Christmas

‘Tis the season! The holidays are upon us, which means that despite the cooler weather, our options for date ideas really open up. After all, parties and celebrations are everywhere---there’s no need to rely on the typical night of Netflix and dinner at home.

While popping some prosecco and lighting a nice fire in your living room are always good options for getting romantic, let’s think outside the box (meaning outside your apartment). What are some cool date options for someone you’re starting to really warm up to?

Following are some ideas to get you started:

Check out the lights in a cool neighborhood. No matter the city, there’s always a street or two that decorates like crazy – enough to attract small crowds during the holidays. This is a fun way to get into the holiday spirit. Do a little online research and pick a neighborhood, then go exploring – on foot or by car.

Go ice skating, sledding, or hiking. Even in Los Angeles, we have outdoor ice rinks during the holidays (as well as imported snow). So even if your city is not known for its icy lakes, chances are, there’s an outdoor ice rink to check out. (And for my friends in warmer climates this time of year, you have lots of outdoor options!) If you are blessed with cold weather options, try sledding, skiing, or hiking in the snow – or building a snowman. The point is: get outside and enjoy.

Volunteer. Sometimes we get so caught up in our own lives that we don’t make time for others. Volunteering helps us get in the spirit of the holidays and also reminds us of all that we have. It’s a great way to feel inspired with your date.

Build something together. Do you have a project you’ve been wanting to tackle? Perhaps you want to build a new bookcase, or put together a dollhouse you’d love to give your niece, or refinish the antique table in your backyard? Now is the time to take on this project – and doing it with a date makes it fun. Crack open a bottle of wine or go out to dinner as a reward.

Visit a Christmas tree farm. Nothing says Christmas quite like the smell of fresh cut pine trees. Pick out a tree together to take home and decorate, or just walk around and enjoy the atmosphere.

Go to an outdoor Christmas market. Outdoor holiday markets are big in many parts of the world, and offer a great variety of shopping, food, and warm mulled wine for the Christmas enthusiast. You can get errands done and enjoy the experience. Plus, it’s a festive way to spend the evening with a date.

Visit a sauna/ have a couples massage. Sometimes, you need a break from the holiday spirit. Why not treat yourself and your date to an afternoon sauna, or a nice couples massage? Consider it your holiday gift to yourselves.

Attend a festival. The holiday season is nothing if not festive. There are plenty of concerts and festivals – whether it’s wine and beer tasting, live music, a food festival, or holiday open houses, there’s always something to attend. Do a little research, and if you live near a big city, make it a day trip for you and your date.

Happy holidays!

Well folks, it's that time again. The holidays are here and they brought with them their annual dose of relationship stress and dating anxiety. Emotions always fly high around this time of year, whether you're single, dating but undefined, in a relationship, or recently broken up.

It's easy to crack under all that pressure. What you need is a holiday dating survival guide, so I've put together a few tips to see you through into 2015.

1. Don't be a social media stalker. I know it's tempting to take a little trip down memory lane, but the last thing you need to do is obsess over the past or new photos of your ex getting frisky under the mistletoe. All it will do is set you back in the healing process. Instead of reliving old memories, focus on making new ones.
2. If self-control isn't your strong point, block your ex’s profile. Remove the temptation if the temptation is too great. It's the easiest way to avoid obsessiveness. This includes online dating profiles as well as social media profiles.
3. Don't rush into a rebound relationship. Dating is healthy. But trying for too much too soon never ends well. If you aren't ready to date yet (and deep down, you know the answer), spend time with friends or family, or get some of the alone time you know you need.
4. If you are in a relationship, discuss gift giving ahead of time. This is easily one of the most nerve-wracking parts of the holidays. How much should you spend? Should you get a gift in the first place? Instead of stressing yourself out with trying to guess the right answer, just ask. Together you can make a plan and set a budget.
5. If you're not in a relationship, don't hesitate to date. Fill your social calendar. Your inbox is bound to be full of invitations during this time of year, both professional and personal. Accept as many as ypu possibly can and go with an open mind. You never know who you might meet.

If you're feeling doubtful about dating during the holidays, I have news for you: it's actually the peak season for online daters. More singles sign up for online dating sites between Thanksgiving and Valentine's Day than any other time of the year. Match.com reports they see a jump of about 25-30% in new member sign-ups between Christmas and V-Day.

So what are you waiting for?

Benjamin Franklin famously said that the only certain things are death and taxes. These days, a third inevitability should be added to the list: breakups.

They're an unfortunate fact of life, even now when we're wrapped up in the joy of the holiday season. Perhaps especially during the holiday season, when the pressure's on and stress is running high. Online dating app Clover decided to find out once and for all if the holidays are prime time for breakups, and their answer is...

Yes.

Sigh.

It's a downer, but it does appear December spells doom for a number of relationships. Clover analyzed data from 150,000 of its users, and found that there’s a whopping 300% leap in Clover sign-ups from people who are already in relationships during the month of December. Of those people, most are women – 33% more than men, to be precise. 6% of women who sign up during the holiday season are already attached, compared to 4.5% of men.

What's even more interesting than the gender gap is the correlation Clover discovered with income. A person is 2.5x more likely to seek a new relationship during the holiday season if he/she earns less than $60,000 per year. Clover offers no potential explanation for the phenomenon, but Bustle suggests that it could be because “most people making under $60,000 tend to be younger than those making over $60,000, which means they’re probably less inclined to 'settle down.'”

