The celebration of any holiday can be stressful. There may be special meals, out-of-town guests and high expectations. Things can get tense. And with everyone piled into the house, the instinct might be to flip on a movie to keep the kiddoes happy. But we find more success taking a different direction.
We’ve discovered that the best antidote for holiday cabin-fever is to get out of the house.
Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years- on all these holidays you’ll see our family piling into the car to head out of the house, and into nature.
Going for a walk on a holiday allows everyone in the family a chance to relax outdoors, center themselves, and get some exercise. We see if there are any wild animals out and about to celebrate, what plants are still thriving, and what has hunkered down for Winter.
So few people head outdoors on the holidays, that we frequently have a whole park or nature reserve to ourselves. The lack of human noise is impressive on these days. You really get a chance to see why Thoreau moved to the woods, and why that still seems like a good idea.
After an hour or so of exploring, we head back home. There’s still plenty of time for movies, games and traditional in-home fun. But we find our escape into nature a valued re-fueling moment that lets us enjoy our time together even more.