Around our house, we get into the holiday celebrations early! My role as calendar editor with MetroFamily makes living in the present a challenge at times. Since I start searching for all of the great community events happening in the metro months ahead, it’s hard to temper my excitement for the things to come, and the pleas to put up the Christmas tree are usually granted.
Oklahoma City comes alive during the holidays and this year is no different. Here at MetroFamily, we’ve been hard at work, like cheery Santa’s elves (wink, wink), to help you plan wonderful ways to make memories together. Here are a few of my family’s holiday must-dos:
See Christmas lights, often! We usually take several trips to see holiday light displays, because who can choose just one when we have so many great options?! When my twins were little, my husband would come home from work with hot chocolate in hand and we’d load up to drive nearby neighborhoods because bedtime came early back then. Now we make plans with cousins and all squeeze into one car to see the sights and sing songs together. Our favorites are Chickasha’s Festival of Light & Yukon’s Christmas in the Park but, this year, we are adding Myriad Garden’s Illuminations, which we will likely top off with a streetcar tour of downtown’s lights. (Special note: families can ride the streetcars for free every weekend until Jan. 5.)
Gotta get that Santa pic. This one is likely more for me than my kids these days as they aren’t tots any more. After all, I need to fill that special frame and I don’t know how many shots I have left. We’ll see if my tweens will comply for at least another year? Maybe two? We usually take our turn at Bass Pro Shop but there are so many places to find the jolly old elf around town.
A tradition we added last year, we’ve got a visit to Holiday in the Park at Frontier City on our calendar. The park gets a holiday treatment that is sure to excite even the grumpiest of Scrooges, plus it’s a fun way to do something special with my active boys.
Something new we are adding this year, we are planning to spend a day volunteering at the Moore Food & Resource Center. We’ll help stock their shelves so that fellow Oklahomans in need can shop at this client-choice pantry. My hope is that my boys will find the holiday spirit outside the glitz and sparkle. There are lots of ways your family can give back and here are some organizations you could consider serving.
I’d love to hear what your family has planned this holiday season! Share your inspirations in the comments below!!
