As July 25 approaches so too does the 5-month mark before Christmas. Why not dream of cooler times during the summer heat and celebrate Christmas in July? Not to worry, most Christmas in July celebrations are way less stressful and costly than Christmas in December. It can be as elaborately or as simply as you please.
SHE SAID:
I’ve been trying to think of cooler things to do lately during these 30-degree days of high humidity. While sitting in our unfinished basement with my feet in a bucket of ice has been tempting, I needed something a little more stimulating and a lot less insane.
While Christmas can often be used synonymously with insanity, the idea of celebrating twice in one year may sound, well, insane to you. Not to worry, though, only the idea is insane. In practice it’s actually quite lovely and how the real Christmas ought to be – simple.
As with the normal Christmas, food is the major focal point of this celebration. We tried taking the traditional Christmas foods and putting a summer twist on them. For instance, instead of roasting a turkey, we made mini turkey sliders on the BBQ. In place of cranberries, we had sparkling cranberry and pomegranate drinks. Instead of corn as a side dish, we had corn on the cob. Okay, that last one was a little lie. We didn’t have corn on the cob because Brad hates feeling like a greasy ape after eating it, so we fried it with pepper, butter and Parmesan instead. Anyway, you get the point.
The cooling off part of this celebration comes mainly with the dessert and activities you choose. Since we don’t have very many ways to cool off in our house, save shoving our head in the freezer from time to time, our cooling off often comes in the form of food like ice cream, popsicles, or even just straight up ice (we’re desperate people!). In lieu of heating up the oven up to bake anything, we bought cookies n’ cream ice cream as a play on the milk and cookies left out for Santa on Christmas Eve.
As for activities, we couldn’t do much more than lie low and watch a Christmas movie. We opted for The Holiday, but never made it through since that movie is ridiculously long. If you have the luxury of owning a pool you can really indulge. If you’re on a slightly lower budget, you might even opt to buy a kiddie pool and create your own little patio pool party. Better, yet, you could head to the beach, lake or indoor pool at your local sportsplex.
I enjoyed celebrating Christmas in July with Brad, but I think it could be even better with friends and/or family to celebrate with, since that’s a big part of what complete Christmas for me. If you’re looking for something to do this weekend as July 25th draws near, why not plan your own celebration? Remember to tell us how it went and don’t hold back!
HE SAID:
When someone mentions Christmas, what pops into your head? I would imagine your mind goes to one of two extremes. Either you conjure up images of joy and happiness, or of pain and misery, you love it or you hate it. The beauty of Christmas in July is that you have the opportunity to do all the things you love and none of the things you hate.
If I had ever heard of Christmas in July before I married Susan, it didn’t make much of an impression. When she told me about it, I couldn’t really wrap my brain around the idea of voluntarily putting myself through the rigamarole of the holidays in the middle of the summer. But once we set out to actually try it, I discovered that there are many ways to make it quite enjoyable.
There are three main pillars to the holidays that I wanted to incorporate into our summer festivities:
Gifts
We aren’t the type to go spending-crazy at Christmas time. We always set a very reasonable budget and we’re usually quite good at sticking to it. Regardless, I almost always come out of the holidays feeling like we went overboard. We are by no means wealthy, but we have a good life so it sometimes seems silly to spend even the relatively small amount we spend on Christmas.
With that said, we tried to keep things as minimal as possible for Christmas in July. We kept it to one gift each, and it was great. I feel like one gift means way more than the mountain of junk that can pile up in December.
The trick is to keep it low budget and low pressure. Spend whatever you think is appropriate, but don’t obsess over giving gifts of exactly equal monetary value.
Food
I won’t go into too much detail since Susan told you about the food already, but I really enjoyed our little twist on the turkey dinner and the milk and cookies dessert. Though it was a much lighter meal than the big feast on Christmas Day, we still felt the turkey coma hit us pretty hard.
Decorations
Again, we opted to keep it simple in the decorating department. Putting up and decorating the Christmas tree is a daunting task once a year, let alone a second time in the heat of July. So we grabbed Susan’s mini Christmas tree from the basement as well as our wooden Santa. It was simple, easy, and fun. Of course, if you feel so inclined, you can spare no expense and fully decorate your house as if it were December.
I enjoyed Christmas in July quite a bit. Though it does feel odd doing Christmasy things in the summer, it’s still a fun time. If you enjoy the food, the gifts, and the fun, but hate the shopping, the crowds, and the busyness, give Christmas in July a try. You can make it as crazy or as simple as you like for a fun summer holiday.
