This post is sponsored by Target. The winning number for the Target gift card, according to Random.org was 20. Congratulations Shelly @ Life on the Wild Side!!!
Okay, don’t kill the messenger, but are you aware? Christmas is six weeks away. After summer, Christmas is my favorite time of the year. Yes, summer. I’d take a month of summer over a month of December any day, and I yes I realize this makes me a bit of a freak. But think about it. There’s no present-buying stress in the summertime. And no decorating stress. And no baking stress. And it’s WARM outside.
But then, there is also no nostalgic glow of a Christmas tree to greet you when you walk in the door, no reason to buy eggnog, and your family might look at you funny if they come home to find you listening to Hark the Herald Angels Sing. So yes, there is a LOT about Christmastime to look forward to.
We always kick off our holiday season with a trip to a Christmas tree farm, where we ride out into the field on a tractor and then tromp around in the bitter cold until we find The Tree. Then we heartlessly cut it down with a dull saw and drag it home where we string it with hundreds of little white lights and cover it with a motley assortment of family ornaments, collected over the years, many of them hand-made by my husband’s father. When you put it like that, it’s somewhat of a peculiar tradition, isn’t it?
At any rate, the tree is my very favorite Christmas decoration. There have been years when I’ve done nothing more than put up a tree and slap a wreath on the door, but once that tree goes up, it’s Christmastime for sure.
The other part of the season that I look forward to is the eager anticipation of my kids. There’s nothing quite like seeing the season through the eyes of children, and watching my kids experience the joy and wonder of Christmas always brings back such fond memories of my childhood Christmas celebrations.
So tell me. What makes YOUR season bright?
This post is sponsored by Target. For lots of fun festive stuff – including a gift finder gizmo and the chance to win a $500 Target gift card – check out Happy Holiday Help on DivineCaroline.
PLUS! I get to choose one commenter to receive a $50 Target Gift Card. I will use a random number generator, and the winner will be announced at the top of this post sometime next week.
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Just a mom attempting to juggle three kids, four blogs, a blog design business, and the laundry. 
{ 100 comments… read them below or add one }
First of all, the music. I love, love, love my Christmas music. I have about seven versions of O, Holy Night on my playlist.
And “Here With Us” by Joy Williams (I think?) is my all-time favorite. And my kids sing along with it and it just about makes me melt.
We put up our decorations Thanksgiving weekend (fake tree). I love it when the kids are in bed and the tree lights are on, and the mantle lights, and Husband and I are just relaxing and our home feels warm and cozy.
Finally, we have made it a tradition to watch The Polar Express and eat popcorn and drink hot chocolate from the special Santa mugs my Grandma gave us a few years ago. The kids bunk out in sleeping bags and we have a fire going and it is magical.
I love the buying (hence the giving) I also can’t wait to decorate my house but perhaps my most favorite part of the season is my childrens faces on Christmas morning…(even if the weeks leading up seem to be stemmed with anxiety and perhaps a little misbehavior!!)
That sounds FABULOUS! I can’t WAIT!!! Disney is supposedly all decked out for Christmas. We leave on Sunday. I’m sure I’ll come back TOTALLY in the Christmas spirit.
We love to pile in the car and cruise around looking at Christmas lights! I make everyone hot cocoa, pop popcorn, we pop in the christmas playlist on the Ipod, and off we go! We just love it! Me and hubby started this the year my oldest was born, more for us, just to get us out of the house. And now it has transformed into soo much more! Don’t laugh, but my favorite part is peeking in windows and seeing all the beautiful decorations… :O)
The cookies! Oh.. the cookies. My favorite homemade sugar cookie recipe. YUM.
The tree! Without question. The tiny lights are so magical and all the ornaments have so many memories. But I could go on and on about the music and the garlands on the staircase and the candles in the windows!
(I have a blog now, Jo-Lynne! After a year of reading yours, I’m inspired!)
