Christmas Season

Make your holiday a healthy one with a little planning, creativity and the following tips.

Activities

• Invite visitors for a walk rather than sitting while catching up.
• Go for a night-time walk around the neighbourhood to see the Christmas lights.
• Start a new family tradition around activities rather than food. Make a craft, attend a dance, go caroling or volunteer together.

Snack Ideas

• Serve fruit or vegetable trays with a Christmas-colour theme. Fruits: strawberries, red and green apples and pears (dipped in lemon juice to preserve colour), red and green grapes and kiwi fruit. Vegetables: red peppers, green peppers, broccoli and cauliflower florets, snow peas, cherry tomatoes, jicama and radishes.
• Use cookie cutters to cut festive shapes out of slices of low-fat cheddar cheese (e.g. stars, snowmen, mittens); serve with whole grain crackers as a snack or appetizer.

Before events

This year, you can get Santa to send your kids a personalized message, straight from the North Pole. 

That's right, email from Santa.  From Portable North Pole dot com, Santa videos.

It takes about four minutes to put in your request and then Santa gets in touch.

Trust me, Santa DOES have a file for your child. He knows who's been naughty and he know's who's been nice. He even knows what your kids want for Christmas.

So, ho, ho, ho, Santa doubters.

Take our survey and win a ski weekend at The Westin Whistler and lift tickets for Whistler Blackcomb.

The Weather Network meteorologists foresee a green Christmas for many Canadians this year due to the overall milder than normal temperatures.

Coastal B.C. residents can expect a "typically green" Christmas, as well as some areas near the U.S. border. The northern interior and higher elevations in the south could see a white one.

As Christmas approaches, curious kids are likely turning to the internet to find out if Santa Claus really exists.

According to search giant Google, queries like "is Santa Claus real" and "Santa real" have become increasingly popular each year -- particularly in the last few days before Christmas.

One parent told the Canadian Press that his son learned the truth about Santa when he became suspicious watching holiday commercials on television. After grabbing his father's iPad, the boy Googled the phrase "Is Santa real", read a few pages and then told his parents he was convinced Santa was a fake.

Google trends show that users in Ireland conduct the highest number of "is Santa real" searches, but Canadians aren't too far behind. Toronto was number four on a list of global cities asking the question, just after Dallas, Atlanta and Chicago.