Students, it’s almost time for Christmas! We hope you’ve enjoyed your first term at University, and if this is your first year, we hope you managed to settle in and are already looking forward to coming back in a few weeks.
Before you head home for a much-needed holiday, there are a few things you’ll need to remember. While you’re no doubt looking forward to seeing your family and the friends from your hometown, don’t forget to keep Uni in the back of your mind. You’ll probably have essays and exams to study for alongside all your fun-filled Christmas activities.
So you can make the most out of the Christmas holidays, here’s how you can make sure you stay organised this Christmas season.
Packing for Home
First things first, you’ll need to pack for the trip. This will be trickier if you live far away from your Uni and have to get public transport, or if you’re an international student needing to fly home. Regardless, make sure you pack all your essentials, so you’re not left without over Christmas – but you probably need to pack less than you think.
Here’s what you should take home with you:
- Clothes (unless you have an entirely separate wardrobe waiting at home – lucky!)
- Toiletries
- Hairbrush/hairdryer
- Laptop
- Chargers
- Toothbrush
- Notebook – stuffed full of lecture notes, no doubt
And that’s pretty much it! Everything else is just extra that you can probably do without if you need to. Things like crockery and bedding can stay in your accommodation until your return.
Presents for Family and Friends
For most of us, Christmas means rushing around trying to buy the perfect gift for our loved ones. If you’re struggling funds-wise, check out our blog post about how to buy Christmas gifts of a student budget.
If you’ve left this a little late and are starting to struggle, here are some tips for how to get your gift buying in order:
- Make a list of everyone who you need to buy a gift for
- Attempt to write down a potential gift idea for each person
- Head to the shops (or look online) for the gifts you’ve managed to think of
- Trawl people’s social media for ideas for things to buy them
- Ask friends/family for gift ideas for people – or ask the internet
- Update your list as you go along, make a note of everything you’ve bought
- If possible, have online orders sent to your home, so you don’t have to transport them
Buying presents at Christmas can be stressful for students but remember that your friends and family will understand if you’re not able to splash out on them as you’d like. Even if all you can offer them is your presence at Christmas time, we’re sure that will be more than enough.
Keep Up with Your Studies
Christmas is a time for fun and catching up with family and friends, but don’t neglect your University work, you’ll be back sooner than you think.
Check your schedule and make a calendar for when your essays need to be completed by. Even if the deadlines are after the holidays, try not to leave everything until you’ve got back, it’ll put you under a lot of pressure, and you may not be able to do your best work.
Set some time aside in the holidays to hit the books, even if it’s just a couple of hours a week. Write that essay intro or gather your relevant sources. Just make sure you do a little work between stuffing your face with chocolate and going out and being merry; you’ll feel much better about coming back to University once the holidays are over.
Make Plans
The holidays can go by in a flash, and you don’t want to be left wondering what you even did this Christmas when you head back to Uni, and everyone asks you how it was. Try to pencil in some official plans on those glorious days off.
Whether it’s seeing old friends for a film or a drink, going ice skating with your family or just studying a few chapters of one of your modules, you’ll feel much better if you have some structured, planned in activities for the holidays.
Make Time for Relaxation
Christmas is often jam-packed with exciting things to do day and night, but don’t forget to make time for you to kick back and relax. You just had many weeks of studying hard and doing lots of work (we assume), so you deserve some time off to relax and unwind, ready to come back fresh for second term.
Run a bath, watch some Netflix, read a book or just have a lie-down. However you relax, the Christmas holidays is the time to do it. The academic year is likely to get more stressful as it goes on, with more essays and exams looming, so take advantage of this time while you have it.
From all of us here at CityBlock, we hope you have a fantastic Christmas, and if you board with us, we can’t wait to welcome you back in 2020. And if you’re looking for student accommodation for next year, we have student accommodation in Lancaster and student housing in Reading .
