I don't like Christmas

I had a mind-boggling realization today.

I don't like Christmas.

Day.

I love the Christmas season with all my heart. I love lights, newfallen snow, decorating cookies, Christmas music. I love shopping for the perfect gift, and usually not finding it until you've almost given up. I love making gifts more than anything. I love watching Christmas movies, especially White Christmas and It's a Wonderful Life. I love the magic of decorating the Christmas tree and then turning off all the lights in the house and just sitting under it and staring at the lights, sipping hot cocoa and eating Keebler's Jingles cookies until you fall asleep and dream about magic.

But I'm not the biggest fan of Christmas Day itself.

Maybe it's the fact that in my family, dinner was on Christmas Eve, all the big things were Christmas Eve, there was no extended family to party with on Christmas, and after noon or so it was just over. When I think about the actual Christmas morning, especially now that I'm older and am not as excited about getting that special gift (although I won't lie, I am DYING to drive around town singing to Taylor Swift's new album at the top of my lungs, just sayin'), but yeah, it's just kind of a letdown. What I look forward to most about it is seeing how others like the gifts I got for them, and hoping that they catch a glimpse of how much effort and thought I tried to put into getting them something special.

Christmas, after all, isn't about getting stuff. And for all the things I love about the season, it's not really about any of that, either. Christmas is about Christ - about his birth, his life, and the life He continues to live so that we, too, can live. Because of Christmas, I'm here, living the life I've been given - having adventures, making mistakes, experiencing new things, and learning to truly live. When I think about it that way, it casts a feeling of awe and reverence over the typical carol-singing and cookie-eating.

I guess what it really comes down to, as one of my very favorite characters stated so wisely, "Maybe Christmas doesn't come from a store. Maybe Christmas means a little bit more."

It does. And that's what I truly love about Christmas.

Viva la Vida.