How to make the most of Christmas 2020

Like everything else this year, Christmas is going to be different. There’s no markets, no ice skating, no pub trips and very little opportunity to go Christmas shopping. Despite all this, we’re trying our best to keep ourselves in the Christmas spirit.

When you’re living at university, it can be hard to celebrate Christmas traditionally and like many people this year, we put our decorations up early. It cost us very little, just a few trips to Home Bargains, Wilkos and the Range and our Christmas decorations were bought. When putting them up, we played Christmas songs and did it as a house. It’s important to keep yourself socialising in the winter months, as the lack of sunlight and homesickness can have a drastic effect on you.

Our Christmas tree this year

Celebrating Christmas as a university student doesn’t have to be expensive. In our first year last year, and second year this year, we decided to save money and do a Secret Santa. This meant everyone got a present but no one was financially strained as we put a small price limit on it.

As intimidating as it may look, cooking a Christmas dinner isn’t actually that hard. In first year, we bought all the ingredients and split the cost as a flat. We still had all the traditional things: Yorkshire puddings, pigs in blankets, stuffing and roast potatoes. Instead of turkey, we had pork but it didn’t make a massive difference to us. Despite having a smaller kitchen than we did in our flat last year, we’re still planning on doing it this year before we all go home.

First year Christmas

Luckily enough, we still get to go home for Christmas and spend time with our families. We’ll be seeing friends but with the new tier system, we’ll have to think of new ways to celebrate instead of our traditional nights out and pub nights over the Christmas period.

We’ve decided this year, we’re going to come back to Manchester for New Years Eve instead of spending it at home, and spend it together as a house. We don’t know what our plans will be as of yet, as our tier could change. Hopefully, we’ll be able to go out for some food but if not, we may just dress up to stay in the house and celebrate the end of the worst year ever.

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