Thursday Thirteen #9

Thirteen Things I Like About Christmas

1. Decorations. Lights, Santas, snowmen, reindeer, trees, candles, bows, wreaths ... I love them all. The more, the merrier. 2. Christmas movies. And yes, I even like the sappy ones. I have a bunch of movies on my "must watch" list every holiday season:

• White Christmas with Bing Crosby, Rosemary Clooney, and Danny Kaye. My daughters and I can sing every song in harmony and recite most of the dialogue
• A Christmas Story, with Darren McGavin as the dad. A classic.
• The Santa Clause. I have all three of the movies in this series, but the first one is still my favorite.
• Jingle all the Way. I don't know why this one appeals to me so much, but it's just not Christmas until I've seen Arnold and Sinbad battling over an action figure and heard Arnold say "It's Tyurbo Time!"
• Noel. I discovered this movie a couple of years ago, and quickly added it to my list.
• Christmas in Connecticut, both the Barbara Stanwyck and Dyan Cannon versions.
• At least one version of A Christmas Carol. I think the George C. Scott version is my favorite, but I've been known to substitute Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck on occasion.
• New this year: Fred Claus. I laughed until I nearly wet my pants.

There are also a few Christmas movies I refuse to watch, but I won't list those. 3. Snow. But only when I don't have to get outside in it. I think it's beautiful on the ground and covering the trees, but I hate driving on the slick streets and walking on icy sidewalks and parking lots. Obviously--since I hate the sensation of sliding--I don't ski or participate in any other winter sports, so I could probably live somewhere without snow and be quite happy. 4. Christmas Songs. Okay, yeah, I get tired of them by the end of December, but for 2 or 3 weeks every year I'm perfectly content listening to 100 different versions of "Carol of the Bells" every day. 5. Christmas Shopping, especially now that I can do so much of it online. Even before online shopping became an option, though, I used to like shopping. I especially liked shopping for my kids. I love finding just the right thing for someone, whether it's something I know they want, or something I stumble across that I know is perfect. 6. Hot Cocoa. Yeah, I know it's not a Christmas-specific thing, but the Christmas season always makes me want cocoa, so it makes my list. 7. My Mother's Fudge, which she makes every year. She started out bringing a small box to my sister's house on Christmas Day, then added a smaller box for me to take home since my family got only one (or maybe two) pieces each year, while my sister's family happily snacked for days on all the fudge we didn't eat on Christmas. Then she had to expand again to make separate take home boxes for each of the grandkids as they grew up and left home. The fudgemaking operation has expanded yet again to include shipping now that most of the grandkids have moved to other parts of the country. 8. The scent of fresh pine which, unfortunately, you can only get from a real pine tree or pine branches. I have yet to smell an artificial pine scent that smells even remotely like actual pine. 9. Cinnamon Chocolate Chip Cookies. Yum! 10. Happy Tears. My family is weird. Every year it seems that someone gives a gift that touches the receiver in some deeply emotional way and brings on joyful tears. We love that gift. We love getting it, but we especially love giving it. Making someone we love weep with happiness is the ultimate Christmas experience. 11. Tradition. Of course, as families grow and change, as new people join the clan, begin their own branches of the family and move away, traditions change. That's as it should be. But some things remain the same, and that's a good thing. 12. The real meaning of Christmas. All this good will toward man, singing, eating, and showering those we care about with gifts had roots in the birth of the Christ Child. One of our family traditions is reading about the birth from the Bible. 13. Santa Claus. What's not to love about Santa? All that good will toward man, the showering of kids with gifts, the unconditional love .... That lump of coal thing? Made up by parents! Seriously! Has anyone ever actually recieved a lump of coal from Santa?