Almost two months ago (!) I posted my 2025 Holiday Fun List. I make this list every year to help me figure out what holiday activities would be most fun and memorable for me and my family. By making the list in early/mid November I can also figure out a schedule that makes doing all these things possible. I scope out November/December/January dates, when things are available, when we can get tickets, etc. I slot flexible activities into the remaining spots.
With this method we did do most things. It was a full 6 weeks or so. There was a lot of celebrating. Here’s how it went…
Visit Luminature (with bonus points for Morris Arboretum). I took the little boys to the zoo’s light display in November. It was…OK. It’s easy to get to (a big light display 20 minutes from my house!) but my 10-year-old had wanted to stay home to play video games, and the little guy had already gone previously with a babysitter so he was kind of bored. Oh well. We did go to Morris to see the trains and lights on my birthday, and it was a nice first stop before going out to dinner.
Go to Dutch Wonderland. We did do this — all 7 of us over Thanksgiving weekend. The park itself was fine if freezing (we did see Santa!) but the redeeming activity of this trip was making a last minute decision to stop at a nearby Olive Garden. Somehow this just hit the spot for everyone.
Go to Longwood Gardens. We took the whole clan and, again, there were some meltdowns but everyone was revived with food. I’m sensing a pattern here (my crew needs to get fed!). I enjoyed it though maybe I will not take the kids next year. We did not stop at the Brandywine Museum of Art on the way because this got incorporated into the next activity.
Visit Winterthur. I took myself as a birthday activity and enjoyed seeing the Christmas decorations. On the way there I went to the Brandywine and saw the trains and the dollhouse. Since this was the same day we wound up at Morris it was quite the Christmas extravaganza! I did some shopping for extended family at both the Brandywine and Winterthur and that may have been as fun as the exhibits themselves. I never go to museum gift shops and this time I did!
Sing in several Christmas concerts. I did an almost overwhelming amount of singing during December. I sang in two Carols by Candlelight shows with my downtown choir, which included doing a poetry reading of e.e. cummings’ “little tree” poem (I did not know I would be reading this until right before the first show). I sang in my church choir’s Advent concert, plus the 8:30 p.m. service on Christmas Eve. I also sang with the 5-year-old’s choir in an early December service. He was a very good wiseman in the Christmas pageant on Christmas Eve, and lo and behold the costume looked familiar…because the 10-year-old had worn it three years before! I looked at pictures and they look exactly the same.
Go out for a nice birthday dinner. Really it was two! Mexican with the family on my birthday and then to Talula’s Garden with my husband the next night. Then he and I took our big boys to Talula’s over winter break.
Do holiday cookie baking. My baking helpers and I made dough for sugar cookies and gingerbread cookies, and then made the cookies the next day. They were excellent. Of course, this was the first weekend of December, so they were long gone by the time we needed cookies for Santa, but my daughter solved that problem by making these cool “Grinch” cookies (they were green and yummy).
Wear my flapper costume to my husband’s office party. Absolutely. I wore this sequined, fringed dress plus a headband, gloves, etc. Fun.
Go ice skating. I took three of the kids to the outdoor rink downtown. I enjoyed this though I don’t think any of them really did! Possibly my 16-year-old. I felt very festive skating around to Christmas tunes. They were happy with the funnel cake I got them afterwards.
Go to the Nutcracker. Yep, I made it! This was a win since I’d missed it the last year due to a stomach bug. As for the trip to the Rockettes in NYC? I bought tickets for the three of us who were home…but succumbed to a stomach bug on that day so I didn’t make it. Maybe next year. Here’s hoping I do not get norovirus three years in a row. I am pretty sure we will not make it to the NY Botanical Gardens this year either, even though the train display is open until this weekend. We have simply run out of steam.
Get matching family pajamas. Nope. My daughter was in charge of this but never found ones she liked. I’m not sure anyone missed this tradition terribly.
Build the holiday Lego set. We have done 4 of 6 bags and then my kids lost interest. Maybe I’ll finish it myself. Maybe not. This may be the end of an era on this, at least until the little guy gets really into Legos.
Do sibling presents. We did this and they were reasonably happy with what they got each other. Since we do this on a different day than Christmas it helps spread out some of the gift giving and receiving.
Read holiday children’s books. We read a few favorites, like Christmas Farm, and How Santa Got His Job. But my husband has been reading Harry Potter at night with our youngest and that is, frankly, more exciting than a lot of the Christmas books. And next year our youngest may well be reading on his own. So this might be the end of an era here too.
Decorate. I love looking at the “fancy tree” in the living room. I also like seeing the Christmas lights on our trees outside. They will be up until February as they are tasteful and white so I see no need to get them down!
Have many enjoyable moments during our holiday family travel. As outlined in my previous post, we took an epic trip to Ecuador and the Galapagos over the break. Perfect bliss isn’t possible with a trip like this, nor is it possible for such a trip to be low stress. However we did make a lot of memories and saw a lot of very cool things, and my remembering self is happy we did it, now that I am back sleeping in my own bed and able to brush my teeth with tap water.
Not on the list but a highlight: Hosting my extended family for a more “formal” family dinner. I served a Christmas margarita featuring sugar on the rims of the glasses and frozen cranberries as a garnish. It’s not quite Martha Stewart but I was feeling close!
In other news: Please join me for my annual Time Tracking Challenge next week! Lots of us will be tracking our time from Jan 12-19. I’ll be posting my time logs daily here. Sign up here to get daily motivational emails from me.
After several years of trying to do the light displays and then dinner, we finally figured out this year it works MUCH better to feed everyone and then go to them. If we’re a little lax on bedtimes for my 5&8 yos, we can enjoy a 7-8ish holiday lights adventure at the arboretum or zoo and make it back at a reasonable time. This is especially true for the zoo which is a 7 minute drive from our house. I do think we’ll do an adults only lights & booze event at the arboretum next year though!