Holiday Activities to Thoroughly Enjoy This Winter
Clouds, the cold, and, of course, snow are all staples of the winter season, but winter here in Danville tends to look a little different. Our winter months here are often warmer than most other places and sometimes even sunny and hot. Keeping this in mind, there are still a lot of iconic winter activities you can do in this part of California.
One that immediately comes to mind is ice skating. Skating is a staple winter activity and even without frozen lakes nearby, there are still many places to go ice skating with friends or family, such as The Veranda in Concord, Walnut Creek on Ice, the Kristi Yamaguchi’s Holiday Ice Rink in San Ramon, and many others. They are great places to embrace the winter spirit.
Another activity to get into the holiday spirit is to watch a winter production, such as The Nutcracker ballet, or a play like A Christmas Carol. The San Francisco Ballet performs The Nutcracker every December, and this year the Toni Rembi Theater is putting on a production of A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. The San Francisco Symphony has many holiday-themed shows such as “Deck the Halls” and “Colors of Christmas.” They even have a showing of the Christmas movie Home Alone performed with their live orchestra. Having a nice meal beforehand and discussing it on the drive home could be a great outing.
Baking cookies are a winter staple as well. There are many easy recipes, and varieties of cookies, so that anyone can find one to their liking. Baking cookies in bulk is useful as well because if you have an excess of cookies, they can be handed out as small gifts to friends and family, spreading the holiday cheer.
Another way to embrace the wintertime with the people close to you is to do a kind of gift exchange, like a Secret Santa or white elephant. These can be done with friends and at large family gatherings, as well as between advisees, or coworkers. Secret Santa can be made even more convenient with the help of apps like “Draw Names,” which randomly draws a person for you to give a gift to. There is even a wish list feature to make the gift-buying process easier by telling you what your person wants.
If you play an instrument, learning holiday songs could be a way to pass the time and embrace the holiday season. Instrumental holiday music can come in every difficulty ranging from beginner to experienced and it is always impressive to whip out a few festive songs at a party. Speaking of parties, holiday parties are a great way to spend the winter by inviting a group over, which opens more possibilities for winter pastimes, such as hosting a gingerbread house-building competition, or doing some of the activities already mentioned like baking cookies as a group.
Another more far-fetched activity is to go play in the snow. Even though it seems impossible for it to snow in Danville, California, it actually has, and last year no less. The nearby Mt. Diablo received a couple of inches of snow in February 2023. Real snow, and many people drove up there to experience it themselves. While this made the traffic a nightmare, driving up there is completely legal. Because of the snow make sure to put chains on car tires as well as other safety precautions people don’t usually think about because snow here is such a rare occurrence. While this snow did occur weeks after winter break ended you can always have hope it may come early this year. In many holiday movies, people wish for a “White Christmas.” Usually, it seems like an impossible wish, but with all the recent unpredictable weather going on, at least there might be one good thing that comes out of it. This winter is predicted to be on the colder side, but even if it ends up not snowing on Mt Diablo at all, the winter months will still be full of fun.
