The holiday season is upon us and, if you find yourself in short supply of celebratory spirit or just feel like reading a few horribly written holly jolly paragraphs to keep you busy, allow me to provide you with a small bump to kickstart your holiday cheer.

At my house I have a continued year round ritual for every holiday.... which is decorate months in advance just because I can. I'm a grown ass adult and I can make my own dumb decisions. But aside from just decking the halls and putting up the tree, here are a few activities I regularly partake in that will, hopefully, inspire you.

HOLIDAY TREATS AND EXCLUSIVES

This should be a no brainer but, for the sake of taking up word space, we'll talk about it here. The day after Halloween, we begin to see the store shelves change from candy corn and pumpkin spice to gingerbread and toothpaste flavored items. Like most humans these days, I frequently rely on social media for new holiday treats and exclusives and set myself up for an adventure to personally seek these items out. Think of it as a holiday scavenger hunt. And, hey, if you don’t find what you're looking for, there is a good chance you'll find something you weren't looking for that is equally as interesting. Besides, you need to get Christmas shopping done anyways, kill two birds with one stone. While you're at it, make a playlist of festive tunes to enjoy on the way. Pictured here are just a few items I've found already as early as November 1st. Not too shabby.

TRY SOMETHING NEW

I always make it a point to try something I haven't when given the opportunity. I specifically remember the first time I tried eggnog and, honestly, it was pretty fucking awful. However, that was years ago when I was 16 and it was a really cheap pre mixed kind that one of my friends parents had saved for a long ass time in their liquor cabinet. Years later (like just a couple years ago) I ended up trying some eggnog from Walmart and now I'm hooked. Ever eat fruit cake before? Me neither! Perhaps that will be put on my own list of new things to try next to Struffoli, Yorkshire Pudding, Panettone, Yule Logs and that gross looking jiggly red shit in a can that never seems to get eaten at Christmas dinner. Also, it doesn't necessarily have to be food either; why not try a new tradition? Some people hang mistletoe and make homemade ornaments, others go caroling. I dont actually know anyone that goes caroling but, I've seen it happen before. I wouldn't go caroling.

MAKE A HOLIDAY DIORAMA

This may take a little creativity but it can be done for as cheap or as expensive as you would like. When it comes time to decorate for Christmas, it's typical of me to put little Santa hats and Christmas-y bullshit on some action figures. I've made my own props and also bought a few from craft stores to best suit the figures I want to include and situations I'd like to showcase. You can also do a little searching of your own on Instagram and Etsy and find all kinds of accounts selling homemade props.

Here, you can see I fashioned the basic structure of the diorama from cheap poster board from Dollar Tree. Then I made a floor in Gimp and printed it out on card stock and glued it down. The fireplace was made from pieces of styrofoam and foam board. I also printed an image of a fireplace out on photo paper to place on the inside. There are plenty of tutorials on youtube that you can check out to make a piece like this yourself. I found this really cheap lookin’ tree at Walmart. It required quite a bit of finesse to get it to look presentable. You can see it in use in one of my Plastic Crack articles too.

The ornaments were a random Goodwill find I couldn't pass up. Throw on a little Christmas string and you got yourself a festive miniature Christmas tree. I also made some vintage action figure boxes in Gimp to print out on photo paper. If you're interested in purchasing your own toy and video game props, check out @toy_saurus_games_sales on Instagram. He does some amazing work!

You don't necessarily have to build a diorama either. Here, I've put a variety of action figures together with some props and it looks just fine. I imagined a present exchange party with pizza and something green and diabetes inducing to drink.

THROW A CHRISTMAS PARTY

The holidays are all about being close with the ones that you care about most. What better way to achieve this than by throwing a party? I'm not a very social person myself, so about 4 or 5 people is all I'd really need to make it work. Think of a theme and go with it. Between ugly sweater, secret Santa and tree trimming parties; the possibilities are relatively endless. Hell, you could even go as far as to make your own theme up. Off the top of my head..... throw an eggnog party! Buy a variety of different eggnog brands and rate them all with the people who matter to you the most. If the people who matter to you most happen to be cats, I don't advise you let them drink eggnog.

WATCH HOLIDAY MOVIES AND TV SPECIALS

With a plethora of holiday movies and tv specials to choose from, it should be easy to find at least one that has been near and dear to you since childhood. And, really, that's where I like to aim to get the holiday spirit flowing most. This probably should be first on the list as it's the easiest item in the list to achieve; you don't have to go anywhere or invite anyone. You could make a small meal or snack to enjoy while you watch.

Need some suggestions? Here at DemBoys, we got you covered! Just like the Halloween season, Zach, Derek, Team Up and I will be sharing a few of our favorite holiday movies, tv episodes and specials each week in December! So, if you can't think of anything to watch or are just looking for something new that you might not have seen before, check back each week for new listings.

Well, that's it for now! I hope this helps whoever stumbles upon this article to put you in the jolliest of spirits for the 2019 holiday season! We have a lot of great articles coming up ranging from junk food, black Friday deals, comics, toys, games and much more so stayed tuned and thanks for reading!

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