15 days until the official start of the best time of the year!

i broke out the Christmas music today. i just couldn't wait anymore. Christmas isn't for another 46 days, but it doesn't matter to me. i just had another crappy Monday so it was necessary to lighten my mood..but now i can't focus. i state that the Christmas season officially kicks off when i go home for Thanksgiving.

so, in honor of the BEST TIME OF THE YEAR being right around the corner (and it actually starting according to some radio stations and commercials), here is a list of all of my favorite Christmas things, in no particular order.

- the TV specials that i actually have time to watch; Christmas in Rockefeller center and the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade are two of my personal favorites due to growing up in NEW YORK. A Charlie Brown Christmas always makes me think of my mother, because she gets excited like a child for that one.

- my favorite commercials are prob the Pampers "Peace on Earth" commercial with the babies from different parts of the world with "Silent Night" in the background, whatever the Hess truck commercial is that year, the Radio City Christmas Show commercial, the classic Hershey Kiss commercial, Santa getting stuck in the chimney advertising some stomach medication, the classic M&Ms commercial when the red and green M&Ms sneak downstairs and run into Santa, the "a diamond is forever" comercial with a cover of Cat Stevens' "How Can I Tell You" playing in the background and a man giving his wife/girlfriend a ring as a surprise, and if anyone remembers the "Behold The Power Of Cheese" commercials, one of those in which a girl leaves Santa cheese instead of milk and cookies and he left her the whole freakin' toy shop.

- the music, my favorites being O Come, All Ye Faithful (Nat King Cole or Josh Groban), (Christmas) Baby Please Come Home (Darlene Love), Sleigh Ride (the instrumental version or The Ronettes), all of the awesome Bob Rivers parodies (I even like the cynical aspects of Christmas), and a whole bunch that i can't think of right now!

- the crazy shopping. i do Black Friday every year and i always like to listen, just for the hell of it, for what toy soccer moms across the country will be knocking each other over for this year. i remember the year that Tickle Me Elmo came out and a fight broke out on Christmas Eve in a K-Mart over the last one. i also remember Furbies, and i didn't say that i wanted one until much later...but Santa definately scored for me and i somehow got a Furby :-D

- the food, including all of the special food that chain establishments don't serve at any other time of the year; i had my first Eggnog latte from Starbucks yesterday and it was just wonderful. my mom and i always make cookies a few days before Christmas and it's something i look forward to every year. also the traditional Italian Christmas Eve...for us it's sicilian pizza, fish sauce, pasta, and fish salad that my grandmother makes. dessert is cookies of course. i'm not a big fish person but Italian Christmas Eve is just full of magic.

- the movies: A Christmas Story is my all-time favorite MOVIE, forget about christmas movie. but It's a Wonderful Life never ceases to leave my eyes wet, and some of the newer ones like The Polar Express and Deck The Halls are great too. Of course there's Miracle on 34th Street though I grew up with the Mara Wilson version as opposed to the 50s version.

- the Church services. don't need to go into details, except i sob. every year.

- the gift giving/receiving. makes me feel so good both to give and receive.

- and then there's my birthday, stuck in the middle of the season...but all of the more reason to celebrate!