Having the Christmas tree up, playing Christmas music (Bing Crosby, Johnny Matthis & Nat King Cole, of course), and seeing the town decorated with lights, garland and bows always puts me in the spirit. Snow is welcome, too, just as long as it remains on the grassy areas and not on the street.
This year Christmas equals a trip to Florida. Where it is WARM. Where it better be warm. I will still be decorating, but everything is just much more laid back this year with a newborn. And I am loving it that way….
I love opening up our Christmas boxes, shopping for the perfect present, and listening to my favorite songs. It really sets the Christmas mood!
Other than the friends, family, presents, etc,etc.. my favorite thing is I get one night in December of my choosing. Husband takes the kids away for the night. I spread all the gifts out in the family room for the kids, turn on some Christmas music, turn on the tree, light a fire in the fireplace, and pour myself a nice glass of wine. I spend the entire evening wrapping presents, and then relax on the couch when its all done.
I love the music…I got my Christmas CDs out at the beginning of October!!
And I love the baking! I enjoy baking myself, and I love carrying on the baking/decorating of Christmas cookies tradition with my children that I always did with my mom.
Our Christmas traditions include putting decorations up the day after Thanksgiving. Outside and Inside! Quite a feat after being married eight years and LOTS of stuff accumulated! We start playing the good ol Christmas music. Love doing the gingerbread house decorating with my kiddos. Our most favorite thing is spending a DAY baking cookies and other baked goods and delivering tins filled with warm goodness to our neighbors.
I love the hot chocolate and spending time with family
I love the music, but most of all I love my Jesus!
This year will be brighter for a different reason…we’ll have a brand new baby here to celebrate with us! I can’t wait to share Christmas with my kids at their current ages, 0-6 years
I love my mom’s fudge–she only makes it at Christmastime. Midnight Mass is always beautiful, and I love to listen to Mary Did You Know by Kenny Rogers and Wynona.
Definitely the joy and anticipation that my children exhibit! We have a small Advent calendar with a figure that they take turns moving ahead each morning. It’s a fun way to countdown the days!
So many things – getting our Christmas tree, our visit from Elfis, looking at all our ornaments, watching a movie together on Christmas Eve, putting Santa’s plate of cookies together, the anticipation, Christmas morning. Can’t wait!!!
My favorite part is Christmas morning: we all have hot cocoa while my husband reads the Christmas story from the gospel of Luke aloud to the kids and I. We open presents and then enjoy a feast of stuffed blueberry french toast!
One of my favorite things is the great big Charlie Brown Christmas tree we have in our back yard. Two years ago, as I was recovering from surgery and lying on the couch every day, my husband surprised me by buying those old fashioned colorful bulb lights and stringing them all over the tree so I could look at it from the couch. It was such a beautiful, touching thing that he did for me. Now it’s become a tradition, even though the tree is much taller and it’s harder to get the lights on it. We all love it.
I love to see how excited my kids get during the Christmas holiday. Picking out the tree, visiting Santa, seeing all the family and of course present opening. Seeing little kids so happy makes everything seem perfect at Christmas time.
I am really excited to spend 2 weeks with my family over thanksgiving. Seeing them and spending time with them (it’s been over a year) is going to brighten my world.
There is so much to love! I love the traditions, the music, the lights, the decorating the tree, but my favorite part is the gift giving.
I am a relatively new reader of your blog, but I’m lovin it.
Also, lovin target.
Deep down I think it is the sparkle in the eyes of my kids – all season long. They just love all that surrounds Christmas. Not just the gifts, but the giving the Shoeboxes for OCC, Angel Tree, our own 12 Days of Christmas, the cookies and treats.
It’s such a joy to watch my children experience joy!
I love the music, anything and everything. I have been known to listen to Christmas music on my computer in the summer. One tradition we have is to put our tree up (artificial) on the Sunday after Thanksgiving. It is so much fun talking about the handmade ornaments and triming the tree. On Christmas Eve we always have pizza for dinner. The girls open their one present, new jammies, and we get settled into our new jammies and watch a movie, Polar Express has been the favorite for a few years.
the anticipation. the joy. knowing i found the perfect gift for someone.
