When you think of winter, you think of the holidays. Bright strings of lights decorating the trees, red Santa hats trimmed with white and “Jingle Bell Rock” playing repetitively at the mall are associated with the cold and darkness of winter. Yet the holiday season is fleeting in comparison to winter as a whole. Once all the festivities are over, what is there to do? Here are a few humorous suggestions from the WSS.

1. Hibernate.

Let’s be real: no one wants to be outside during an Iowa winter. The dangerously low temperatures and constant darkness make every trip outside a battle against the elements. There is one upside to this, though: you can get away with doing a lot less. Take full advantage of this by making like a bear and taking a three-month long snooze in preparation for the spring.

2. Vainly attempt to stay accident-free on the icy winter roads.

Winter weather is infamous for treacherous road conditions, to the point where even the safest and most experienced drivers can have an accident. So embrace the inevitable and start packing a blanket in your car on the off-chance the tow truck takes its sweet time getting to you.

3. Make a snowman.

After it snows, use whatever snow fell the night before to craft your own private army of snowmen. Then, watch them melt in one of our sporadic winter thaws, courtesy of climate change while pondering what their demise says about the direction our society is headed in.

4. Have a snowball fight.

Assert your dominance over younger, rowdier siblings by beating them in a snowball fight. Make sure not to get caught by your parents, though, and stay away from nearby ice.

5. Craft a list of New Year’s resolutions.

Write up a list of things you want to do in the coming year in preparation for the one week in January you actually do them before reverting back to your old ways. Bonus points for adding anything other than “be healthier” or “stop procrastinating.”

Graphic by Sidney Kiersch