Tag: Holidays

Last-minute Christmas gift ideas for all your outdoorsy friends

Grab some great gifts.

Whether you’re ready or not, the holiday season is here. Across the United States, people are putting up their festive decorations and bustling around the kitchen. Decorating the house and baking cookies aren’t the only items on your Christmas to-do list, though. Before December 25th arrives, you’ll need to lock down the perfect presents for all your loved ones. If you still need to find something for the hikers, bikers, and runners in your life, look no further. This guide has you covered with eight last-minute gift ideas for outdoorsy people. Explore the list below for recommendations on everything from running gear to gardening equipment.

This year, celebrate Christmas at these 3 national parks

Spend Christmas at a national park.

For many people, Christmas conjures up images of home, family, and traditions like gathering in front of a cozy fireplace hung with stockings. However, lots of folks don’t have a big family they want to spend time with or a house with a fireplace. Instead of feeling like you’re missing out on a perfect holiday, you can start a new tradition this holiday season. Consider spending time in one of America’s beautiful national parks. Stunning parks across the United States invite visitors to go for a hike, enjoy fresh air, and appreciate scenic beauty. This winter, stay at one of these three properties offering festive activities near national parks.

A hotel lodge sitting room with a Christmas tree and presents by a fireplace.
Grand Hotel at the Grand Canyon. / Photo courtesy of Xanterra Travel Collection

5 botanical gardens to visit this winter for charming holiday lights

Enjoy holiday magic in the garden.

Days have grown darker and shorter. The weather has turned cold. Winter is here, and the end-of-year chaos has officially begun. During these chilly months, it can be tempting to stay inside all day. After all, what can you do outside when it’s so dark and cold? Well, at botanical gardens across the United States, you can see some incredible holiday light displays.

Botanical gardens are great places to visit year-round, but they have a different kind of allure in the winter. When temperatures drop and many plants go dormant, gardens keep the magic alive with sparkling, colorful holiday lights. Find one to visit with this list of five of the best holiday light events going on at botanical gardens throughout the country.

Celebrate the National Park Service with these fabulous gifts

Find great park-themed presents.

In 1872, the United States became the first country to create a national park: Yellowstone. Over the next four decades, various government entities oversaw the country’s parks, monuments, and reserves, including the Departments of Agriculture, War, and the Interior. Then, in 1916, the National Park Service was born. It’s grown to be America’s favorite public agency. Now, the National Park System has 423 sites, 63 of which are full-fledged parks. The rest fall into categories like national monuments, seashores, trails, recreation areas, and historic sites.

Do you have a park lover on your holiday shopping list? These gift ideas will keep fond memories of hikes and views top of mind year-round.

Gardening gift ideas that are perfect for plant lovers

Find gifts for gardeners.

The holidays will be here before you know it. That means it’s time to start brainstorming present ideas. For your hiking buddies, a nice new daypack or thick socks can do the trick. For dad, you can’t go wrong with a cozy hammock or new camping gear And for your friend who recently got into birdwatching? Well, they’ll be delighted to unwrap a new pair of binoculars.

But what about the plant-loving gardeners in your life? Do you know what to get them? If the mere thought of figuring out which planters and trowels to buy sends you into a panic, this guide is for you. These 12 gardening gift ideas will help you find the right present for all of your green-thumbed loved ones.

Cycling gear to get for the biker on your gift list

Find gifts for the cyclist in your life.

Do you have cyclists on your holiday shopping list? Maybe they’re serious racers or people who bike commute daily, rain or shine. Whether your biking loved one likes to careen down mountain trails, crunch the gravel, or glide down paved roads, there’s always an accessory or two to make the ride more fun. Which makes them blessedly easy to shop for. Or maybe if they’ve been really, really nice, Santa will buy them a brand-new bike.

Here are this year’s top picks for holiday gifts for bike lovers. From affordable add-ons to top-end bicycles, this gift guide full of cycling gear has you covered.

Adorable Christmas tree farms you can visit this holiday season

Embrace the holiday spirit.

A decorated tree covered in sparkling lights and tinsel serves as the main Christmas decoration for millions of families throughout the United States. While many of these families will pull out an artificial tree to decorate, plenty of others still make the trek out to a local farm to pick a live Christmas tree.