Putting up the tree is my favorite too. Each year the kids get a new ornament, and each year we tell the stories behind that ornament. Boo’ first year of dance class, Hunter’s first bowling tournament, Hubby’s first buck etc. It ends up taking us forever to decorate the tree, but so worth it.
What makes my season bright is serving others who might otherwise not have a bright Christmas!
There are so many things I love about Christmas. I love celebrating the birth of my savior most importantly. I love singing about His birth and giving gifts in honor of Him. I also love the lights!! I think people are putting them up earlier this year because they’re tired of all the depressing news and lights just make us happy:-)
Okay, my favorite things are the music (I am totally guilty of playing Christmas music too early and too often, from O Holy Night! to Rudolph!) and family traditions. We always cut down our tree on the same day (4th Sunday of Advent) and have many of the same foods year after year and I can’t wait to see my son’s reaction to all the wonderful parts of the holidays this year since he is currently 15 months old!
The family time!
I don’t mind the shopping or decorating. I don’t so much love the constant trail of obligatory get togethers that are often uncomfortable or awkward. I downright don’t like cleaning my house endlessly to have people visit!! But I LOVE the family time, memories, and smiles on my daughters face.
I feel like the cooler weather makes us chill out and stay home and rest, and that’s a good thing. I love the smells of my holiday candles – Autumn wreath by Yankee candle. We also love instrumental Christmas music – so soothing and pretty. We like to lay by the fire w/hot cider and music.
you asked for it….i love every.single.detail. about Christmas. Getting down the bazillion boxes of decorations and reliving each memory associated with each ornament or decoration. I love the advent services at our church. I love shopping in the crowds. I love wrapping gifts. GIVING gifts is so rewarding. I love CHristmas music. Following each & every tradition I can think up! BAking. Eating too much. The anticipation of the big celebration at our church for CHRIST’S birth.
I love it all.
my fave thing is seeing the smiles on everyone.
I’m with you on summer, but so thankful for Christmas to bring so much joy to the cold season.
I love putting up the tree with the kids, reading the Advent book each night, listening to Christmas music, the glow of the lights on the tree, watching Christmas movies together. I really wish we could just ditch the gifts all together.
We have a nativity Playmobil set and my kids love to re-enact the Christmas story over and over!
I love the Christmas tree (which is most of the time the only decoration except for a few candles and some window/door decoration). I love the music, too, and the smell of cookies. I so wish we had a fireplace, it’s so cosy! But all the Christmas lights and candles create a nice atmosphere too. I really love buying presents for family and friends even though I have trouble thinking of the right thing sometimes.
i love EVERYTHING about the holidays from baking to shopping decorating and wrapping it is all so fun!
First, I love the music. Yes, I am already listening to it.
Second, this year some of our Christmas routines are turning bacl to normal…well, as normal as can be. My son got sick in Oct. 2007 and the result of that illness has left him with a chronic disease. In the midst of all of that, we found out that he has an autoimmune disease. The last two Christmas seasons have just been full of adjustments, hospitals, etc. Although my son still suffers greatly, we are learning to adjust and live one day (even one moment) at a time. Our schedule can change at any second because of uncontrolled seizures. But you know what, I still have my son with me. He is alive and although not the same as he was before the illness, I still have him in my life. We as a family have grown and have learned to be thankful for the little things.
Another part of the season I love is watching little kids. They bring so much joy. My grandkids love decorating the tree and can’t wait for us to bring it out.
Most of all, the season reminds me of how much God loves me.
Hi
my favorite part of christmas is on christmas eve,right before we get ready to leave to go to our relatives house, Santa comes around on a fire engine! Its just magical they do it every year where we live and the best part is its at night and he throws candy canes to the children and my daughters are in awe and it still beings tears to my eyes! Its like being a kid again. Its my favorite part, cant wait for it every year.
Thanks!!
I love the little colorful Christmas lights, the music, the cookies, the church services, and the looks of delight on my children’s faces.
