One more week. Seven more days until we are all back wherever we call home for a month. For some people, this is exciting; they’ve been waiting for this day since classes started. But for others, this may cause some dread and anxiety. No matter where you land on the spectrum, there is something to be gained from intentionality with how you spend your time this Christmas.

Rest

First and foremost, rest. It’s been a tough semester. You deserve to relax and recharge, whether this means sleeping in half the day, re-reading your favorite book, or watching Greta Gerwig’s “Little Women” for the eighteenth time this year (I am not speaking from experience). Figure out what recharges you and do it.

Catch up with old acquaintances

Not friends. Of course, we’re going to hang out with friends. I mean, reach out to that oboe player you sat next to in the band for years but never actually hung out with outside of the band. I mean your lab partner from high school sophomore year chemistry. I mean that one person who always ended up in your history teacher’s classroom for lunch with you and encouraged you when things were rough. I mean the people that maybe you hadn’t thought about in years, who always made your day when you knew them. Reach out, grab a cup of coffee and see where life has taken them.

Revert to your childish ways

Find a way to be creative without the pressure of perfection. Go to Joann’s and get a Christmas craft kit. Drag your little cousin along if you have to. Engage the creative side of your brain for fun, not for an assignment or for work. If it snows where you live, build a snowman. If you want to be ambitious, build an igloo. Find something that you’re “too old for” that you loved to do as a child, and do it. 

Have a baking day

Pretend like it’s 2014 again and search on Pinterest “Christmas dessert ideas.” Choose the most obscure ones and invite your friends over to bake with you. Play Christmas music, tell everyone to come in Christmas pajamas, and throw on “How the Grinch Stole Christmas.” Make a day out of it. The best part is, once you are done baking, you and your friends get to eat it all, perhaps while binge-watching all of the Christmas episodes of your favorite show.

P.S. Taylor Swift has a mean Chai Cookie recipe.

Christmas time is the most wonderful time of the year, as Andy Williams tells us. This will be the first semi-normal Christmas since COVID-19, so don’t let it slip through your fingers. Use this time to rest, have fun, and most importantly, to hold loved ones close.