There are so many things you should do while you’re a college student — it’s essential to make a list to ensure you don’t forget anything. To avoid an extra-long bucket list, it helps to split your ideas up into different themes. One idea is to create a bucket list just for the winter, which should include at least the following.
1. Decorate Your Student Apartment
If this is your first year away from home, it’s likely the first time you’ve been in charge of the decorations. Collaborate with your roommates or just decorate your bedroom with things like a tree, a greeting card display, and homemade ornaments.
2. Go Ice Skating with Friends
Head to the nearest ice rink or frozen lake with your friends to skate. If you’ve never skated before, you should find that you get the hang of it after you try a few times.
3. Hold a Christmas Movie Marathon
On an evening when it’s too cold to venture out, invite a couple of friends over to watch Christmas classics. Ask everyone to bring their pajamas and prepare some hot chocolate to turn the night into a slumber party to remember.
4. Make a Snowman
After a heavy snowfall, head outside with friends to build a snowman. You could even form teams and compete to see who can make the best or most original snow sculpture.
5. Have a Snowball Fight
Whether spontaneous or planned in advance, a snowball fight is a must for every college student. If you do this on the same day as you build snowmen, you can hide behind your snow figures for protection or to ambush the other students.
6. Head to the Hills for a Sledding Day
For a longer day out in the snow, go on a sledding excursion. This works best somewhere with plenty of reasonably steep hills. You may be able to pick up a sled in a thrift store or you can make your own out of something like a cookie sheet, a lid to a storage container, or even a piece of cardboard wrapped in a trash bag.
7. Send Handwritten Cards
Go beyond simply signing your greetings cards and write each recipient a personalized note. Include a few updates about your life and let recipients know that you’re thinking of them. Send these cards to your close friends from high school, relatives, and anyone else important in your life.
8. Do a Homemade Gift Exchange
Holiday shopping can mean you exceed your budget for the month on gifts alone. Save money and give something more meaningful with homemade gifts. You could even organize a Secret Santa or White Elephant where everyone makes gifts instead of buying things.
9. Bake a Gingerbread House
A gingerbread house looks impressive and is not actually too difficult — provided you have some patience! You just need to cut the gingerbread to the right shape, glue the pieces together with royal icing, and then decorate the house with the candy of your choice.
10. Give Something Back
Give more than gifts over the holidays by volunteering your time. Find a cause that you care about and that needs support this time of year. For instance, you could offer to feed animals or walk dogs at an animal shelter, pay the residents of an assisted living facility a visit, or serve food at a homeless shelter.
11. Reflect on Your Year
It’s easy to become so focused on the future and on setting new year’s resolutions that you neglect to acknowledge what you’ve already achieved. Consider the goals you had at the beginning of the year and the progress you’ve made toward them. Think about what challenges you overcame, what you managed to do that you never imagined would be possible, and what you’ve learned — beyond just academics.
Many of the activities above are much more fun if you have a great student apartment. For Durham College off-campus housing, there’s Foundry Simcoe. Your spacious suite with a private bedroom will be a great place to hang out with friends. Apply now for an immediate move-in or to take advantage of our early bird pricing.