There is so much I love about the season: buying and giving, my kids excitement, the music, the decorations, parties… I could do without baking although I love to partake in the baking. Plus my baby’s bday is 3 days after so I don’t like that she gets a year older every xmas.
The music and the lights are just two of my favorite things about Christmas. I have to confess that I’ve already broken out my Christmas music….but only while I am doing “Christmas” things. I love this time of year, even if the weather isn’t my favorite.
Six weeks? Surely you jest. I have got to get SHOPPING.
P.S. CANNOT wait to meet you tomorrow!
I love the tree and all the decorating, too. And I agree that it’s fun seeing it through the eyes of my kids. My goal this year is to have all my shopping done by Dec. 1 so that I can really enjoy the season, instead of running around like a chicken with her head cut off.
My favorite thing about Christmas is the anticipation. Anticipation about all the events which unfold during December with friends and family, anticipation about what gifts to buy for loved ones, anticipation about the excitement when the little ones open their gifts, and anticipation of the celebration of Jesus’ birth.
Each year after Christmas, I shop the sales for new decorations. Then I put them away, without using them, with the other Christmas things. So when I open my Christmas storage boxes after Thanksgiving, there are always surprises in there for me! It’s like shopping for things twice!
FAMILY. Nothing has to happen. Gifts don’t have to be shared. Food doesn’t have to be special. Just give me my family…All together. In one room. Love. It’s Christmas.
My favorite part of Christmas is the candlelight. Christmas eve service. The Advent is celebrated, the Christmas story read aloud, Christmas hymns sung & choral music that delights my ears. The perfect way to celebrate HIM!
My favorite part is when the tree is finished and we sit and look at it and drink hot cocoa. I personally think I like that better than Christmas morning.
We also do advent stockings and I love watching the kids open the stockings every day.
This year my Christmas season is bright because it will be our first Christmas at home with just our little family. Usually we travel back home for Christmas and have to visit a gajillion family members and friends in a few short days. Not this year- this year we are staying home and celebrating Christmas just the three of us. Time to start our own family traditions- I can’t wait.
I love experiencing Christmas with my 4 year old. It is like rediscovering how magical Christmas can be!
My children and I love singing Christmas carols (loudly) or just listening to Christmas/seasonal music in the car. It totally reminds me of the mom and kids on A Christmas Story. Love it!
I love our tradition of still going to my parent’s house for Christmas. We all sit around in our PJs eating breakfast and opening gifts from each other. My daughter is enjoying Christmas the same way I used to.
I love the tree and all the decorations and the baking and the family time and the EGGNOG!!
I love baking with my kids. We also volunteer for a Christmas Eve Dinner at the local Senior Center which has provided us a lifetime of beautiful memories. For our family…its all about the giving!
We cut down our tree every year during Thanksgiving weekend and I usually have my entire house decorated by the end of the weekend. I love to decorate for Christmas! I can’t wait to see Aubryn’s reaction to everything this year. She was too little last year to really care about Christmas all that much but I’m sure that this year will be different!
My favorite part of Christmas is our tree. We put it up during Thanksgiving weekend. As we put up our ornaments it’s like a walk down memory lane. We have ornaments that remind us of every trip we’ve taken, every grade in school, and all of the hobbies we’ve had over the years. Many, many memories.
We do the Thanksgiving weekend decorating too, when we’re not out of town. I can’t WAIT!
I’m loving all these responses. I am getting into the Christmas spirit already.
I love everything about Christmas! The smell in the air, the music, the cheer! Ah, it just gets me excited thinking about it! The tree most definitely is a huge part…real not fake. It’s the most wonderful time of the year!
I posted about my favorite Christmas to-dos on my blog here:
http://allthingsjuice.wordpress.com/2009/10/22/my-christmas-to-do-list/
I’ve been really enjoying making homemade gifts this year!
I love Christmas! My favorite part is the excitement my kids show and the looks on their faces during the celebrations.
