It's the holiday season and everyone you know is coming to town to visit and celebrate, but your parents, siblings, aunts, uncles, cousins and college friends aren't going to just open their presents and then promptly leave. No, they're going to stick around to see the sights and make you wish that you had never agreed to host Christmas at your place. Your visitors won't be satisfied with simply spending some "quality time" sitting around in your living room—they're expecting to be entertained. That's why we've assembled a comprehensive list of the best things to do with holiday visitors between now and January 4. Your guests will have so much fun, they'll want to visit you every December.
ICE SKATING
There's no better way to bond with family members than by watching them struggle to skate across a sheet of ice. You can enjoy some frozen fun at the newly-opened Maggie Daley Park skating ribbon between 10am-4pm on Christmas Day. The following day, you'll be able to skate in Millennium Park and the Lincoln Park Zoo, as well as ice skating rinks across the city.
MUSEUMS
Impress your guests with your affinity for culture and art by taking them to a museum. If you're willing to brave the crowds, you can take a final look at "David Bowie Is" before the Museum of Contemporary Art exhibit closes on January 4. If glam-rock stars aren't your cup of tea, there's "The Comic Art and Architecture of Chris Ware" at the Art Institute, "Richard Hunt: Sixty Years of Sculpture" at the Chicago Cultural Center or "Struggling Times: A Solo Exhibition by JC Rivera" at Galerie F.
HOLIDAY THEATER
'Tis the season for seasonal theater and Chicago's playhouses are making sure that procrastinators get a chance to see new holiday classics like Twist Your Dickens or Scrooge You! (until Jan 3), A Q Brothers Christmas Carol (until Dec 28), Dee Snider's Rock & Roll Christmas Tale (until Jan 4), The Second City's Holidazed and Confused Revue (until Dec 31), Yippee Ki-Yay, Merry Christmas: A Die Hard Christmas Musical (until Jan 10).
THEATER
Of course, if you and your visitors have already had your fill of Christmas cheer, there are more serious theater options available, including Conor McPherson supernatural drama Shining City (until Jan 4), Steppenwolf's pre-Broadway debut of Airline Highway (until Jan 8) and the Disney film-turned-musical Newsies (until Jan 4).
RESTAURANTS
Don't feel like cooking for your guests? Try to grab a seat at one of the best new restaurants and bars of 2014 or keep working your way through our list of the year's 100 best dishes and drinks.
HOLIDAY LIGHTS
Christmas may be over, but most of the holiday lights will remain on display until well after New Year's Day. Put a twinkle in your visitors' eyes by taking in the shimmering spectacles at ZooLights (until Jan 4), the Morton Arboretum Holiday Lights (until Jan 3) and Holiday Magic at Brookfield Zoo (until Dec 31).
FUN WITH KIDS
If you need to entertain some kids, there's no better place for indoor fun than Winter Wonderfest. Yeah, it's at Navy Pier, but sometimes you have to suffer to bring joy to others.
COMEDY
After a stressful string of holiday dinners and celebrations, you and your visitors probably need to laugh. Luckily, Chicago's various comedy institutions will be back in action after Christmas, including The Improvised Shakespeare Company (Dec 26, Jan 1,2), The Lincoln Lodge (Dec 26), and Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind (Jan 1–3).
MUSIC
You'll have a difficult time finding a good show at a rock club between Christmas and New Year's Eve, but if your guests are fans of DJs and electronic music, you can head to the Mid to see Flosstradamus (Dec 27) or the Aragon for Bingo Players + Wolfgang Gartner (Dec 27).
NEW YEAR'S EVE
Instead of sitting on the couch and toasting the arrival of 2015 with plastic champagne flutes of Andre, you could take your visitors to a real New Year's Eve party. Alternatively, your guests might be more interested in seeing Pelican, Bob Mould, the Orwells or Sinkane at a New Year's Eve concert.
MOVIES
Unfortunately, you and your former college roommate probably won't be able to catch a screening of The Interview on Christmas day (thanks, North Korea) but there are plenty of other worthwhile films opening on December 25, including the Sondheim musical Into the Woods, robot-less Mark Wahlberg vehicle The Gambler, Angelina Jolie's WWII drama Unbroken and the wacky Tim Burton biopic Big Eyes.