15 Ways To Give Back to Your Community

The holiday season is the perfect time to encourage your coworkers, alumni organization, civic group, or extended family to focus on others. While there are endless ways to give back this time of year, here are some new suggestions.

1. Host a holiday meal for a single-parent family or an elderly neighbor.
2. Volunteer your time at a local pet shelter.
3. Visit a nursing home and simply spend quality time with the elderly residents.
4. Thank a firefighter or police officer for their service.
5. Send homemade holiday cards to military personnel overseas.
6. Get a group together to be bell ringers.
7. Smile at a stranger or share a compliment at least once per day.
8. Choose a child's name from a giving tree and include your kids in choosing gifts.
9. Go to the grocery store as a family to purchase items for a food pantry.
10. Invite an international student to join you for local holiday festivities.
11. Ask friends to select a few of their books to donate to a school or library.
12. Deliver treats to hospital staff who are working during the holidays.
13. Collect money to purchase gift cards and donate them to a homeless shelter.
14. Clean out closets and take gently used coats, hats and gloves to a coat drive.
15. Contact local nonprofits to find out how you can help.

Holiday Decorating with Kids

The holiday season can be a stressful time of year, especially when children are involved. The following tips can help ease the stress of decorating for the holidays.

Keep it simple. Don't try to keep up with all of the seasonal decor trends on social media. Choose a few favorite pieces to prominently feature in your main rooms, especially if you have small children. When it comes to decorating for the holidays, a little can go a long way.

Let your children help. Kids love to get in the holiday spirit. Let them hang ornaments on the tree and help decide where to place decorations. Help them with homemade, festive craft projects like paper garland and snowflakes.

Show off your holiday cards. What better holiday decoration than warm greetings from loved ones? Consider stringing your holiday cards on garland or taping them to the wall with paint-safe tape so you can enjoy seeing photos of friends and family all season long.

3 Tips For Building Your Gingerbread Dream House

• Not all gingerbread is the same. Whether you're making it from scratch or using store-bought, make sure it's not too soft.
• Use the right icing. Royal icing, which is made with eggs, is easy to work with, sticky and dries firm, making it many bakers' first choice.

• You can't rush perfection. If you're making your gingerbread from scratch, allow at least one day for the pieces to cool entirely so the icing doesn't melt.
• The icing is the glue that holds the whole thing together. If you have enough time, it's recommended to wait an additional day between assembling the house and decorating to make sure the icing is dry and the house is structurally sound.

• Now that the house is built, here's where your creativity can shine. Use whatever candies and colors your heart desires. It's not about having the perfect candy cane door or gumdrop chimney. It's about making it fun and reflective of your creative style.

Wright Brothers' Day

December 17 marks 121 years since the Wright Brothers took to the air for the first time. Learn more about the gravity-defying innovators with these facts.

Orville and Wilber Wright's passion for flying was sparked by a rubber band-powered toy helicopter their father brought home when they were children.

Their full-size plane, known as the Wright Flyer I, cost about $1,000 to build — more than $35,000 today.

Due to the flip of a coin, Wilber was the first brother to attempt flying on December 14, 1903, but Orville was the first to succeed three days later. He flew for 12 seconds, flying 120 feet. By the end of that historic day, Wilbur's final flight was over 850 feet in just under a minute.

When Neil Armstrong went to the moon in 1969, he carried a piece of the Wright Flyer I in his spacesuit pocket.

Holiday Banana Nog

Ingredients
5 cups dairy or plant-based milk
¼ cup confectioners' sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 tsp. ground nutmeg
1 tsp. ground allspice
4 bananas, frozen and sliced
Whipped cream
Cinnamon sticks for garnish

Directions
Pour first six ingredients in a blender. Blend on high speed until drink has a thick and creamy consistency. Pour into a glass and top with whipped cream. Sprinkle additional nutmeg on top and garnish with cinnamon sticks. For a festive holiday touch, decorate glassware with ribbon or twine. Serve on a platter trimmed with greenery and string lights.

Serves 4