1. Go out on a drive to look at Holiday lights. Whether you go look at professional displays like Santa’s Magical Kingdom in Eureka or just neighborhood lights in subdivisions like Wildhorse, it’s always exciting to go see lights around the holidays.

2. Bake cookies. Or candies or cakes. The laid-back, celebratory atmosphere of the holidays is a great time to get out the flour and sugar and bake masterpieces to share with friends and family. Foodnetwork.com is a great site to visit for ideas of things to make.

3. Go sledding/skiing/snowboarding. Sledding can be done practically everywhere, for free so if there’s snow on the ground this is a great option. However it’s been an unusually warm winter here in St. Louis, so if that’s the case over break, there’s always the option of going to Hidden Valley to get in a little winter sports.

4. Ice Skating in Forest Park. This is great whether you’re looking for a cute date idea, fun place to hangout with friends or a spot for family bonding.

5. Sleep all day long. This is an opportunity to catch up on the sleep lost during finals week.

6.Volunteer. Working at a soup kitchen around the holidays is a great way to spread the holiday spirit. Giving a little can help someone else an immense amount.

7. Read a book. Getting lost in a great book is a really pleasant way to spend an afternoon.

8. Catch up with old friends. Sending out Christmas cards can be used as an excuse to take the time to write a nice long hand-written letter to someone you haven’t had time to talk to lately. A hand-written letter shows you care much more than a text that says, “Hey, How r u?”

9. Listen to music. By the time break rolls around, most major music review sites have made their Album of the Year lists. There’s absolutely no down side to sitting around listening to music all day.

10. Go geocaching. With free time, you now have the opportunity to set up an account at geocaching.com and go look for hidden items all around your area. And the great thing about this is that you can do it practically anywhere, not just St. Louis.