The music is what I really look forward to. And pulling out all the Christmas decor.
I love all things Christmas. In fact, I can’t wait until Thanksgiving Day because I think that is the day it is okay to start playing Christmas music in the car on our way home from visiting family.
The weekend after Thanksgiving we have a family tree trimming day. I look forward to it every year.
Most importantly though is the First Sunday of Advent in our house. We celebrate “Jesus” as we countdown the days to Christmas. It is so special for our family every year.
Going home for the holidays is what makes my season bright. I love getting back to the Midwest for the holidays and being with my family. The house is decorated, at every entrance and throughout, candles are lit all day long and someone always seems to be cooking/baking (usually my sister).
Could so use the gift card! I can’t believe how prepared people are!!!! I have not broken out one Christmas item yet. I love, love, love the smells. The tree, the candles the cooking!!! Can’t be beat!
I love sitting in the living room late at night with the tree all aglow.
Also, love the Christmas Cards in my mailbox. Real mail, yay!
I don’t know if there is anything better than taking an evening to relax next to the glowing Christmas tree, hot chocolate in hand, with Christmas music in the background. Even though it’s freezing outside (at least where I live), there is such a warmth that I feel during the holiday season.
I’m fairly new to your blog, by the way. I’m not even a Mommy yet. But, I do enjoy your blog
I absolutely love family and friends getting together. That’s what makes my season bright. Of course the tree, lights, music and food do too, but nothing beats out getting together with loved ones.
I love everything about Christmas – the tree, the special church services, the music, the food, the shopping, extra family time. I love it all. My favorite part though is watching people open the gifts I gave them…if I can wait until Christmas. Usually I’m so excited, I make them open the gifts at least a week early (and come on, no one complains about that).
6 weeks? Seriously?! I love everything about Christmas…I’ve already started some gift-buying and love decorating and love cookie-baking and love the music…shall I go on?
I love having lots of personal mail – not just the junk mail and bills – but real letters from hopefully real friends and family. Nothing like a cup of hot chocolate and a stack of christmas letters to read while sitting but the fire smelling the Christmas tree nearby – heaven!
I love the late nigth Christmas Eve service … that starts around 11pm, and when you come out … it’s Christmas! Even better if we get a few overnight flurries for the drive home!
The tree is my favorite too. Although my husband bought me a fake tree a few years ago, somehow all the FUN we were having going out to find the perfect tree with 3 freezing children, started being a little much!
I am getting anxious because Christmas is close, and I am NOT ready! But my munchkins are so excited, and they are singin Christmas songs non-stop, so that helps a lot. They are good at re-focusing me!
I love getting out the decorations and remembering when we bought them. The kids love hearing the stories of some of the different ornaments. I also truly love the music of Christmas…and singing it as well!
I am thoroughly enjoying the anticipation my toddler has for Christmas this year – it’s finally sunk through his 3yo brain that he gets stuff on Christmas (probably because he opened the box that the mailman brought…his train for Christmas) and he is so.excited!
I also just love getting together with family and playing games and having a good time!
I really love baking, being with family and friends and the anticipation of gifting. (I like receiving too, don’t get me wrong, but I’m typically more excited to finally be able to show my loved ones what I got for them! I also really like a Christmas Eve Candlelight service with Christmas Carols. There’s just something about the atmosphere!
My kids make it bright. I love starting new traditions with them.
What makes my season bright is not rushing into it until after Thanksgiving. The tree, presents, all that can wait until we’ve given thanks….
I have to admit I am a Christmas music junkie. There is no other time of the year when I listen to the radio as much as I do in the month of December. Rarely a song reaches my ear between Thanksgiving and Christmas that is not a Christmas tune.
Also, I absolutely love to bake yummy treats. Unfortunately my hubby has diabetes and therefore, baking is a rare treat. That is, until Christmas time. This year all the friends, neighbors, teachers and anyone else I run into will be partaking of all the new and old recipes that I will be baking.
Bring on the madness!! I love Christmas!
