How to Holiday

So you’ve gotten your holiday shopping out of the way early, snagging Black Friday deals galore. Good for you! However, unless you’re a cranky curmudgeon, you’ve still got one more step left: gift wrapping those bad boys. Here are a few tips to help you wrap like a pro.

1. Put it in a box. Don’t try to wrap a bottle of wine, a power tool or a toy. Put it in a box, then wrap the box. (You’d think this would be common knowledge, but, alas…)
   
2. Get sturdy wrapping paper. Use the Goldilocks method – none of that easily rippable stuff, but also nothing too thick. Juuuust right.
   
3. Acquire sharp scissors. You know that feeling when you’re cutting paper and the blade just starts gliding? Heaven.
   
4. Measure your paper. Your paper, once cut, should be large enough to wrap around your box with a little overlap, as well as a little overhang on the sides. Too much and you’re wasting paper. Too little and your recipient will be able to see what’s inside before you want them to! The horror! Keep it tight. If you want your present to look like it’s wrapped by a pro, make sure to pull it tightly around the box before taping.
   
5. Hide the tape. Speaking of tape, try the double-sided kind to make your wrapping look even sleeker.
   
6. Less is more. No, not when it comes to paper. We’ve covered this! We’re talking about embellishments. Consider one beautiful bow or an artful pairing of ribbons to accompany your present, not six. (Unless your recipient is, in fact, six. Then go hog wild – they’ll love it.)
   
7. If all else fails: Get on YouTube. If that fails, just buy bags and tissue paper. You’ve done your best.

Whether you’re attempting to create a gingerbread house for the first time this year, or are entrenched in an all-out war with your extended family to decide who can make the most beautiful house of them all, try these tips to win the day.

• Sketch your design concepts on paper first. Does this seem excessive? Maybe. But approaching your clean gingerbread slate with a pre-approved design will help keep things moving smoothly.
  
• Use fine tipped brushes and small piping bags. The devil’s in the details, after all. Smaller piping and finer tools will allow you more freedom to decorate how you please.
  
• Decorate everything before assembling. I mean, this is gingerbread house construction 101, but we’ll reiterate: only finishing touches should be applied after the house is glued together.
  
• Be patient. It will take time for your designs to dry, as well as time for the house pieces to meld together with the icing. Don’t touch it until you’re sure it’s dry!
  
• Make sure your icing is stored correctly. Perhaps your gingerbread decorating takes more than one sitting – that’s A-OK, pal. If the icing is going back into the fridge, make sure storage is airtight. Then, when round two begins, allow the icing to warm back to room temperature before using it again.

Ready to be a festive Christmas elf? Here are some random (and not so random) acts of kindness to try this season:

• Volunteer. Head to the homeless shelter, ring some donation bells or spend time with seniors at the nursing home. You will get just as much out of the experience as the nonprofit you’re helping.
  
• Deliver presents in person. Nothing beats seeing someone’s face light up right in front of you – not on a tiny screen. 
  
• Write holiday letters or greeting cards. The holidays can be lonely, and this will ease that feeling for many. Plus, it’s a chance to brag about what a great year you had and reconnect with old pals.
  
• Connect with your neighbors. Whether that means bringing over a pie or shoveling show off their driveway, a little goes a long way. 
  
• Donate. Be it clothes, food, time or money, it’s always a good idea to help those in need. 
  
• Be patient. The holidays can be a time of stress for many. Take a few deep breaths if someone shoves past you at the mall or cuts you in line. (I’m suggesting this one just as much for me as for you.)

There are plenty of great things about holiday food. But the best, we’d wager, is that you aren’t tied to a certain meal or, more importantly, a specific protein come Christmas. (For example – my family does brisket mac n’ cheese every year. Traditional? Nope. Delicious? You bet.)

Media brand Taste of Home released survey results this year that outline America’s favorite Christmas dishes. The poll, which involved 1,140 people, offered head-to-head match-ups of a variety of food items. The top five match-up champs include:

• Roasted potatoes
• Mashed potatoes
• Turkey
• Bread/rolls
• Stuffing/dressing

Talk about carbo-loading! And bottom of the barrel? 

