I love Christmas! I always have! Several years back though, I realized why I love it so much. When I was a kid you made your list and distributed it to the parents and grandparents and anxiously awaited presents, but as I got older I realized that it really wasn’t about the gifts, at least not for me. I’ve always loved spending time with my family and friends as a huge group. Just enjoying each other’s company without rushing off to someplace I had to be.

One of my friends has a party every year and it’s always so much fun. We all get dressed up, bring food and alcohol, and pile into her apartment for a great time. We talk and chat with no goal aside from enjoying each other’s company. Some of the best conversations happen then. No one is stressed about where they need to be, everyone is just having fun.

Same goes with my family’s holiday gatherings. As soon as all the grandkids grew up we stopped doing the gift giving all around. Now we have a Chinese gift swap. For anyone who isn’t familiar. Everyone spends $20 or less on a fun gift and brings it to the gift pot. Then everyone draws a number. Number one picks a gift and unwraps it for everyone to see. The second person can pick a gift to unwrap or steal the one that is already opened if they want it. The second person does the same, only they get to pick between and unopened gift and the two that have been unwrapped. Then it goes to the third. You get the idea. Then when everyone has a gift the first person can choose to keep their gift or exchange with anyone in the room. The only exception is that once a gift has been “stolen” three times, it’s frozen.

That is a fun game in and of itself, but add in there that within our large family there are several smaller family units working together to get the gifts that they want! It’s always fun and competitive. At the end of the day everyone is laughing and cutting up. It’s so much fun. Then there are the “generational meetings”. Because we don’t all live in the same town, Christmas is the perfect time for all of the cousin and such in our generation to get together to catch up on gossip and drama in each other’s lives. This is usually how we end the holidays before everyone disperses to their own homes. We have a few drinks, a few laughs, share embarrassing stories from the past year and remember good times.

I really do love the holidays, and no matter how commercial things might become it is the relationships that make the holidays so special for me. Spending time with people I care about always puts me in a good mood and I associate Christmas with exactly that. Christmas music lifts my spirits because I know that good times and special memories are just around the corner.