What’s the best way to shake yourself out of the January blahs? Plan a January get-together, of course!
So, we are halfway through January now. How’s everyone doing? If you’re still feeling a bit blah after the holidays or if you’ve been hyper-focused on your New Year’s resolution, now is a great time to let your hair down a bit and have some fun. Sure, it’s fine to have some solo fun, but I think January is a great time for a get-together. A January get-together is especially great with the long Martin Luther King, Jr. weekend coming up. Use that extra weekend day for fun!
What your January get-together looks like is completely up to you. Want to host a gathering at your house? Great idea! Want to get your family and a few other families together for an outing? Sounds like fun to me! Spend entirely too much time with your family over the holidays and need some girl time instead? Don’t we all! All of these are great options. Pick the January get-together that speaks to you and start planning. Need a little inspiration? I got you!
Plan Your January Get-Together
Host at home
I love an at-home get-together, especially in this season of life. Sometimes it takes a herculean effort to get my kids out the door (and it’s never on time). It can be hard to rationalize this level of effort for the pay-off of a fun excursion. Don’t get me wrong, it’s getting better as they get older, but it’s still hard.
When I plan for fun at home, that’s one less barrier to fun. And I’m all about more fun both for my kids and for me this year. Hopefully, my friends and family (and yours!) feel like it’s worth the barrier to get out of the house to come. If we keep a January get-together low-key, I think they will.
One way to keep your January get-together low-key is to make it a potluck! You decide on the main dish and invite your friends and family to bring an appetizer, side, or dessert of their choosing. It can be a free-for-all, of course, or you can pick a theme around which everyone can coalesce.
Themes
I love a good theme. It just gives your get-together a North star and takes some of the thinking out of it. With less thinking comes less stress and with less stress comes more fun. So, let’s talk about a few fun January get-together themes, shall we?
Frozen
Yes, the movie Frozen. I have a 2-year-old daughter and two 3-year-old nieces, remember. Frozen is a constant in my house. Because you know they’ll want to watch the movie or sing “Do You Want to Build a Snowman?” anyway, why not lean into it and make your whole get-together Frozen themed? I’m envisioning blue Jello ice cubes, Olaf noses (carrot sticks) and hummus, rock troll meatballs. This could be really cute.
Hot chocolate
Nobody ever said you have to serve a full meal at your January get-together. Why not make it a dessert party centered around hot chocolate? You could have hot chocolate, of course, with a whole variety of toppings like whipped cream, marshmallows, peppermint sticks, etc. It would also be nice to serve fruit and dip and maybe some cookies too. Heck, this would be a great opportunity to bust out the leftover Christmas cookies clogging up your freezer!
Cozy
I love the idea of having a cozy January get-together where everyone wears their pajamas (or loungewear for the dads out there who are too proud to wear pajamas outside of their own homes)! You could make good old fashioned comfort food like chicken and dumplings or beef stew and bust out the TV trays for a cozy movie night. Just make sure you have enough blankets and pillows for fort making!
Summer
As much as I love the idea of really leaning into winter with a cozy January get-together, I also love the idea of taking a break from the season (at least for a few hours) and hosting a summer bash in January. Bust out your best Hawaiian shirts, fire up the grill, and soak up the paper sun hanging from your chandelier. Who says you can’t eat hamburgers and hot dogs with pasta salad in January? I’d just steer clear of corn in January if I were you.
Family activity out
If your kids are older or just better at motivating themselves to leave the house than my kids are, consider planning a day out with some other families. A day out means no one feels pressure to clean or cook, which honestly sounds pretty good after all the holiday hosting. And don’t think that just because it’s January you can’t leave your house. There are plenty of fun family activities to do in the winter!
Ice skating
Turn your life into a Hallmark movie for an afternoon and take the family ice skating! This is an especially good idea if your group is filled with proficient skaters so the grown-ups can help the littler ones. When I was pregnant with my daughter, my son was just starting to learn to skate. We would often meet my brother-in-law’s family at the skating rink, where the men would take the boys around the ice for a bit while the moms (and my newborn niece) would watch from the side. Now both boys are hockey-obsessed and don’t need much help getting around the ice, so perhaps it’s time for the girls to have their turn with their dads on the ice?
Sporting event
There is no shortage of sporting events in January. Basketball and hockey predominate, but football is still happening for a few more weeks too. Gather up the family and meet your people at a local sporting event for a fun day or night out. Any level is great – from your local high school team to a professional team if you have one nearby. If you’re a little nervous about actually attending a sporting event, you can always meet some friends at a sports bar for a meal and a game. Beer for the dads and chicken fingers for the kids – everyone wins!
Play in the snow
If you live in a place that gets a fair amount of snow in the winter, it’s always a good idea to play in the snow with friends. Get the kids suited up, grab the sleds, pop some hot chocolate in the thermos, and meet your friends at the local sledding hill. You’ll all sleep well after a day of fun in the snow!
Movie
When I was growing up in Florida, movies were very much summer activities because they provided a couple of hours in a dark, air-conditioned room. Now that I live in a place where winter is a thing that happens, I’ve had to shift my perspective on movies being a great winter activity. When it’s cold and snowy outside, there’s no better place to be than a nice, warm movie theater. The dads can nap, the kids can enjoy the film, and the moms can savor 90 minutes of quiet. Everyone wins!
Girl time
January is a great time for a girls-only get-together. Moms often bear the weight of the holiday season, so you and your girlfriends could probably use a break right about now. Gather up your mom friends and plan a girls-only January get-together!
Spa day
I love the idea of a spa day with your girlfriends in January. It gives you each some me-time while you’re having the treatment of your choice (I am jonesing for a facial, so that would be my pick), but also lets you have some girl time if the spa you choose has a common area that offers amenities for you to use when you’re not in a treatment room.
If you want to keep your spa day less expensive and more DIY, you can always kick someone’s family to another house and do a ladies’ takeover of one house. You can watch HGTV, do sheet masks, and eat food your kids and husbands wouldn’t allow within a 1-mile radius of them (quiche, I’m looking at you!).
Brunch
I love a good brunch. When bacon is the star of the show, I’m in. No questions asked. Grab your friends, whether they like bacon or not, and head to brunch. Splurge for the Bloody Mary or the mimosa if you’re drinking. If you’re not drinking, splurge on the pastries.
Paint pottery
Just after Christmas, I went to paint pottery with my sisters-in-law. I wasn’t super jazzed about it at first because I’m probably the least artistic person you’ll ever meet. But I will say, it was so fun! We brought food, we painted Christmas decorations, and we chatted. It was a great way to spend a few hours and we each got a new Christmas decoration out of the deal.
Calendar time
I live and die by my calendar. If it’s not written in my calendar, it’s not happening. Because the calendar is a necessity for most of us, why not turn your calendar time into a January get-together for you and your girlfriends?
One perk of doing communal calendar time is that you can calendar in more get-togethers for the next few months. Find times that work for you to have girl time and family get-togethers. Put them in the calendar now so you’ll have them to look forward to later in the year.
Other posts
Need some more ways to jazz up your January? Check out these fun posts:
I hope you’ll plan a January get-together. What fun things do you have planned for the rest of the month? Share down below or on Instagram @sarainseason so we can all take inspiration!