• Cabbage 
• Goose
• Turnips
• Plantains
• Tofu

No matter what you bring to your table, you can’t really go wrong. (Unless you serve me tofu. Sorry. Just no.)

Maybe  you need a little liquid courage to brave a chat with your extended family … or you just like to sip on spirits during the holidays. Either way, here are some festive cocktails to whip up. (Remember, these will be just delicious without the booze if you’re alcohol-free!) 

The Cranberry Ginger Mimosa

• 2 oz. Ginger beer
• 2 oz. Cranberry juice
• Champagne to top
• Sugared cranberries to garnish
• Combine the ginger beer, cranberry juice and champagne in a glass. 
• Garnish with skewered sugared cranberries.

The Brandy Alexander

• 1.5 oz. Cognac
• 1 oz. Dark creme de cacao
• 1 oz. Cream
• Grated nutmeg to garnish
• Add cognac, dark creme de cacao and cream into a shaker with ice; shake well. 
• Strain into a glass. 
• Garnish with freshly grated nutmeg.

Pear Martini

• 1.5 oz. Pear vodka
• 1.5 oz. St. Germain liqueur
• 3/4 oz. Lime juice
• 1 dash Angostura bitters
• Pear slices to garnish
• Add vodka, liqueur, lime juice and bitters to a shaker filled with ice; shake well. 
• Strain into a glass.
• Garnish with pear slices.

Hot Toddy

• 2 tsp. Demerara/brown sugar
• 1/4 oz. Lemon juice
• 2 oz. Whiskey
• 4 Cloves
• 1 Lemon peel
• Boiling water to top
• Fill a mug with boiling water and let stand until warm. 
• At the same time, stick cloves into the lemon peel.
• Empty the mug and fill again, about halfway, with more boiling water.
• Add the sugar and stir until dissolved.
• Add the prepared lemon peel and stir.
• Add the lemon juice and whiskey.
• Stir again.

Made with help from Liquor.com.

So, you don’t want to watch The Polar Express for the fourth year in a row? We present a few other options, both classic and atypical. (Read into these before viewing; some aren’t quite kid-friendly.)

• Elf 

• Home Alone

• A Christmas Story

• The Nightmare Before Christmas

• Love Actually

• The Family Man 

• Die Hard

• The Holdovers

Let it shine at free and ticketed light displays around the state.

Woolaroc Wonderland of Lights
Through Dec. 22
Woolaroc Museum & Wildlife Preserve, Bartlesville

Myriad & Bright
Through Dec. 24
Myriad Botanical Gardens, Oklahoma City

Philbrook Festival
Through Dec. 28
Philbrook Museum of Art, Tulsa

Festival of Lights
Through Dec. 30
Regional Park, Ardmore

Festival of Angels
Through Dec 30
Various locations, Ponca City

Botanic Garden of Lights
Through Dec 30
Tulsa Botanic Garden

Fantasy Land of Lights
Through Dec. 30 
Johnstone Park, Bartlesville

Chickasha Festival of Light
Through Dec. 31
Shannon Springs Park, Chickasha

OKC Zoo Safari Lights
Through Jan. 1
Oklahoma City Zoo & Botanical Garden

Bixby’s Winter Wonderland
Through Jan. 1
Charley Young Event Park, Bixby

Edmond’s Electric Luminance: An Enchanted Stroll
Through Jan. 1
Mitch Park, Edmond

Rhema Christmas Lights
Through Jan. 1
Rhema Bible Church, Broken Arrow

Garden of Lights
Through Jan 1
Honor Heights Park, Muskogee

Holiday in the Park
Through Jan. 1
Elmer Thomas Park, Lawton

Holiday-related performances abound.

