Do your holiday gatherings leave you feeling like the jolly old elf —bowl-full-of-jellybelly included — by New Year's?
Maybe this is the year for your family members, office mates, best friends returning to town and you to rev up a few new holiday traditions — the active kind.
Not every holiday get-together has to include eggnog, lavish lunches with decadent desserts or lots of sitting around staring at open fires (chestnuts roasting optional.)
Instead, try a few holiday happenings that will keep you from looking like Santa by New Year's.
Some of them can also replace those dreaded gift exchanges, so think happier holidays all around.
Here are seven to get you started. And honestly, no one's going to miss hot chocolate at every turn with all this fun going on.
Take a tour on foot.
Christmas at Callanwolde Designer Show House 11 a.m. Dec. 7- Dec. 13
$20
Callanwolde Fine Arts Center
980 Briarcliff Road
While it's splendid to drive around town checking out Christmas light shows, you can scope out lovely holiday scenery at the Callanwolde Fine Arts Center and get your heart rate pumping, too. During its wintertime days as Atlanta's Designer Show House, the historic Candler Mansion throws open its doors and you can browse all 27,000 square feet, including the sweeping staircase. The excursion would make a fine alternative for the ordinary book or Bunco group's holiday luncheon. Make sure to bring a donation for Toys for Tots when you come, too.
Can't-miss holiday home tours across metro Atlanta
Shoot arrows into holiday doldrums.
Panola Mountain State Park indoor basic archery classes
10 a.m. - noon Saturdays Dec. 10, 17 and 31; Sundays Dec. 4, 18, and 2 -4 p.m.Sunday, Jan. 1
Ages 9 and up, $15 plus $5 parking, registration required at 770-389-7801.
http://gastateparks.org/PanolaMountain
Panola Mountain State Park
2620 Highway 155 SW, Stockbridge. 770-389-7801
Located on Highway 155 via I-20 exit #68.
Gather the gang, antsy kids included, and release your inner archer with a basic class at picturesque Panola Mountain State Park in early or late December. Could this be your family's new New Year's tradition?
Do a 5K fun run or walk or at least cheer the kids on
Credit: Credit: Dottie Powers, www.truespeedphoto.com
Credit: Credit: Dottie Powers, www.truespeedphoto.com
8:30 a.m. Dec. 10
$30 adults and youth; $10 Tot Trot events
$30 youth and adults, $10 Tot Trot
10 E. Park Square, Marietta. 770-429-1115
Parking free in the Cobb County Parking Deck and in lots around the Square.
Any run in December is going to rev your heart rate and make you feel virtuous, but this one's extra special since the proceeds benefit the
Children's Emergency Fund for the Cobb County and Marietta school districts. Maybe the office could run or walk the 1K together? All participants get a long-sleeve technical performance shirt and the people-watching and views of historic homes along the course are part of the active fun. Another charming aspect: the Tot Trot events for running kiddos.
To register, click here.
Six Atlanta area fun runs to get you into the holiday spirit
Count birds for Christmas with Audobon
That holiday cardinal on your Christmas cards is even cheerier up close and personal. See cardinals and other winter songbirds at the Christmas Bird Count, which offers brisk-but-not-strenuous walking and camaraderie with other nature lovers. Founded by the National Audubon Society in 1900, it is the longest-running citizen science survey in the world. You can join in one or more bird counts scheduled in metro Atlanta between Dec. 14 and January 5.
Roswell, Thursday, Dec. 15
Marietta, Saturday, Dec. 17
Peachtree City, Sunday, Dec. 18
Floyd County, Sunday, Dec. 18
Atlanta, Monday, Jan. 2, 2017
Amicalola, Monday, Jan. 2, 2017
For a link to a page with contacts for each event, click here.
Host a preservation party at home.
Credit: Contributed by Lenz Marketing
Credit: Contributed by Lenz Marketing
Lyn Deardorff, Preserving Now-The Learning Kitchen
Basic pricing starts at $50 per person, all supplies included
404-377-8010
lyn@preservingnow.com
http://preservingnow.com
This is a timely alternative to the Christmas cookie swap! Invite any group you'd ordinarily meet for a too-lavish Christmas lunch or too-boozy happy hour to meet for a canning party instead. Deardorff comes to your home for a minimum of six and you all learn how to prepare one to three types of canned foods from start to finish. A pickle, a tomato product or a fruit product are all possibilities. Not only are the results not on the forbidden-foods list, you can be making gifts while you party.
Learn contra at a Dance Basics Workshop at Chattahoochee Country Dancers
7:30 p.m.-8 p.m. with dance to follow 8 p.m.-11 p.m. Friday nights Dec. 10, Dec. 17 and Dec. 23,
Admission $10; students with ID and dancers under 16, $5; non-dancers under 16 free
Clarkston Community Center, which shares a parking lot with, and is behind, the Clarkston Public Library, 951 N. Indian Creek Drive, Clarkston.
This is a rollicking and heart-pumping good time, judgment free. It's a great idea for reuniting with old school friends or far-flung relatives when you don't really want to sit in a restaurant. "Contra" means "across from," and these are all group dances with a caller and all manner of cool music, Old Fashioned to jazz and everything in between. The lessons are fun and you can join the dance the first night. And heck, if you get good you might want to make plan to do the CCC's New Year's Eve Dance.
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