Eight Fun Ways to Spend Leap Day

What would you do with an extra day? A whole extra 24 hours? Start thinking about it now because it’s leap year and we all get that gift.

Leap for Joy – It’s Leap Day!

I say we have some fun and celebrate! How? Here are eight ways:

Throw a Party

Embrace the leap day theme with a fun party.

Start with Leap Year Cocktails developed in 1928 at the Savoy Hotel in London. Here are the ingredients:  2 ounces gin, 1/2 ounce Grand Marnier, 1/2 ounce sweet vermouth, and 1 dash fresh lemon juice. Just pour the ingredients into a cocktail shaker and fill with ice. Shake well for 10 seconds and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Twist a piece of lemon peel over the drink and use for garnish.

Play songs from the Leap Year movie soundtrack. Songs could include Randy Edelman’s score, A Leap Year Promise, Nat ‘King’ Cole’s More and More Of Your Amor, and The Mamas and the Papas’ Dream A Little Dream Of Me.

Give out blank cards and ask guests to write where they would like to be in four years when leap day arrives again in 2020.

If you have kids (or are young at heart), play a game of leap frog or make cute origami frogs. Maybe you can all pretend to be leaping lizards. Or just leap for joy!

Try Something New!

Do Something New and Exciting

You’ve been given an extra day, remember? Don’t waste it. Take a quick road trip or hike to somewhere you’ve never visited before, zip line, learn how to glass blow, try a daring haircut and donate your hair, or fly in a hot air balloon.

Do something that makes you laugh, skip, dance, sing, and feel happy.

If you try something new and it doesn’t work out, just pretend it never happened. February 29 doesn’t really exist anyway, right?

Watch Your Favorite Time Movie

Of course, there is the 2010 movie, Leap Year, which I never saw and hear it didn’t get very good reviews. But, hey, you might want to check it out just for the fun of it.

Or enjoy your other favorite movies about time like Groundhog Day or Back to the Future. Try watching the funny 30 Rock’s “Leap Day” episode with cameos by Jim Carrey and Andie MacDowell on Hulu.

Pay it Forward

Use the extra 24 hours to make this day better for others.

Find something you’re passionate about and dive in to help out your community. Drop donations off at a food bank, help beautify your neighborhood, run an errand for an elderly person, or simply buy the person behind you in line a cup of coffee. Any random act of kindness will do.

Pick Up an Old Hobby

Rediscover an Old Passion 

Maybe you let an old hobby or interest fall to the wayside because you never had enough time to pursue it. Perhaps you always wanted to write a book, learn a new language, or take up painting, photography, or gardening.

Here’s your chance to dive in with an extra 24 hours and get started on that project you never began or finished. Who knows, maybe you’ll keep it up after the day is done.

Learn all about Leap Year

It may seem boring, but it’s kind of interesting to learn about how leap year originated and how it keeps our calendar in harmony with the solar orbit.

Turns out there are a lot of fun facts about this holiday. For example, did you know that US Presidential elections and Summer Olympic Games are both held every four years and occur during leap years? Or that century years are not leap years unless they can be evenly divided by 400? The years 1700, 1800 and 1900 were not leap years, but 1600 and 2000 were. Okay, that fact gives me a little bit of a headache.

Here’s some more fun facts. Your chances of being born on a leap day are approximately 1 in 1500. People born on leap day are called leaplings. In most states, leaplings must wait until March 1st to be eligible for any age-specific privileges (ages 16, 18, 21). In Greece, people believe it is bad luck to get married in a leap year. On the other hand, in Ireland, women can propose to a man.

Oh, I could go on and on. Maybe I’m weird, but the inner nerd in me finds this stuff kind of fascinating.

Take Time for Yourself

Chill and Relax

Maybe you’ll want to focus on you on leap day.

Get a massage, write in a journal, read a book, or meet a friend for lunch. Sleep in or take a luxurious mid-afternoon nap. Listen to some relaxing time-related music like Time in a Bottle by Jim Croce.

Kick off the next four years with positive, forward-thinking.

Make a Four-Year Plan

Leap days offer you the perfect chance to sit down and think about the four years ahead. Where do you want to be on the next leap day? What are your hopes for the next four years? What new things would you like to try?

Just for fun, make a list of things you’d like to accomplish by the time the next leap day arrives. Pull it out in 2020 and see how you did.

So try any one or more of these fun days and have an enjoyable, memorable, and inspirational leap day!

To find more inspiration for spending your extra hours on Leap Day, please visit these inspiring blogs:

Images courtesy of imagerymajestic, J Frasse, panpote, and stockimages at FreeDigitalPhotos.net respectively in the order the images appear.