I love this: It's a Christmas Post!
Here's mine.
The best things about Christmas
Christmas music. I have about 350 Christmas songs in iTunes. Around this time of year--sometime in November--I switch my iPod playlists to Christmas ones.
Top five Ten Fifteen Christmas songs:
- Christmas Must Be Tonight, - The Band
- Driving Home for Christmas - Chris Rea
- Fairytale of New York - The Pogues
- The Christmas Song - The Ravonettes
- Christmas Bayou - Michael Doucet
- Christmas Time - Smashing Pumpkins
- Do They Know It's Christmas? - Barenaked Ladies
- Maybe This Christmas - Ron Sexsmith
- Hark the Herald Angels Sing - Mannheim Steamroller
- Suddenly it's Christmas - Loudon Wainwright III
- The Virgin Mary - Mason Williams
- Good King Wenceslas - The Roches
- A Song of Christmas - Lowen & Navarro
- Feliz Navidad - Los Lonely Boys
- O Tannenbaum - Vince Guaraldi Trio
Christmas movies. I love Christmas movies. And by that I don't mean movies that are about Christmas, necessarily, but movies set at Christmas. Like Diehard. Did you ever think about that being a Christmas movie? It is. Some other favorites:
- Christmas With the Kranks
- Love Actually
- Home Alone
- Holiday Inn
- Emmet Otter's Jug-Band Christmas
Christmas books. Same thing -- I love reading fiction that's set at Christmastime. There are only a few that I can think of. I see a lot of it in displays at the bookstores, but most of it doesn't appeal to me enough to risk buying it. I suppose I should write down the titles and check them out of the library. Here are some that I own:
- Undead and Unreturnable - Mary Janice Davidson (vampire chick lit)
- Crewel Yule - Monica Ferris (a "needlecraft mystery")
- Miracle and Other Christmas Stories - Connie Willis (One of my favorite books of all time -- I love Connie Willis, and she loves Christmas, too.)
- Skipping Christmas - John Grisham (the book that Christmas With the Kranks is based on)
- Christmas Forever - David G. Hartwell, Ed. (science fiction anthology)
Other favorite things about Christmas:
- Christmas print paper towels
- Christmas themed zip-lock bags and storage containers
- Peppermint ice cream
- Cranberry gingerale (do they still make this?)
- Peppermint candles
- Pine candles (Yankee Candles' "Mistletoe" is the best)
- Cheap Christmas print notepads and ballpoint pens
- Christmas cards
- Christmas stamps
- Christmas music in the stores
- Christmas lights
- Pine scented air freshener and candles
- Holiday scented soap and bath products
- Christmas-themed nightshirts from Disney World
- My "'Tis the Season to be Crabby" pajama pants from Joe's Crab Shack
- My Christmas-print Vera Bradley knitting bag
That's all I can think of at the moment. I'm getting in the Christmas spirit early this year.
