If you’re looking to take your partner on a romantic Christmas date or two this year, but don’t have a lot of cash to work with, you could consider some alternate date ideas that don’t include dinner at fancy restaurants or luxurious getaways. The Christmas season is a great time for taking in the scenery and just enjoying the overall happiness and good will in the air. With the right mindset and a little planning ahead of time, you’ll find you don’t even need to bring a wallet to have an awesome date.
Go “Lightseeing”
Take a long walk or leisurely drive through your neighbourhood and around the city to check out all the light displays and Christmas scenes. Wait until the dim evening hours when all the lights are glowing bright and bring along a thermos of hot cocoa to keep you warm. Go Christmas Carolling
Listening to Christmas music is a fabulous way to get into the spirit of the holidays and singing them to others will only make you feel all the more merry. You can go carolling with just your significant other or get a group of other couples together for a double, triple, or quadruple date. Carolling throughout your neighbourhood or around a local mall to spread the most amount of cheer possible is spectacular way to connect with your partner and spread some joy to others in your community. Go Ice-Skating
Ice-skating with your partner is one of the most classic and romantic Christmas dates. Skating around and holding your loved one’s mitten-clad hand will put you in the Christmas spirit while filling you with some romantic warmth. If there are any frozen lakes nearby you could even clear a rink and enjoy a more private and intimate skate together. Enjoy a Romantic Dinner at Home
You don’t need to make a reservation and pay for an expensive meal at a fancy restaurant to have an amazing dinner date at Christmas. Surprise your partner by serving a lovely holiday meal for them set with Christmas themed dishware. To spend even more time together, get your Christmas aprons on and cook the meal together over a glass of wine.
Share a Winter Picnic
Pack an extra large thermos of hot cocoa or warm apple cider, grab a stack of blankets, and head to your nearest park for a romantic winter picnic. For a cold day, pack yourselves some hot soup or steamy chilli and cuddle up on some blankets to keep warm. Be sure to bundle up to ward off any wind and snow that tries to sneak up on your picnic. Make a Decorating Date
Spend an entire day hauling all your Christmas decorations out of storage and transforming your house into a winter wonderland. Put on some Christmas music and turn what you might consider a bit of a chore into a wonderful Christmas date. Have fun with it and be sure to take a few breaks with your partner underneath the mistletoe. Watch a Christmas Movie Marathon Pick a Saturday or Sunday to do nothing put watch old Christmas movies. Snuggle on the couch in your pyjamas and have a stack of your favourite holiday DVDs on hand with a few black and white classics or animated Christmas movies in mix for good measure. Stock up on popcorn, liquorice, and all your favourite movie watching treats. This date idea is even better on the colder wintery days because you can stay cuddled and cozy with your significant other and shut out the miserable weather for an entire day.
There are plenty of wonderful things to do during the holidays that you don’t require you to spend any money. Christmas can get expensive enough as it is with all the presents, dinners, and parties that are mandatory with the family, so think up some new and exciting things to do with your partner that won’t impact your Christmas fund. Anything that gets you in the Christmas spirit and let’s you spend some romantic time together can make a perfect date during the holiday season, and you’ll avoid the holiday stress knowing you didn’t go over budget.
Christmas time always has a certain amount of quiet romance and mysterious magic, which makes it the perfect season to spend some extra time with your significant other. The days grow dimmer but all the bright lights and decorations have an unexplainable way of keeping people’s spirits high.
Sometimes your mood can be tested during the holidays though, and often it’s from the stress of spending extra Christmas cash that doesn’t fit into the family budget. Fortunately, there are ways to eliminate that stress, or at least drastically reduce it, while still enjoying the Christmas season just as much, if not more.
Make the decision to not let money be an issue this Christmas and rekindle your romance during the holiday season by making a pact to not buy anything for each other that is outside of a strict budget that you agree on. Instead, plan some wintery fun with the one you love and enjoy the frosty season together without spending a dime on the expensive things that matter the least.
Trim The Tree
The tree has to go up, so why not plan to spend the day together digging out all your old Christmas decorations and leisurely decorating the tree for an afternoon? Put some of your favourite Christmas music on, set out a plate of gingerbread cookies, and have some hot cocoa heating on the stove. Tree trimming is usually one of the first Christmas tasks that need doing so start your Christmas season off on a romantic note by spending that time with your partner.
Play in the Snow
Fresh snow brings out the big kids in even the best of us so get goofy with your significant other and go play outside. Make a snowman complete with a top hat and carrot stick nose. Lie in the powdery snow together and make his and her snow angels. If you’re feeling particularly cheeky that day you could even start a mini snowball fight.
