Fun Ways to Celebrate St. Patrick’s Day This Year 

Finding ways to celebrate the holidays to make them special for kids can be challenging during Covid restrictions, but there are plenty of ways you can make St. Patrick’s Day fun at your new Ten Trails home!

Scavenger Hunt to Find a “Pot of Gold”

Everyone loves a scavenger hunt! Create a series of clues for kids to search in your home and backyard, all leading to a “pot of gold” prize that can be actual money, coins, or chocolate coin candies.

Buy Shamrock Plants 

Shamrocks are very hardy indoor plants and will bloom throughout the year under the right conditions. These make a great starter plant for kids as they are low maintenance and easy to care for. Buy shamrocks at nearby Four Corners Maple Valley or a local nursery for a pretty, holiday-themed plant the whole family can enjoy.

Dress up in Green 

Make sure everyone in the family has something green to wear on St. Patrick’s Day for their in-person, zoom learning, or day at work. Tradition says if you forget to wear something green, you may get pinched by the leprechaun!

Make Traditional Irish Fare 

Traditional Irish recipes like Irish stew, corned beef and cabbage, and Irish soda bread are great staples to serve on St. Patrick’s Day. For a fun, easy treat to make with kids, try making Irish “potatoes” which are not made with any potato at all. These no-bake candies consist of cream cheese, coconut, butter, sugar, and cinnamon and resemble small potatoes when rolled together and chilled. www.TenTrails.com 360.469.4043  

Light Up Your Hometown Holiday Lights Contest Builds Community in a Challenging Time

Residents of Ten Trails can count themselves lucky to live in a community where events, activities and amenities are just one part of the lifestyle! The developer of Ten Trails, Oakpointe Communities, created the community with a goal in mind to build a place that is desirable to live, and where residents can feel a connection to their community and to each other. With this goal in mind, we continue to offer fun activities to build community, even during the Covid-19 pandemic. One of these activities is our recent Light Up Your Hometown Holiday Lights Contest.

Hometown Holiday Lights Contest

For the second year in a row, Ten Trails asked residents to take part in a holiday lights competition! Visit the community any evening now through January 1st to see many homes and much of the community lit up – including our 35-foot Christmas tree located at the top of the knoll in the Village Green!

2020 Light Up Your Hometown Winners

A huge congratulations to our winners and honorable mentions this year, and nice work to everyone who participated! As always, we appreciate your enthusiasm for the community and our activities. Not yet a resident of Ten Trails but still want to be part of the fun? Download a map for a suggested route to tour the community and see if you can find the winning homes pictured below. www.TenTrails.com 360.469.4043

Visit Ten Trails this Holiday Season to See our Community Lights Display 

Ten Trails is once again asking residents to take part in a holiday lights competition! Visit the community any evening from December 12^th through January 1^st to see many homes and much of the community lit up – including our huge Christmas tree in the Village Green!

Get a Map to Tour the Community Lights

Click here to access a map  tour our holiday lights or find one on our Facebook page. Want to share in the fun? Take a photo, post it to Facebook or Instagram and tag us, @TenTrails and tell us which house’s lights are your favorite!

Past Holiday Lights Celebrations in the Community

Click here for a link to view a video from last year’s Christmas tree lighting event in the community! We look forward to welcoming everyone back to the community for this fun gathering when it is safe to do so. 360.469.4043 www.TenTrails.com      

Ideas for New Holiday Traditions This Season 

While the holiday season may be a little different this year for some families due to the pandemic, that does not mean family traditions have to be abandoned completely! Why not use this year to establish some fun new traditions with your family, or try different twists on longstanding ones? Here are some suggestions for how to connect with loved ones during the holiday season why still maintaining physical distance.

Play Long Distance Games with Family 

Video games have long had the option for players from around the world to connect but there are ways to play popular board and card games virtually as well! Family favorite games like Monopoly, Scattergories and Uno all have online versions you can play with friends and family. You can also hop on Zoom or Facebook Rooms to have a video conference with family members to play fun games like Charades, Who in the Room, or Trivia.

Do a Virtual Watch Party of Your Favorite Christmas Movies 

Does your family have favorite holiday movies that you watch together every year? You still can with new streaming technology and the help of ultra-fast one-gig internet at your Ten Trails home. Many streaming services like Netflix or Sling offer opportunities to create a “watch party” with friends and family members who are also subscribers. Chat on video while the film plays, and you can offer commentary and enjoy all your favorite scenes together.

Zoom Holiday Formal 

Do you miss getting dressed up for a night out? Get decked out in your favorite holiday attire and attend a holiday formal with friends or coworkers via Zoom. Ideas for sharing this event including picking out one or two appetizer recipes ahead of time that you will each make and share together during the party. Select a few special holiday-themed cocktails or mocktails to toast with while showing off your festive outfits.

Take Part in a Remote Baking Competition 

Holiday time is synonymous with baked goods and there is no reason this year should be an exception! Enter a friendly competition with friends, neighbors, or family members by baking up your best sweet treats and shipping or dropping off small batches to your baking competitors. Decide on a rating system beforehand and each member on the competition gets to vote for which treat they like best. Suggestions for voting categories include: “best decoration,” “best taste,” “most creative,” “best texture.” and “best overall.” Plant a New Year Tree Many cultures celebrate the new year by decorating or planting a tree — similar to the common practice in this country of putting up a Christmas tree. To mark the passage of 2020 and transition to 2021, your family could adopt this tradition and plant a tree or purchase a new houseplant to commemorate the holiday and represent a symbol of growth and life for the coming year. www.TenTrails.com 360.469.4043