Living Las Navidades

Want to enjoy the holiday season to the fullest? Start with the seven easy steps and get into the holiday spirit.

1. Bake homemade cookies for coworkers. Whether they are shaped into Christmas trees or piñatas, cookies are a time-tested way to spread cheer.

2. Watch holiday flicks. Rent an old Christmas movie -- maybe even a Spanish-language classic your familia loves -- and watch with a loved one. It’s a heartwarming way to ignite a wintry romance.

3. Host a Christmas comadrazo. Invite your closest comadres over for hot Mexican chocolate and other Latin treats. Read one of the 36 options from Noche Buena: Hispanic American Christmas Stories.

4. Volunteer. In the busiest of months, sharing your time with others keeps the true meaning of the season alive. Visit the elderly at a nursing home, chop onions at a shelter or watch your neighbor’s kids while they finish Christmas shopping.

5. Take a time-out. Go for a massage, a spa treatment or a new haircut instead of another round at the stores, and you’ll replenish your sense of winter joy.

6. Decorate your home. Remember visiting Santa’s workshop at the mall’s North Pole? Wrap your living room or dining room chairs in festive ribbons and colorful Latin-American-style ornaments. Blow up old pictures of your family celebrating la Navidad in their native country and use the photos as decorations. For an extra dose of fun, copy your mother’s sequin mini-dress or bouffant hairdo and text her a picture. You’ll both be sure to get a great laugh!

7. Have Old-Fashioned Fun. Go ice-skating with your loved one and hold hands. Or join a group of Christmas carolers. A better idea is to start your own caroling group and to include classic and contemporary holiday tunes in Spanish in the repertoire.

Photo Credit: @iStockphoto.com/kate_sept2004