Depending on your finals schedule and hometown, going home for Thanksgiving may not be worth it for many students, especially when Christmas break is a mere two weeks away. If you’re in this gravy boat, take this time to enjoy the parts of Eugene that are easy to forget with the business of school.
Senior Lauren Schwartz enjoyed the Thanksgiving she spent in Eugene during her junior year. “My favorite part is how everyone who stays in Eugene for Thanksgiving somehow bonds together,” she said. “There is also something special about being in Eugene when it is quiet.”
Other holidays lend themselves to college very freely, including Halloween, Fourth of July and Cinco de Mayo. Here are some ideas for how to spend a less popular college holiday in a college town:
Host a potluck. Taking on the daunting task of cooking an entire Thanksgiving meal might be too much to handle, so invite people over who are also staying in Eugene and feast!
Go to a park. Explore Hendrix, Amazon, Panda or University Park. Play football, watch families play, go on the swings. Just walk, contemplate life and enjoy the quiet.
Go to the Holiday Saturday Market. Thanksgiving weekend marks the start of the holiday Saturday Market, featuring tasty samples, unique gifts and great opportunities for people watching. Saturday and Sunday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., 769 W 13th Ave.
Get your Christmas shopping done. Eugene offers an array of places to buy unique gifts, including Jambo, Goodwill and Hirons.
Go to a wine tasting. Every Friday, Sweet Cheeks Winery hosts a twilight wine and cheese tasting from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m., with live music, and it’s only 30 minutes away.
Visit the Jordan Schnitzer Art Museum. Currently, National Geographic’s “Greatest Photographs of the American West” is being shown, a beautiful exhibit featuring photos from Texas to Oregon, dating back to the late 1800s. Free for students.
Clean your house. You know there’s some rotting tomato in the bottom drawer of your fridge. Don’t just wipe down counters, but take some serious time to deep clean the dustiest, more cobweb-laden corners of where you live.
Read — for pleasure. What a concept, right? With the intimidating amount of material assigned for class, students rarely have time to read for entertainment. Stop by the Smith Family Bookstore or one of UO’s six libraries, cuddle up and enjoy reading again.
Bake. Miss mom’s apple pie? I heard there are a lot of recipes floating around Pinterest. Spend a day trying and more importantly, eating them all.
Watch movies. Buy a VCR and video cassettes for cheap at Goodwill. Or visit Silver Screen Video on 24th and Agate Street, one of the only actual movie stores still open. Everyone has that one movie they haven’t seen that all of their friends give them crap for — watch that movie.
Start learning something. Guitar, knitting, bartending, whatever. Begin learning over Thanksgiving break and hone your skill over Christmas.
Football. Go to the Civil War game or host a Civil War watch party.
Enjoy a community dinner. What better way to immerse yourself in Eugene than going to a free dinner in the Whiteaker neighborhood? This event feeds over 2000 people, and you can either attend or volunteer. Whiteaker Community Head Start Center, 21 North Grand Ave. 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. You can go to wcdinner.org for more information.
Even if you just end up sleeping and sending a lot of Snapchats over break, enjoy this time of final relaxation before finals week.