By Sarah Ribeiro
It’s been six months since the cuddling and gift-giving time of year, and you’re running out of summer date ideas. This weekend, ditch the summer activities and celebrate the half-way point to Christmas with your love.
Start by decorating your home like it’s Christmas: hang garland, lights and maybe even mistletoe in every room. You can even get a little crafty and make paper snowflakes or a DIY Christmas Tree. Try involving every sense so that it really feels like the holidays. Light an evergreen tree-scented candle and pop some gingerbread in the oven, making your whole place smell like Christmas. You can even turn up the air conditioning just a bit so you can wear your favorite Christmas sweater (ugly or not).
Plan a holiday feast that you and your beau can make together. Make the traditional holiday foods, such as stuffing, turkey, ham, sweet potatoes and roasted vegetables. This half-Christmas is also a chance to try out unique and innovative recipes in advance of the next holiday. Try a color-themed menu of red and green foods, including baked apples filled with brown sugar, butter, and cinnamon, an egg frittata with green spinach and red or green peppers, kale soup or cherry pie.
Don’t forget the holiday beverages. To cater to the warm summer weather, try making frozen hot chocolate. Serendipity sells a mix with directions to make things easy for you and your sweetheart. Sip on some eggnog while you bake cookies for Santa. Be sure to play some holiday carols on your iPod while you cook and bake!
After dinner, you and your partner can watch one of your favorite holiday movies. If you’re in the mood for something classic, watch ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’ or ‘Miracle on 34th Street.’ Or go for a more contemporary film, like the Jim Carrey adaptation of ‘The Grinch’ or the hilarious holiday favorite ‘Elf.’
Then you and your honey can swap gifts. Maybe you just want to fill your stockings with little presents for each other. Plan in advance whether you will be buying something serious or a gag gift. Either way, be sure to set a price range.
Wrap up the night with an all-time favorite Christmas activity. Get that gingerbread out of the oven and build a house with your sweetheart! For something simpler, you can build marshmallow snowmen. You can even plan ahead to next Christmas, thinking up early gift ideas for family and friends and going so far as to design your own wrapping paper.
How do you celebrate half-Christmas? Share your ideas in the comment section below!