I love how peaceful it is at night after everyone has gone to bed, and you can just turn off all the lights except the ones on the tree and just enjoy the moment in the midst of all the chaos.
I love the music and the lights and the parties and just spending time with friends and family.
And we’ll be in Disney next week, too! My husband and I are leaving on Tuesday–so excited
I love love LOVE Christmas! I start planning and getting ready for it in October! The sights and the sounds and the smells, it’s just all so magical to me
I don’t usually stress out on gift buying since I make a lot of the gifts I give. I start picking up stuff for the kids months before hand so I don’t end up spending a TON. For me, it’s not about the gifts so much as just enjoying the WHOLE season!
Finding just the “right” gift for everyone on my list is the BEST!!! I get so frustrated if I can’t find the perfect gift! And Christmas music. I’m ready to start listening to it now.
I’ll be honest I don’t get into Christmas until AFTER Thanksgiving. But Christmas is one of my favorite holidays. I think my favorite besides the family getting together is all the cooking. I get to cook for us and for Mr E’s co-workers. Poor single saps. LOL It gives me the perfect excuse to bake!! I also love driving around looking at all the Christmas lights and houses all decorated up.
Ahhhh, yes. The glow of lights from decorations. I adore that. I really like the seasonal foods too, pumpkin pie, candy canes… Hot chocolate is great too. And I love snowmen. Yay!
The music and the baking!…..of course the tree, the decorations, family, friends……..I love it all!!♥
~TidyMom
Giving gifts makes my season bright – I love to give gifts, especially to kids – it is so much fun to watch their eyes light up with delight!
But I also enjoy adopting a family at Christmas – we go through the local charitable organization who screens families in our community that apply for help – we adopt one of them, we never know exactly who they are but we get their list, buy them gifts, give them back to the adopt-a-family coordinator and know that we’ve helped someone out – we were adopted once when I was young and my Dad had been out of work most of the year because of an extended illness – I’ll never forget how special that Christmas was and we try to give back every year. If we can’t afford to adopt a whole family we at least take some things to the local homeless shelter or go together with a couple other families in our church to adopt a family together.
Target gift card? Sign me up please! I got boys with big present plans and I’m gonna have to deliver at some point!
I love all of my decorations, most of which have been hand-painted by me. We moved into our house last December, so there was very little time to decorate (or at least decorate and enjoy the decorations) so I plan on breaking out the decorations on Thanksgiving! I have enough handmade ornaments to fill a whole tree, so I wouldn’t be surprised if we decorate two trees this year.
I, too, love Christmas music. And how happy everyone else is this time of year. It’s lovely.
Okay, this might not sound very wholesome, but I love holiday spiced wine. I love the taste of it, I love the smell of it simmering on the stove, I love buying it and bringing it home because it signals the holidays. Do I sound like a lush?
No worries Ursula. You’re in good company!
Aside from enjoying time and being grateful for my family, the one thing that always seems to make Christmas is seeing my brother. He lives in TN and I am in NH but I just love spending time with him and his family!
nhmummab@comcast.net
Love some christmas music and I have christmas dishes. I think I’ll get them down tomorrow.
Ohh I just love Christmastime!!
I’ve been starting to get into the spirit by blasting my Christmas CDs through the house…. but my favorite part of Christmas is setting up the tree. It’s just enough of a hassle to get the whole family riled up and everyone always ends up laughing.
I love baking with Christmas music playing on Pandora, rehearsing Christmas carols with my church choir, and shopping for that extra special gift for my fiancé. Looking forward to the weekend so I can begin all the Christmas decorating!!
we love the decorating of the house. getting out the tree, unwrapping everyone’s favorite ornaments. oddly enough, it brings a tear to my husband’s eye, not mine. he sometimes has to go cry in the bathroom because he is so happy during this time!
My favorite part is watching my kids on Christmas morning. It is so much fun to watch their little faces light up each time they unwrap a gift!
Oh, and I’d love to win this gift-card so I hope the Random Integer Thingie picks me!!!