Katsenes prematurely and hopefully inspire Mr. Williams if he reads this post! When I’m posting this on December 1, that marks 24 days till Christmas, 12 school days until finals, and 15 school days until our longest winter break yet: 16 days! Why is it so long? We would normally come back on a Friday but that was made into an institute day so now we get that Friday and the weekend!
This holiday season, try some or all of the things I’ve mentioned. I hope you enjoy your winter break! Happy Holidays.
Oh, I read it!
Let’s celebrate with a holiday festival on finals! 🙂
Hi Chris! May I just say this blog post was so inspirational. I too love Christmas time. I not only love Christmas Eve and Christmas Day but I also love the festivities that come along with Christmas. Some of the traditions my family and I have are that we decorate our house and put up our tree the day after Thanksgiving, if the Bears play Christmas Eve we either go to or watch the game and then go to China Town afterwards, we always have two celebrate Christmas with my Mom’s and Dad’s side of the family, and so much more. I would really like to visit the Morton Arboretum lights like you mentioned as well! I can also second your opinion about the market. I love how at the Christkindlmarket they always hand out mugs and each year the mug is a different design. My family and I have a whole cupboard in our kitchen full of these mugs. One question I have for you is how do you maintain your festive self while studying for finals? I often lose sight of Chritsmas during the weeks leading up because I am so stressed out for finals. This makes Christmas seem so short for me.
Hey Chris!
I was drawn to your blog this time around because I have never actually celebrated Christmas. As someone who has a Muslim background, my family never really joined in on the winter holiday cheer, December 25th was just like any other weekend for us. This time around I want to change that. Since Thanksgiving, I have been planting the seed to my parents that we should try and celebrate Christmas this year since it will be my last year at home. I myself have tried to go out and buy house lights to set up (although there are so many types I don’t know which one to get). Albeit they are not yet sold on the whole full-size-tree-in-the-house idea, I think they’re warming up to the thought of having a nice dinner that day.
Reading your blog gave me many ideas as to how to get my parents in the holiday mood. I definitely think hot chocolate and cookies will be served multiple times this month. Though I have definitely seen the Chicago Christmas tree, I have never stumbled upon the Christkindlmarket. From the way you described it, I definitely will have to go and take a look. Even the pictures look so cute!
Thank you for giving me so many ideas to get in the Christmas time spirit. Maybe I’ll see you in Chicago!
Hey Chris! I can confirm that the Christkindlmarket definitely lives up to its reputation. I remember going just last year when me and my family literally had to huddle together because of how cold and chilly it was. It ended up being alright though because there were a ton of people there and we had plenty of hot chocolate and warm chai. The shops themselves were all very well-themed with Christmas, and even though it was cold, it was still a really good time. We decided that we wanted to get a Christmas-themed souvenir before we left so we ended up buying this really expensive but fancy-looking glass ornament. It’s this cool spiral ornament that’s made out of like three different types of glass and has this shiny gold bead at the bottom. Apart from the Christkindlmarket, though, I wanted to mention that Chicago’s Navy Pier is also a really great place to check out during Christmas time. My family and our cousins go there almost every year to go ice skating and are probably planning on going again later this year as well. They have some pretty cool-looking Christmas decorations and the place is very open and airy so it still feels like you are outside in the winter cold. I would highly recommend!
Hey Chris,
These are awesome really cool Christmas activities personally I don’t celebrate Christmas but it’s cool to see what other people do for it. Your first activity which was the Chicago Christmas tree definitely caught my eye because of its really bright lights, it looked really cool that’s definitely something I would go and see. The Morton Arboretum Tree lights also look really cool you also mentioned it was 50 acres which is a lot of space that’s definitely a way to kill some time for sure. Although the lights there don’t look as cool as the one on the Chicago Christmas tree I would maybe consider going there as well. If I knew how to bake making cookies would be something I would do but I’m too scared I would mess it up completely and make it taste really really bad. I feel like you always look at the really cool images of sugar cookies with all those creative icings but then when you try and make them it comes out looking terrible and no one wants to eat them. It’s pretty cool that your sister is making sugar cookies for her honours English 1 Project that’s definitely really creative. I’m also in environmental science and I love the hot chocolate bar as well it’s really nice especially early in the morning or you just want something hot to drink. The marshmallows on some really hot chocolate are probably my favorite part about it. this was my first time reading your blog and I really enjoyed it.