Category: Holidays

Happy Family Day Angus!

Explore the Great Outdoors 

If your family is the outdoors type, then today’s a great opportunity to take advantage of your time together and to go on an adventure. Pine River is in such a great location – we’re practically surrounded by incredible parks, conservations areas, and trails. The Minesing Wetlands Conservation Area is just minutes away and lets you cross-country ski or snowshoe your way along the Ganaraska, Trans Canada and McKinnon trails. If you enjoy (or would like to try) ice fishing, today’s a great day: it’s one of just two weekends all year that the Ontario government designates as license-free.

Hit the Slopes 

Barrie’s Snow Valley Ski Resort is our favourite local ski hill – after all, it’s just a 15 minute drive away! This is a great place to learn to ski or snowboard, with many classes and lesson programs. They also have snow tubing, which is an exciting family favourite that anyone can do. If you’ve never tried snow tubing, you’re in for a treat.

Attend a Nature Festival 

The nearby Tiffin Centre for Conservation is running a Family Day Nature Festival today with free admission from 10am-3pm. The day includes a kid-friendly assortment of outdoor recreation workshops and demos, skating on the pond, snowshoeing, kick-sledding and a scavenger hunt. This is a great option if you have young children who enjoy outdoor adventures and have some energy to burn. Remember to bring your skates.

Go Skating Skating is a fun activity that the whole family will enjoy, whether they’re seasoned hockey players and figure skaters or wobbly-ankled beginners. The Angus Recreation Centre opens its outdoor skating pads to the public on Mondays from 3-6pm (see the full schedule here).

Create Your Own Adventure 

Perhaps there’s something unique that your family loves doing together: cooking a feast of your favourite family recipes, doing crafts, or playing a giant game of Monopoly. Embrace your family’s individuality, and choose one of your favourite activities to make Family Day a fun and memorable day.

What are your plans for the day? Happy Family Day, and we hope you enjoy!

Homemade Gifts 

You don’t have to be very crafty to whip up some homemade concoctions that your friends and family will love. Bath items like salts and scrubs are easy to make at home and to package in simple mason jars with ribbon – try these festive rosemary Epsom bath salts or this peppermint candy cane sugar scrub. Another easy-to-make DIY gift are hand-mixed spice combos, like this taco seasoning or homemade pumpkin pie spice mix – simply buy the spices in bulk, mix them up, and gift little jars with recipe ideas. Think of what you like to make and then turn it into thoughtful, one-of-a-kind gifts – whether it’s baking, carpentry, knitting, painting or something else you enjoy.

Meaningful Donations 

Most of us have enough stuff, and would appreciate a gift that gives to a cause or charity that we would like to support. Consider something that is close to your friend or family member’s heart, and make a contribution in their name. If that doesn’t seem exciting enough, consider a gift like naming a star in space after them – it’s a unique gift that’s fun and memorable.

The Gift of Experiences 

“Buy experiences, not things.” There’s a reason this is such popular advice. Give a meaningful gift by writing a card with a promise of an activity or experience to come. With your friend or family member’s interests in mind, treat them to an outing that the two of you can enjoy together: perhaps a movie or show, a sports game, or dinner out at a new restaurant.

The holidays are about giving, but the spirit of giving is so much more than buying gifts. We hope you enjoyed these ideas for showing your love and appreciation for those in your life with unique homemade gifts.

Do you have any good gift ideas to share? Join us on Facebook and leave a comment.