Oklahoma Shakespeare in the Park presents: Jane Austen’s Christmas Cracker
Dec. 5-22
Ok Shakes’ Blackbox Theater, OKC

Canterbury Voices presents: Sing We Now of Christmas
Dec. 6
Civic Center Music Hall, OKC

Trans-Siberian Orchestra
Dec 6
BOK Center, Tulsa

OKC Philharmonic presents: A Very Merry Pops with Tony DeSare and Ashley Brown
Dec. 6-7
Civic Center Music Hall, OKC

American Theatre Company presents: A Christmas Carol
Dec. 6-22
Tulsa PAC

Deck the Halls featuring Red Steagall & the Boys in the Bunkhouse
Dec. 8
National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum, OKC

Tulsa Ballet presents: The Nutcracker
Dec. 8-22
Tulsa PAC

Festival Bell Ringers
Dec. 11
Tulsa PAC

Hanson’s Christmas Ball
Dec. 13-14
Cain’s Ballroom, Tulsa

Signature Symphony presents: Christmas in Tulsa
Dec. 13-14
TCC Van Trease PACE, Tulsa

Oklahoma City Ballet presents: The Nutcracker
Dec. 14-23
Civic Center Music Hall, OKC

Pollard Theatre presents: A Territorial Christmas Carol
Through Dec. 22
Pollard Theatre, Guthrie

Lyric’s A Christmas Carol
Through Dec. 27
Lyric at the Plaza

Trans-Siberian Orchestra
Dec 30
Paycom Center, OKC

Ice rinks beckon for active fun.

Ice on the Plaza
Through Dec. 31
323 E. Grand Ave., Ponca City

Arvest Winterfest
Through Jan. 6
Downtown Tulsa by the BOK Center 

Christmas in the Ville
Through Jan. 4
201 S.W. Keeler Ave., Bartlesville

Holidays on Ice
Through Jan. 4
301 S. Independence Ave, Enid

Yukon Ice Rink
Through Jan. 5
500 W. Vandament Ave., Yukon

BA Ice Rink
Through Jan. 6
418 S. Main St., Broken Arrow

Crest on Ice
Through Jan. 6
2550 Mt. Williams Dr., Norman

Edmond Ice Rink
Through Jan. 20
Mitch Park, Edmond

Devon Ice Rink
Through Feb. 2
Myriad Botanical Gardens, OKC

Community events can help get you in the holiday mood. 

Saints Santa Run
Dec. 7
535 N.W. Ninth St., Oklahoma City

Tulsa Christmas Parade
Dec. 14
Downtown 

Santa’s Ozark Mountain Village\
Through Dec 21
Har-Ber Village Museum, Grove

Holiday in the Ark
Through Dec. 23
Endangered Ark Foundation, Hugo

OKC Community Chanukah Festival
Dec. 29
Scissortail Park

The Polar Express
Through Dec. 29
Oklahoma Railway Museum, Oklahoma City

Depot Green Christmas Train
Through Dec. 29
205 Elgin St., Muskogee

Route 66 Christmas Chute
Through Dec. 29
101 E. Dewey Ave, Sapulpa

Red Earth Treefest
Through Jan. 3
BancFirst Tower, Oklahoma City

Arvest Winterfest
Through Jan. 6
Downtown Tulsa

Downtown in December
Through Feb. 2
Downtown Oklahoma City

You may catch yourself setting out cookies for Santa and wondering, well, why the heck am I doing this? Don’t worry – there’s reasoning behind many of our quirky holiday traditions.

Christmas tree: These beauties date back to the Middle Ages, with Germany being the first country known to decorate pine trees for winter celebrations. A 2019 survey by the American Christmas Tree Association (yes, that’s a real thing) says that today, 77% of U.S. households display trees. Perhaps more wild? 81% say theirs is fake! 

Yule log: Burning logs during the holidays dates back to ancient winter solstices. Although once a necessity to keep celebrants warm, now lighting a fire is more for coziness and ambiance than anything else. 

Cookies and milk: Ancient Norse mythology saw people leaving treats for Saint Nick and his reindeer. But the cookies and milk trend was born during the Great Depression as a sign of gratitude during struggle. 

Poinsettias: Poinsettias were brought back to America by the first U.S. ambassador to Mexico, botanist Joel Roberts Poinsett, in the 1820s. The star-shaped leaf pattern is said to symbolize the Star of Bethlehem.

Made with help from History.com.