The holidays are here. It is a time to get together with friends and family. But let's face it -- most of our holiday get-togethers are focused around eating and drinking. If you want to break out of this pattern, and get a head start on your 2018 healthier self, here are some unique ideas that go beyond your favorite restaurant and bar.

Check out the American Alliance of Museums

American Alliance of Museums will change your life if you are a museum-goer and art enthusiast! This incredible membership is easy to apply for online with a one-time payment of $50 for students, and $100 for non-students. The museum card allows year-round access to nearly all art museums in the United States. It is an amazing deal, well-worth the $$$. - So if you're late on your Christmas shopping, this makes an excellent and thoughtful gift (and no shipping required!)

Outside of the Art Institute of Chicago and Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA), there are plenty of notable galleries to check out in the city of Chicago that are absolutely free - with or without the AAM membership.

Here are a few ideas of places to check out this Holiday season!

Smart Museum of Art

David & Alfred Smart Museum of Art - University of Chicag

Art Museum/Center/Sculpture Garden

Conversations with the Collection: Building/Environments, showing works by Michael Rakowitz, Boris Fedorovich Rybchenkov, and Mark Rothko.

DePaul Art Museum

DePaul Art Museum

Art Museum/Center/Sculpture Garden

Closed for installation - Winter exhibition opens January 11

Gallery 400

University of Illinois Chicago Gallery 400

Art Museum/Center/Sculpture Garden

"Traduttore, Traditore," roughly translating to "translator, traitor," brings together a group of artists from around the world who employ processes of translation to expose, question, and challenge global circuits of economic and cultural capital.

LUMA

Loyola University Museum of Art

Art Museum/Center/Sculpture Garden

LUMA has four shows on exhibit - Beam It Out/Bring It In, The Craft of the Crèche: Materials and Techniques, Art and Faith of the Creche: The Collection of James and Emilia Govan, and Gilded Glory: European Treasures from the Martin D’Arcy, S.J. Collection.

National Museum of Mexican Art

National Museum of Mexican Art

Art Museum/Center/Sculpture Garden

Now on display: Nuestras Historias: Stories of Mexican Identity, Placemaking & Landmarks: The Creation of Mexican Spaces in la Dieciocho (Pilsen), Chicago Gallery,Day of the Dead: Tilica y flaca es la calaca, Main Gallery, Luis Tapia: Sculpture as Sanctuary, Rubin & Paula Torres Gallery.

MoCP

Museum of Contemporary Photography

Art Museum/Center/Sculpture Garden

The MoCP is currently closed for installation.

National Veterans Art Museum

National Veterans Art Museum
Art Museum/Center/Sculpture Garden

Above & Beyond is currently on view at Harold Washington Library Center in downtown Chicago.

Intuit

Intuit: The Center for Intuitive & Outsider Art

Art Museum/Center/Sculpture Garden

Now on Display: In the Land of Pasaquan: The Story of Eddie Owens Martin, Henry Darger's Orphans and the Construction of Race, Winter Scenes from the Intuit Collection.

Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art

Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art

Art Museum/Center/Sculpture Garden

Curated by Roman Hrab, CIM is an exhibition that plays on the notion of the collective, and what cultural and ethnic topographies bind first and second generation Ukrainian-American and Ukrainian born artists from the New York City area.