Make Homemade Ornaments Even if you’re not the most creative couple in the world, spend an evening putting your brains to work by making some homemade ornaments. You can find plenty of good materials either around your house or at a dollar store such as pinecones, pine boughs, ribbons, and little bells. You should be able to find some great ideas from Pinterest.com or any Christmas crafting websites.
Bake Cookies
Bake up a few batches of some Christmas themed cookie recipes such as gingerbread, shortbread, or sugar cookies. If you get carried away with all that baking excitement you can always freeze a few batches to pull out for when friends and family drop by for their holiday visits. Make a whole day of it by shopping for all your ingredients together, mixing and baking the cookies, then decorating them all with icing, sprinkles, and little candies.
Go For a Romantic Drive If you live in an area that gets snow over the holidays, you’ll know what an incredible transformation takes place once that snow falls. Go for a romantic drive together to admire all the frosty trees and powdery snowdrifts. Even if you don’t get snow for Christmas you can drive around and admire all the decorations and Christmas scenes set up in front of the homes and stores in your area.
Wrap Gifts Together
Spend a romantic evening wrapping presents with your lights dimmed, tree lit, and Christmas music playing softly in the background. Clear a big space in your living room and set up a little wrapping station in the middle of your floor. Of course, keep the presents for your partner hidden away elsewhere to avoid any prying eyes and ruined surprises.
The holiday season is a great opportunity to spend more time with the one you love. Shop together for gifts and decorations or enjoy some hot cocoa while you watch the snowfall. Hang mistletoe everywhere and steal as many kisses as you can! You don’t have to spend a lot of money just to spend some romantic time together if you look for new ways to enjoy what this frosty season has to offer.
Christmas dinner is the one of the few meals families sit down and eat together. It is the one family tradition people try not to break, even after they have grown up and left the nest. No matter what family tension manifested throughout the year, it is put aside for an evening of peace and well-wishing. Of course, the unifying factor that brings them all home for Christmas is the food.
Breaking bread together is a celebration in itself. In the United State the traditional meal is an elaborate version of Sunday dinner. A festive holiday stuffing, roasted vegetables, and mashed potatoes are staples that grace the table. Specialty items like sweet potato casserole and old fashioned gelatin molds with fruit are tasty additions. The main event is usually a succulent ham, roast beef or goose. The food is usually prepared in abundance and made with love from the host’s kitchen. Besides common treats, classic yule logs, fruit cake, marzipan and Christmas pudding are specialty desserts looked forward to all year long.
Across the world families have their traditional dishes they feast on for Christmas dinner. Perhaps, you can adapt some international favorites to this year’s menu.
Brazil – Served late night on Christmas Eve, Brazilians Christmas supper takes its cue from Portugal. Roasted chester, an oversized chicken, or turkey served with colorful rice dishes is the main event. An atlantic cod, bacalhão, is bought dried and salted then prepared for a day in a half before serving. Couve mineira , a garlic kale, and other vegetables and succulent fruits fill out the menu. Christmas dinner is not complete without traditional rabanada for dessert; French toast made with baguettes, sprinkled with sugar then drizzled with a spice port wine syrup.
Czech Republic- Households in the Czech Republic have old superstitions that influence their Christmas dinner customs that are not observed today. A traditional meal consist of nine courses , including bread and honey, fried carp, potato salad, fruit, and an apple strudel dessert. Many days before Christmas a variety of Christmas cookies are made and lavishly decorated for guests. Leftover cookies are often displayed on the Christmas tree.
Philippines – Christmas is the most important holiday in the Philippines and, Noche Buena, or Christmas is the highlight. The meal is sumptuous buffet that friends and family are invited to drop by in an Open House style setting. Tables decorated with wreaths and Christmas flowers display large portions of roasted pig, oxtail stew, a baked stuff chicken called, rellenong manok, noodles and pasta dishes, native rice cakes, adobo, spring rolls, and cheese balls. Dinner is served with a native hot chocolate and ginger tea.
Germany - In Germany, a celebration takes place on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. The day before Christmas Bockwurst and potato salad, raclette, fondue, and fish or served. Then Christmas dinner is a more elaborate affair with roast turkey or goose, red cabbage, and potato dumplings. German gingerbread and Plätzchen, a variety of cookies always make an appearance.
There are many different recipes from around the world to spice up your Christmas dinner. The one thing they have in common is sharing the holiday with loved ones.
If you’re looking to take your partner on a romantic Christmas date or two this year, but don’t have a lot of cash to work with, you could consider some alternate date ideas that don’t include dinner at fancy restaurants or luxurious getaways. The Christmas season is a great time for taking in the scenery and just enjoying the overall happiness and good will in the air. With the right mindset and a little planning ahead of time, you’ll find you don’t even need to bring a wallet to have an awesome date.