If you know a breakup is in your immediate future, you have a major decision to make. To breakup pre-holidays or post-holidays, that is the question. If you wait until after the festivities, you risk feeling like you livied a lie, but avoid the serious potential for awkwardness or loneliness. If you end things before the holidays, you won't have a sweetie to spend them with but you'll have the confidence that comes from knowing you faced the decision head-on.

Either way, remember that singlehood – before the holidays, during the holidays, and at any time after – is hardly a terrible fate. In fact, dating isn't always all it's cracked up to be, as these dating disasters will remind you. A read through a few tales of infidelity, ill-timed Facebook updates, and dual identities should be all the proof you need that spending the holidays single isn't so bad.

Besides, then you don't have to share the eggnog.

The holidays can bring added stress to your dating life. If you’re single, you might wonder if it’s a good idea to invite one of your dates out to a colleague’s party, or maybe you're be anxious about spending the holidays with prying family members.

If you've just started dating someone, you could be wondering if you should buy a gift or invite him to your office holiday party. While there are no cut and dry answers, there are a few tips that could help you enjoy the holiday instead of stressing about it:

Don’t invite a new date to important parties. These include your office holiday party and your family dinners. There’s no reason to subject a budding romance to scrutiny before you really know each other. The rest of the year, you probably take things more slowly, so keep that in mind and go at your own pace instead of feeling pressured to show up with a date.

Go easy on the gift. You don’t have to prove how much you like your date by the extravagance of your present. Instead, go for thoughtful or experiential – like buying tickets to an event you can attend together or passes to ice skate at the local outdoor rink. If you feel uncomfortable exchanging gifts, let your date know and sit this one out. There’s no harm in waiting.

Curb your alcohol intake. I know the holidays are a good time to enjoy eggnog and other festive cocktails, but know your tolerance before you start. This time of year we tend to indulge – in candy, food, and especially alcohol – and you don’t want to pass out on your date or otherwise do something embarrassing. Save your holiday indulgences for when you get together with friends.

Go solo! I know it seems intimidating to show up by yourself at a party, but as a friend of mine once told me, “there’s nothing sexier to a guy than showing up solo and having a good time.” And it’s true – going alone will help you break out of your shell. You will introduce yourself to new people, strike up conversations, and likely do a little more flirting than you would if you came with a friend.

Keep a good attitude. Your dates don’t want to hear about your ex, or your last terrible online date, or the reasons why you’re single for the holidays. Try to focus on the positive around you, and make an effort to have a good time. It will not only help your date to connect with you, it will help you have more fun, even if he or she isn’t “The One.”

The holiday season creates stress in even the most peaceful and together people among us. Not only do we put pressure on ourselves to find the perfect gifts and cook the perfect meals for friends and family – when we’re single, we also place unrealistic expectations on ourselves for where we should really be in our lives.

Instead of getting down on yourself about not being in a relationship or being a certain age and unattached – remember that the holiday season is actually a time for us to pause and remember what we DO have in our lives, rather than what we are lacking.

Following are 4 holiday dating myths we need to let go of:

I need to make excuses for why I’m single.

Despite Aunt Dora’s attempts to question your life choices or find out why exactly you’re still single, you do have control over the information you share. It’s nobody’s business who you are or aren’t dating unless you tell them. And there’s no shame in being single. Most people who question your status are insecure about being alone themselves, and are projecting their fears on to you. Don’t let them. Embrace the freedom you have, and let them see that you enjoy your life – with or without a partner.

The holidays measure the seriousness of your new relationship.

Have you just started dating? Are you worried about the etiquette of inviting him to your office holiday party, or if he’s going to invite you over for dinner with his family? Stop putting the pressure on yourself and your new relationship, and don’t use this time of year as a barometer to test your relationship. If you don’t feel comfortable meeting family or introducing him to your co-workers, let your date know that you want to take your time. There’s no rush just because it’s the holiday season. Go at your own pace, and allow yourselves time to get to know each other first.

I can’t buy a gift for someone I just started dating.

Gifts aren’t meant to be indications of how serious you are or how much you are willing to spend on your romantic interest – they are gestures. A thoughtful gesture can include a small gift like a cookbook of her favorite food or something you can do together – such as tickets to ice skate or check out a new art gallery. If you feel uncomfortable exchanging gifts, then let her know. Honesty is the best policy, so you don’t feel awkward if she gives you a gift.

The holidays are the worst time to be single.

Sometimes it can be hard when you visit well-meaning friends and relatives who ask about your single status, or when you go to office holiday parties alone. But the holidays are actually a great time to be single. There are so many gatherings where you’ll be meeting new people (no Tinder necessary), and you should accept as many invitations as you can. You never know when a friend could introduce you to someone you may just hit it off with, so it’s really okay to be single and put yourself out there.

Happy holidays!

ChristianCafe.com have currently reduce their memberships prices by up to 25% this month for the Christmas season. This means you will receive:

• $10 off a 3 month membership.
• $20 off a 6 month membership.
• $20 off a 12 month membership.

Now is the time to sign up to find Christian singles near you. If you have a friend who you think may be interested in this online dating service, gift memberships are also available. Read our ChristianCafe.com Review for more information on this dating site.