Winter break in college is always a great time to relax and rewind until the new semester starts. However, when the break lasts over a month, itâs always hard to figure out what to do with your time over this long period. For the upcoming winter break, I am laying out some hobbies to pick up that will help you come back and learn new skills that you can incorporate into your daily life and return ready for the spring semester.Â
- Baking
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Baking has always been one of my favorite hobbies, and itâs a great hobby to pick up during the wintertime. Macarons are one of my favorite things to bake over the winter break because they require a lot of time and practice to make correctly.
Itâs good to start with a simple baking dish like cookies and work up to something more complex. Baking is a hobby that is also great to bring back to college; you can bring your baking sweets back to your friends!
- Journaling or Scrapbooking
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Journaling is great for mental health, helps with organizational skills, and is a way to organize memories. Journaling over break about your feelings, goals, or anything that sparks your interest can help you start the spring semester feeling organized and having an outlet to discuss everything in life.Â
If youâre not into writing, scrapbooking is another outlet great for memory collecting, especially if you’re into photography. If you use your digital camera often and want to organize your memories, try it! If you’re stuck on how to organize your scrapbook, many videos on Pinterest and TikTok show prompts on what to put in it. Winter break is a great time to start scrapbooking because you can organize it by school semesters, beginning this past fall and continuing into the spring! If you enjoy it, you can do it through the rest of college!
@gailthegirl / TikTok - reading
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Depending on your major, so much reading can be assigned for classwork that it can be easy to lose sight of reading for fun. Winter is the perfect break to get back into reading for your enjoyment without worrying about classes. I have been getting into nonfiction reading, and one of my favorite nonfiction books was American Autopsy, which was really interesting and impactful.
- taking care of plants
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An ever-expanding hobby that can last years is taking care of plants. It can be scary at first because some people believe that they donât have a âgreen thumbâ or have killed every plant they have cared for in the past, but with the proper knowledge about plants, they can stay healthy and be very fulfilling to take care of!
Starting with plants that are easier to take care of, such as pothos or a snake plant, can make a big difference on your plant journey. From there, watching YouTube videos on plant care and doing more research can greatly help. One “plant Youtuber,” Benjiplant, offers a lot of good tips and tricks. Once you learn more, you can start working your way up to plants with more difficult maintenance, and before you even realize it, youâll be surrounded by about a million plants youâve bought!Â
Winter break is a time to relax and try new things that you might not have time to do during the semester. There are so many hobbies to try out, and they all offer different things that can benefit you for the rest of your college career. Some skills you can gain through experimenting with various activities are helping your mental health through organization, improving your writing skills, and being able to bake for others!
Though I only named a few, there are so many hobbies to choose from. Just getting into one hobby can end your boredom over winter break and can be a skill that lasts for so much longer!