I was told this blog was in desperate need of some holiday cheer and I’m your lady. Around our house, my title is the Christmas Czar. I’m not even joking. Pete and I are Christmas CRAZY! Now, I have been this way my entire life because my parents were the same way, also, my name is Holly so you should expect nothing less. Now Pete, though he has always loved Christmas, he just loves celebrating ANYTHING. Match made in heaven.

When Pete and I moved in together 3 years ago, we had this great idea of doing a Christmas countdown. Now, I’m not talking a countdown that tells you have many days until the big day…I’m talking an interactive countdown. You make a list at the end of November/beginning of December that has a different Christmas activity to do each day. This whole countdown is not only to have fun, but more importantly, it’s to really celebrate the season. It helps us enjoy the entire season and not stress that “the big day” is looming in the distance. It makes the season seem so much LONGER! It’s really the one thing I look forward to most in the year. How many people can say that about the Christmas season? So here it is folks! The first 12 days of our Countdown!

December 1- Watch a Christmas Story. This is my FAVORITE Christmas movie. When I was younger, my brother and I had a tradition of watching this every single day in December.

December 2- Buy each other a Christmas themed present. This one is fun because you never know what the other person is going to buy, it can be quite funny.

December 3-  Send a Christmas e-Card to each other. This one is GREAT. For $12 a year, we have an account with http://www.jibjab.com and they have the BEST e-cards anywhere, we laugh so hard at the e-cards we give each other.

December 4- Wear Christmas Socks. Who doesn’t love Christmas socks?

December 5- Make a Christmas fortune teller. Luckily, Pete remembers how to fold these things! On the inside of it it says different things like, “do a Christmas imitation” or “hang this over your head an pretend its mistletoe” it’s lots of fun and always good for a laugh.

December 6- take a Christmas picture

December 7-  Tell a Christmas joke. You can either look one up online or make one up -yourself! This years jokes included: Q: Where do snowmen keep their money? A: In a snow bank; & Q: What do angry mice send to each other at Christmastime? A: cross mouse cards.

We also Picked this day to get our 2nd of 3 Christmas trees. We really made it fun because we bought new Christmas tree hunting outfits and I blared Christmas music from my iPad. It’s the little things, folks!

December 8- Wear a Christmas hat. This is fun because you can either buy new ones (they make really neat ones now) or just use a standard santa hat. I’m not sure why we buy so many hats because we literally have a basket full of different Christmas hats.

December 9- Wear your best ugly Christmas sweater!

December 10- Listen to the Alabama Christmas cd. This one was one of Pete’s family’s traditions, and I love it.

December 11- Eat a candy cane! This is great because how many times during the season do you forget to take a breather and eat a candy cane?

December 12- Sing the 12 days of Christmas! This can be really fun, especially if you don’t know the order too well.

The point is, even if you don’t want to make an actual countdown, just take time every day to enjoy something you can only enjoy during the Christmas season! You won’t regret it, I promise!

Stay tuned for the rest of the countdown, some awesome (and EASY!) Christmas crafts I have done so far, and dogs dressed up in Christmas apparel. Best Christmas ever? Yes.

“Christmas is not a time nor a season, but a state of mind.”