Group of diverse women volunteers in winter jackets, hats, scarves outside

Videos: The Best Ways to Stay Busy and Give Back During Winter Break

Are you looking for stuff to do during winter break? Check out these videos for fun ideas to keep you busy and ways to give back to the local community.

We all love a little break—especially after a long semester working hard at school! But sometimes with so much time off, we run out of things to do and need some new ideas. Check out college student Jordan-Paige’s video below to see how she’s spending her winter break while she’s home for the holidays.  

Top things to do this winter break

These may all seem obvious, but when your mind is so focused on just having a break after finishing exams and final papers, it’s easy to forget about the simple things. Here are the best ways to spend your winter break:

  • Travel (safely) to visit friends and family
  • Get a jump-start on schoolwork
  • Celebrations! Hanukkah, Christmas, Kwanzaa, New Year’s, etc.
  • Catch up with friends and family
  • SLEEP! Seriously—give your body the rest it needs
  • Enjoy yummy home-cooked meals

Related: 13 Tips for Winter Break and Second Semester Success

You can also give back to your community while on break—donate clothes, raise money, or volunteer your time. The holidays are always a great time to help others, and many organizations hold events to encourage the community to participate. To give you an idea of what you can get involved in, check out student vlogger Olivia’s suggestions for five ways to help others during the holidays. 

Ways to give back to the community

  • Host a food drive: Ask your church, sports team, family, and friends to start collecting food for your local food pantry.
  • Shovel for people: If you get snow (like we do up North) and don’t mind being out in the cold for a bit, offer to help your neighbors shovel their driveways.
  • Volunteer at local organizations: Ask your local homeless shelter, soup kitchen, elementary school, church, library, or animal shelter if they need volunteers. Most of the time, they’ll say yes!
  • Spread kindness: Brighten up someone’s day just by holding the door, smiling at them, or helping them carry their groceries.
  • Help out around your house: Even something as simple as helping your parents clean up and do chores around the house more than usual can make a huge impact on your family—who are your own personal community.

Related: Give the Gift of Volunteering: 7 Opportunities for Winter Break

The CollegeXpress Team wishes you a happy, relaxing, and healthy winter break. You’ve worked so hard this semester through a lot of hurdles and struggles, but you made it through! Be sure to appreciate your accomplishments and enjoy your well-deserved time off.

For more vlogs from students just like you, check out the CollegeXpress YouTube channel!

Like what you’re reading?

Join the CollegeXpress community! Create a free account and we’ll notify you about new articles, scholarship deadlines, and more.

Join Now

Tags:

About CollegeXpress

CollegeXpress

Welcome to CollegeXpress, your one-stop college shop! We’re a free college planning website used by millions of college-bound students, parents, and counselors—anyone who needs help navigating the college search and application process, financial aid opportunities, and more. You’ll find comprehensive College Search and Scholarship Search tools, tons of articles and expert advice, unique college Lists & Rankings, and lots of other resources to help make your life easier. Teen Vogue even named us one of the 7 Best College Search Websites! But current college students and recent grads also love CollegeXpress for our Graduate Program Search and endless information on student life, internships, and beyond. We really have something for everyone, no matter where you are in your college journey. Create a free account to start connecting with colleges, winning scholarships, and more!

 

Join our community of
over 5 million students!

CollegeXpress has everything you need to simplify your college search, get connected to schools, and find your perfect fit.

Join CollegeXpress

College Quick Connect

Swipe right to request information.
Swipe left if you're not interested.

Alfred University

Alfred, NY


Casey Kammeyer

Casey Kammeyer

$500 Refer-A-Friend Scholarship Winner

I love the site CollegeXpress; it has been very helpful finding colleges and getting them to send me information. It has also been very, very helpful with finding tons of scholarships. Also, I told many of my friends about it and they love it as well!

Leah Maciel

Leah Maciel

High School Class of 2021

CollegeXpress has helped me with all aspects of applying for college. The website is extremely easy to navigate and gives access to so many resources. I was able to research all of the colleges I was interested in, find out any information I wished to know about, and keep them organized in a list. I've also been able to research scholarships and save them as resources for later. I've used many websites in my college and scholarship search, and CollegeXpress has by far been my favorite one to use.

Dani York

Dani York

High School Class of 2022

CollegeXpress helped in my journey by comparing multiple colleges for my final decision. While looking at different colleges, I was able to compare the tuition expenses and that landed me with the college that I’m currently enrolled in, Western Kentucky University. Thank you!

Lydia Huth

Lydia Huth

Student, Campbell University; CollegeXpress Student Writer

I discovered CollegeXpress while embarking on my college search journey as an excited—but scared and way confused—high schooler without a counselor or college-bound sibling to give me advice. Let me tell you, I’m so glad that I stumbled on this community! CollegeXpress helped me find potential colleges and keep application deadlines straight. It gave me a great list of scholarships, and the blogs and emails made me feel like I wasn’t going it alone. Almost three years later and with freshman year of college down, I still love the CollegeXpress vibe so much that I’m writing for them. I’d recommend this site to anyone!

Emilie Delgado

Emilie Delgado

$2,000 Community Service Scholarship Winner, 2013

CollegeXpress has tremendously helped me in my search for financial aid opportunities as I enter my college career. It is easy to navigate and quickly narrowed down scholarships that I could apply for. Being awarded the scholarship will greatly help me in my finances regarding books and tuition. Thank you for this opportunity. Without CollegeXpress, it would have been more difficult to apply. I would recommend this site to everyone!