Get festive with your fitness

If you don’t want your Christmas dinner to stay on your hips or stomach for ever, here are six of the best for keeping active during the festive season

CHRISTMAS MAY be all about parties, mulled wine and canapés, not to forget the turkey dinner, but thankfully it also brings some seasonal exercise opportunities. From ice-skating to shopping, dancing to skiing, there are calorie-burning opportunities everywhere you turn.

1 Christmas shopping:There has never been a better excuse for shopping than Christmas time, and one of the best things about shopping for presents is that all the walking, standing and bag-carrying can contribute to weight loss. A decent shopping spree can burn about 100 calories per hour, according to Dublin-based personal trainer Niall Byrne. Carrying a few bags of shopping can also help tone your arms and shed a few extra calories, so try not to order all your gifts from catalogues or online!

2 Build a snowman:You might think that building a snowman is an activity just for kids, but it can provide good exercise for adults too. So don't just look at the accumulation of snow in your garden, get stuck in. All the trudging around and scooping up of snow can burn calories and tone muscles. Furthermore, you will burn more fat exercising outdoors in the cold than inside, says Byrne.

So avoid the urge to curl up next to the fire when the gym is inaccessible and go tone those muscles.

3 Dancing:Hit the dance floor this Christmas and New Year and you could burn approximately 300 calories per hour, according to Byrne. Dancing is an aerobic workout, which will help tone muscles as well as being a fun way of burning those canapé calories. There's never been a better excuse to go to parties.

4 Downhill skiing:The most popular winter sport is also a great calorie burner, and with artificial slopes in Kilternan and Sandyford and the freezing weather conditions, you don't need to go abroad to get some skiing in.

“Skiing is very good for toning up legs and core muscles,” according to Stuart Ryan, a ski instructor at the Ski Club of Ireland in Kilternan.

It especially tones up your glutes (bum), quads and calves, he says.

5 Snowboarding:Snowboarding is great for improving core stability and toning the thighs and calves, says Ryan. You have to use your core stomach muscles to balance, so it also improves them, he adds.

One hour of snowboarding can burn approximately 650 calories and it’s another sport that you don’t have to go abroad for, thanks to artificial slopes in Dublin.

6 Ice-skating:Depending on speed and continuity, you can burn anything from 300 to 500 calories an hour ice-skating, according to Byrne.

He says it’s an excellent form of exercise which works on core and lower body muscles, particularly the thighs and glutes.

Considering the average bottle of beer contains 120 calories and a pint has 170-190 calories, ice-skating is a great way to burn off the Christmas calories.

Furthermore, you don’t even need to own your own skates as they are provided by the many skating rinks which have sprung up throughout the country for the Christmas period.

These include the Arnotts rooftop rink in Dublin, the Galway Bay ice rink at Spanish Arch in Galway, the Elizabeth Fort in Cork and the Ice Dome at Arthur’s Quay Park in Limerick, as well as rinks at the RDS, Dundrum Town Centre and Mahon Point shopping centre.