Coming home for the holidays provides a great opportunity to escape some of the end-of-semester stressors and to unwind in the comfort of your own home. I am taking a couple of days off of school to spend more time with my friends and family. While I’m home in Cincinnati, I have found a few ways to get my mind off of my finals and projects, and hopefully, you can find some inspiration for how to unwind while home for the holidays as well.
Baking
One of my favorite things to do while at home is to bake sweet treats for my friends and family to enjoy. I love making my recipe of brown butter chocolate chip cookies, but unfortunately, at school I have neither the ingredients nor supplies necessary to bake these treats.
Whenever I come home, I make sure to check the reserves to see if we have the ingredients to make them for any occasion that I can justify them for. Baking is a great way to unwind and relieve stress because you get an enjoyable and edible result and you bring happiness to everyone who you share them with.
Another way you can unwind is by decorating gingerbread houses with friends. This is something I am looking forward to doing this evening because it is a fun way to collaborate on a fun and common goal. Alternatively, you could make the decorating more entertaining by turning it into a competition of who can make the most creative or festive design.
Viewing Light displays
The Cincinnati Zoo is widely known for its Festival of Lights, in which they set up elaborate light displays during the winter to illuminate the zoo and invoke the Christmas spirit. Being from Cincinnati, going to see the Festival of Lights is a yearly experience where you get to see the lights and whichever animals are out in the cold weather.
Besides more organized events such as this, it’s always fun to drive around neighborhoods that are extravagantly decorated during the holiday season after the sun sets and gaze in awe at the fun designs and ingenuity put into the decorations.
Reading
Trust me, as an English major, I have been doing plenty of reading this semester. Though I have enjoyed much of what I have read for school thus far, I haven’t had the chance to read some of my fun books, so the holiday break provides me plenty of free time to dedicate to this endeavor. If you are a fellow reader, take the opportunity of being home to unwind in the comfort of your own home under a comfy blanket and with a cup of your favorite warm beverage.
Whether you need to take your mind off of your impending finals or end-of-semester projects, I hope being home for the holidays gives you the opportunity to unwind from some of the stress that comes with the end of the semester, and I hope you can take inspiration from my favorite holiday stress relievers.