The winter season is filled with holiday festivities and time well spent with friends and family. From gift-giving to baking cookies, the holiday season is one of the best times of the year filled with beloved traditions. Here are our top recommendations for activities and traditions to spice up your holiday season.

Friendsgiving:

Whether you celebrate this before or after Thanksgiving, “Friendsgiving” is a great way to get your closest friends together. Everyone brings a dish, dresses up, and enjoys dinner around a table. Friendsgiving is a great tradition to remind everyone how lucky they are to have their friends.

White Elephant:

White Elephant is a game where wrapped gifts are anonymously exchanged. The catch: you can “steal” a gift from the previous owner or take an unclaimed gift. The gifts often range in size, color, and category. You can have a White Elephant Game with friends or family and it is a fun and unpredictable game. This game is different because the luck of the draw is involved and you never know what to expect.

Secret Santa:

Secret Santa is a popular and fun way to start the holiday season. Participants get to randomly draw a name and pick out a gift for that person. While it can be challenging to keep the secret and figure out the perfect gift for your person, Secret Santa is a great way to kick off the Christmas season.

The New Year’s Eve Ball Drop:

One of the biggest New Year traditions is the ball drop in New York City. Families, friends, and community members come together to watch. The giant ball drop is located on the roof of One Time Square, and at exactly midnight to celebrate the New Year. Whether you’re watching it in person or on-screen, it’s an exciting way to start the New Year with friends and family.

Playing the Dreidel:

This is a fun, traditional game to play around the holidays. You spin the dreidel with a group of three or four people. The dreidel will land on a certain Hebrew letter letting the player know what to do next. This game was created to help Jewish kids study the Torah, but also is a great way to bring people together to have some fun during the holidays.