If your family regularly uses artificial trees, it may seem old-fashioned to cut down a fresh Christmas tree every year. You may even think that doing so is bad for the environment. However, according to The Nature Conservancy, using real trees can actually support forests.

“Real trees help fight climate change, and even though your Christmas tree is cut down, you’re actually supporting forests,” The Nature Conservancy explains. Real trees generate less carbon emissions than it takes to produce and ship plastic trees. Plus, when “natural trees are harvested for sale, there are more than ten times as many left standing! Out of the 350-500 million growing on tree farms across the U.S., only 30 million trees are harvested for Christmas each year.”

So, this year, consider opting for a real tree. You’ll appreciate the evergreen scent, and you’ll support the environment and local businesses. Get inspired with this list of five Christmas tree farms across the country.

How soon is TOO soon to play holiday music? A FTW debate as Mariah Carey declares ‘it’s time’

Is it already time to play holiday music, like Mariah Carey says? We debated it.

It’s Nov. 1 as of publishing this. We’re all just getting over Halloween, whether it was a party or walking around for hours with our kids trick-or-treating. Thanksgiving is in the near distance, which means we’ve got menus to start planning 

And here’s Mariah Carey, with her annual declaration that “IT’S TIME” to start playing holiday music (and yeah, this her way of reminding you to play her classic, All I Want For Christmas is You).

We here at For The Win started debating this immediately: When is the right time to play holiday music? We were very divided, as you can tell:

Post-Halloween, this might be your best chance to help the environment

Everybody, do your share.

Halloween night brings out all kinds of crowds, from candy-crazed kids to costumed partygoers. On this festive evening of spooky celebration, everyone is focused on having fun, seeking out scares, and maybe causing a little mischief. But just like Cinderella’s carriage had to turn back into a pumpkin at midnight, Halloween fun can’t last forever. And when you wake up on November 1, the sights that await you aren’t always pretty.

After trick-or-treating ends, you’ll probably notice more than a few candy wrappers and abandoned costume pieces littering your neighborhood. For outdoors appreciators and eco-conscious citizens, seeing all of this trash lying in the grass and on the roads can be more distressing than a horror movie. Unlike the problems faced by most scary movie protagonists, there is a simple solution to this litter conundrum. Host or join a post-Halloween clean-up event!

A person cleaning up litter in the park.

What is a post-Halloween clean-up event? As the name implies, it’s an opportunity for communities to get together after Halloween and pick up any litter in their neighborhood. This can be as easy as getting your family together to pick up trash along the street or joining a community clean-up activity. Check local Facebook groups, community pages, and Eventbrite listings to see if there are any existing events you can support.

If there are no clean-up initiatives in your region, consider starting one. Sometimes, all it takes is one person leading the charge for people to join in. You can even go above and beyond by offering a jack-o’-lantern recycling service. Michigan’s Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy came up with an excellent list of ways to recycle these unwanted pumpkins. Options include donating them to local farms and zoos for the animals or dropping them off at a community composting center.

Want to find even more ways to help? Check out this list of ways to support your local animal shelter.

Watch these goofy bears join in on the Halloween fun

These videos are a real treat.

It’s no secret that people love bears. We watch bears compete in Fat Bear Week, kids cling to teddy bears, and there are sports teams named after this awesome animal. This Halloween, there are even more reasons to celebrate cute bears. Two recent videos from North Carolina and New York are showing the world how these critters are getting into the holiday spirit.

The first delightful video comes from the Orphaned Wildlife Center in Otisville, New York. A recent clip shows three of the center’s orphaned bears celebrating pumpkin season by tearing into some plump orange gourds. The bears, named Amy, Jenny, and Sonya, can be seen putting their powerful claws and teeth to use to shred the pumpkins. See it for yourself here.

On the other end of the East Coast, a set of curious and adorable bears in Asheville, North Carolina, were spotted investigating a resident’s Halloween decorations. This trio seemed most interested in the nearby water dish, though. After poking around at the spooky decorations and lapping up some water, the three cubs wandered back into the woods. So long, cute bears! Let’s hope you join us again next year for more Halloween fun.