Attention York students! Here are five Christmassy things to do with your uni house

As semester one comes to a close and everyone is packing up to head home for the winter break (unless like me you belong to the shackles of retail or hospitality in your uni city), here are five festive things to do with your uni housemates! If everyone has made a speedy getaway, save these for your next Christmas at university.

House Christmas dinner

Let’s start with the most obvious and possibly the hardest to organise, a house Christmas dinner! The idea of cooking a roast might feel overwhelming but is definitely worth it in the end for the meal and the memories.

Whether you’re living with people you’ve lived with before, friends or new housemates, this is a perfect festive bonding experience. This year, I myself am living with a bunch of lovely girls and we are all committed to making the most of our third year at uni. This quite obviously includes us cooking up a delicious roast!

As Christmas dinner chief organiser in my house this year, I recommend multiple WhatsApp polls for speedy responses. Make your shopping list, allocate cheffing roles and acquire the finest decor that B&M has to offer.

Christmas crafts

Depending on how artistic you are, Christmas crafts can be a fun way of spending time with your friends, as well as producing some cute homemade gifts to give as gifts at Christmas. Personally, I have succumbed to many crafting hobbies, with three currently on rotation; beaded bracelet making, watercolour painting and yes, I fell victim to the TikTok colouring book and alcohol markers propaganda…

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For something a bit lighter and fun to do with your housemates, get a couple of blocks of some air drying clay and paint to make cute little trinket dishes, incense holders or anything really! If you’re looking for something a bit easier, returning back to primary school crafting basics with paper chains is a 10/10 recommendation from myself and my housemates. After seeing a bit of a paper chain resurgence on aesthetic Christmas TikToks, we decorated our kitchen with them and they add so much to our only social space. Plus, we used pastel colours so we can keep them up all year!

Visit York Christmas market

If you’re feeling brave and ready to tackle what can only be described as an introverts worst nightmare (mine), get to the York Christmas markets! As students, we either walk past them plenty or completely avoid them: but have you ever actually looked at the stalls properly? Before they close the doors of those little wooden huts for the year, scrape together whatever pounds you’ve got left and get tasting the many viral food spots.

If you’re in need of any last minute Christmas gifts, the last day to visit the Christmas market is Sunday 22nd of December. Does anyone else go Christmas shopping but end up with new things for themselves? I think I’m going to get one of those star paper lanterns (or two) for myself.

Christmas films

Is it even Christmas if you don’t have a mandatory viewing of an array of cosy films? Every festive season, I like to go for a mix of my favourite Christmas classic The Holiday and a borderline unwatchable, cringe-fest churned out by Netflix or Prime. This year there have been one or two that I just couldn’t finish, but there’s no shortage of terrible Christmas films to pick from! Go crazy with snacks and get cosy.

Festive baking

To accompany your Christmas crafts, festive movie night or to refuel after facing the city centre at this time of year, get your housemates together for some holly jolly baking (running low on seasonal wording and cannot believe how many times I’ve written the word Christmas in this article).

I’m no Mary Berry so I revert back to using a triple chocolate cookie recipe in Tanya Burr’s book Tanya Bakes… if you know you know. Cookies are easy to make, loved by most and adaptable to fit a festive theme should you choose. Of course, if you do have a Mary Berry living with you then the baking possibilities (and correct types of baking trays or tins) open up for you to chef up some delish sweet treats!

So, there’s five things to make your uni Christmas that tiny bit more fun. Merry Christmas!