This week, the Heave staff was asked:

It’s now December. What’s your favorite holiday-related activity?

Jonathan Mondragon

My favorite would probably be playing in the snow whilst not being sufficiently clothed/prepared, subsequently catching a bad cold and listening to essential winter albums. Seems to happen every year. Tradition, right?

Quinn McGee

Used to be writing my name in the snow, but since there’s hardly any snow, it just looks wrong to pee on the ground now.

Shelby Shaw

I love wrapping presents in old magazine pages, decorating them with ribbons made from old clothes, creating tags and fancifying my handwriting…of course, purchasing the actual gifts isn’t always the fun part (hello credit card bill, again). Making things for people, or even better, recycling what I already own for others is the best part of the end of the year. A purge of myself to become someone new, it’s a seamless cycle.

Matt Consolazio

When I was a kid, my brothers and I would all join my mom in decorating the tree and listen to Vince Guaraldi Trio’s A Charlie Brown Christmas, which is still my favorite Christmas album to date.  Now we are all moved out.  But alas, to quote Blink-182, well I guess this is growing up.

Calhoun Kersten

Weirdly enough, I’m pretty good with kids, so around the holidays I volunteer as a mentor and ice skate with them.

Cory Clifford

Spiked apple cider drinking. Mmmmm.

Josh Watkins

Buttfucking.

Johnny Coconate

Eating the yellow snow. It tastes better than the Chicago sports scene.

Benjamin Kessell

Plowing your drunk, disheveled mom in the turkey section of Whole Foods. THIS BITCH IS GLUTEN FREE AND 100% ORGASMIC.

Michael Alexander

My favorite activities during the holiday are pretty simple: opening presents and drinking eggnog.

Meghan Bongartz

You seriously want me to pick just one? I am excited for ice skating, Christkindlmarket, cutting down a tree with my family, Christmas cookies, buying all of the cranberry-scented things, and watching National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation. And other things, but I think this is a good start.

Seetha Sankaranarayan

This isn’t really an activity per se, but I love December in general because my family has so many birthdays (including mine on the solstice). Starting with my parents’ anniversary tomorrow, it’s basically a monthlong celebration. For the past two years, I’ve made it a tradition to throw back a birthday shot on Mt. Washington, a scenic overlook in downtown Pittsburgh…I guess I’ll have to do that again. And, of course, I always relish the opportunity to go sledding and to whip out the cookie recipes that my mom and I only use once a year.

Dominick Mayer

Tons of Christmas movies. Like, all of them. I adore both Love, Actually and Jingle All The Way (in very, very different ways), and I’ve seen A Christmas Story so many times that I can quote it from memory as it plays. Hopefully this’ll also be the year that I break my streak of not taking my tree down in a timely fashion, causing my roommate to leave it in my bedroom, fully assembled. That said, I kind of like having a huge, festive nightlight in my room until early March.