How about a Holiday Fun List ?

I am not your Holiday season fan kind of gal… but…

This year things seem to have taken a different turn. Blame it on the snow !

When I lived in the US, Holiday Season was a BIG DEAL… a month-long celebration from Thanksgiving to Christmas (I generally stop there since I profoundly despise New Year’s Eve). A tradition I tried to keep alive when I moved back to France, with, let’s be honest, very little success. 

Baking Christmas cookies ? Fail. Too much sugar, too much mess.

Organising a Secret Santa ? Fail. We pretend we don’t need/want presents, but we still buy one for each member of the family.

Singing Christmas carols ? Fail. It’s too loud and we’re not good singers anyway.

Let’s just say : my family is not cooperative when it comes to sprinkling the Christmas spirit.

Oh well. Over the years, I created my own little traditions consisting mostly in one ation that I never failed to complete : watching Love Actually and The Holiday at some point in December.

But this year is different. Since I hosted a few friends for a Thanksgiving brunch, I started feeling a Holiday mood rush into my body at the most random moments. I listened to Christmas music when I drove to my parents a couple of weekends ago, I got excited at the idea of partaking into Christmas celebrations this week and finding gifts for Secret Santas (yes, I have a thing for Secret Santas), I considered taking a few days off between Christmas and New Year… 

And, litteral icing on the cake, yesterday it snowed ! That was it, Holiday Season is officially in full swing as far as I’m concerned. And I decided to celebrate that by making a Holiday Fun List because if there’s one that thing that I like as much as a Secret Santa… it’s a good list !!!

The 2022 Holiday Fun List

Watch The Holiday and Love Actually. Of course, that had to be on top of my list. And one is already check. My friend Vinciane brilliantly interpreted the song Alfie last Sunday in a local Jazz Club, we ended up chatting about Jude Law and one thing leading to another, I was in bed with The Holiday only hours later.

Eat Raclette and have fun with friends. Raclette is clearly not a “Christmas” dish, more an overall winter one. But I’ve been craving it and will have it twice (on back to back days ) this week. How much cheese can I ingest without consequences ? Check back with me on Friday to get your answer. Celebrating the end of the year with friends is a treat. Wether we’ve been through much together over the past 12 months, or we have not seen each other as much as we’d hope, reuniting over food and laughter galore is a tradition I want to keep moving forward.

Drink hot chocolates. Because it’s decadent and it warms both the body and the soul. And it brings me back to childhood, which is the type of feeling I want to have during Holiday Season.

See the snow. I was so happy to wake up to that different light yesterday. I jumped out of bed to make sure that my intuition was right and yes… there it was, the soft white layer of winterness. True, walking down to the office was perilous and took me 45 minutes instead of the usual 20, but it was well worth starting our day a little late.

Do a 2022 review and plan for 2023. That’s another personal tradition I have been keeping alive for the past few years. By myself or with friends, theses journaling, reminiscing and analysing moments have proven to be very powerful in helping me to live a more intentional life.

Go see a ballet. For some reasons I associate Holiday Season and ballet. It probably has something to do with the enchantment feeling. I have been wanting to go see a (real, old school) ballet for a while now. Maybe that time off I’m going to give myself will allow me to do just that.

What about you ? Do you have a Holiday Fun List ? What’s on it ? Share it with me in the comments below !

Photo : fun with friends started last night with the Boots & Cats team Holiday Celebration at a local Escape Game.