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July can be a cruel month. You can't walk down the street without sweating through your clothes or sit on your porch without the mosquitoes devouring your flesh like tiny vampires. Sometimes you stare at your sunburn and yearn for the biting cold, cozy sweaters, and fireplaces of Christmas. Still feeling the heatstroke? Hang up some decorations and throw yourself a Christmas in July party. No, we don't mean actually wear sweaters or light fireplaces, but there are other ways to chase the feeling.

1. Send Out Invites

It's impossible to have a party by yourself. Okay, it is possible, but we don't recommend it, unless you have a punch bowl of eggnog for one. The first step is to make a list of friends to invite to your party. You can pull out unused Christmas cards to invite them or you can make a Christmas-themed e-vite or Facebook invite. Be sure to remind your guests to wear antlers and their favorite Christmas t-shirts. If they aren't up for it, are they really your friends? 

2. Decorate Your Place

It's time to go into your attic and closet to pull out your old Christmas decorations. If you want to try something new, many stores like Hallmark have Christmas in July sales for ornaments and other holiday decorations. Once you have all the tinsel and lights you need, decorate your house to look like a winter wonderland. Try not to trap yourself in the attic or you'll be forced to watch old home movies until your family pulls down the ladder and saves you. Remember, it's summer. You'll bake up there.

3. Make a Christmas Playlist

Miss hearing all your favorite Christmas songs? Here's your chance to hear them again. You can make your own playlist with Youtube or other software, or you can leave your music to fate by making a Pandora station for Christmas music.  Be sure to have it playing in the background as your guests arrive for the party. Note: Do not sing Christmas carols to your neighbors. They will not appreciate your enthusiasm for all things festive as much as you do. 

4. Make a Christmas Feast

So maybe you skipped out on ham in favor of chicken this past Christmas. And then afterward, you royally regretted that decision, because who doesn't eat ham on Christmas? Utilize this holiday to recreate what should have been. It's a great opportunity to make all the Christmas dishes you missed out on last year or to revisit your old favorites. We traditionally make turkey, warm rolls, green bean casserole, and mashed potatoes. Wait to make the dessert until the guests arrive. Everyone loves making Christmas cookies! Pro tip: to avoid a hot kitchen, skip the oven and have pre-made cookies ready for your guests to decorate. 

5.  Watch Christmas Movies

You know how during the holidays, you always MEAN to watch that classic movie, but there's tinsel to hang and relatives to entertain and appetizers to prepare? Sit down and watch 'em now. Cheesy Christmas movies are a great option, too. Hallmark and Lifetime, anyone? You can also do a combination of the two. No matter what, you have to watch He-Man & She-Ra: A Christmas Special. It is not quite the holidays without Skeletor.

6. Have a Christmas Gift Exchange

Holiday gift exchanges are too exciting to just do once a year. You could have a Secret Santa exchange (we recommend you use online sites for this to save paper and yourself from hassle) or you can do a White Elephant/Yankee Swap. Either way, we definitely recommend that you limit the gifts to under $20. Most people do not budget for Christmas gifts in July. Only the true fanatics do that.

Don’t worry if you forget something or accidentally burn your cookies! You just have to wait until December to try it all again. 

Did you know that July is National Hot Dog Month? Probably not unless you work for Oscar Mayer or Hebrew National. But don’t fret, there’s still time to celebrate. So go out and buy your 10-pack of hot dogs and an annoyingly unsynchronized 8-pack of buns, then pick up one of these 6 books to show your appreciation for blended pork bits.

Star Trek Beyond is out in theaters today! Captain Kirk and Spock are back to save the galaxy from evil. But what if the greatest sci-fi baddies of all time faced off against the Star Trek Enterprise crew?

July is DEE-licious. Not only is it National Ice Cream Month, there’s also a day in July dedicated to celebrating ice cream: the third Sunday of the month, which this year is July 21. Double yum! While cooling off with some brain-freezing ice cream and frosty book covers we started spreading our love of ice cream to as many books as we could with #IceCreamABook.

Play with us on Twitter: #IceCreamABook

(We’re ready!)

The weather is heating up, and we’ve gathered up the coolest bookish, geeky, and crafty links for you! This week offered the opportunity to get sorted into the newest wizarding school houses as well as explore the online Prince museum.

All Things Bookish

Here’s a fantastic new essay by Cheryl Strayed.

These books show the unfortunate side effects of superpowers.

Invite your friends to a silent reading party.

Enjoy these YA novels this summer.

All Things Geeky

Sonic the Hedgehog is a metaphor for the internet.

Are superhero movies the new Westerns?

Dive into the Prince online museum.

Sort yourself into the new American wizarding school houses.

All Things Crafty

Try out some of these organizational tips.

 Craft a paper mushroom!

 The Fourth of July might be over, but you can still whip up this patriotic poke cake.

I'm waiting to see if something outlandish happens before the end of the Republican National Convention. Not violence in the streets—but a political spectacle of the type that used to run the engine of national elections in this country. Because, you see, Virginia, there actually used to be interesting presidential nominating conventions in America, not merely pre-fabricated media opportunities for candidates with canned messages.

Since their inception in the early 1830s, national conventions were intended to be expressions of our collective psyche and temperament. Sure, most candidates were picked in smoky back rooms, but the will of the people was felt as a force to be reckoned with. Back then, up to 90% (in some cases) of eligible voters actually went to the polls.

And conventions were the nexus of their hopes, dreams, fears, and passions.