It sure is beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

It’s no secret that Christmas is my absolute favorite holiday. I got married a week before Christmas and my birthday comes right afterward. I’m very big on following traditions, and holiday ones are certainly no exception.

Every year, the Christmas decorations have to go up the day after Thanksgiving, and my dad and I always go together to pick out a Christmas tree - real, of course.

Naturally, our stockings are hung from the chimney with care - but they are just for decoration. The actual little presents and small gag gifts go into shoe boxes that my siblings and I prettied up with wrapping paper, ribbons and bows. We learned that you can fit a lot more into a shoe box than you can put inside a stocking!

Around Halloween, dad starts asking when we are going to make cutouts (translate: Christmas cookies), and a few weeks before Dec. 25, my family gets together to churn out and decorate hundreds of these yummy treats.

My church goes Christmas caroling all over the Boston area during the weeks leading up to the holiday. We get to meet many of our neighbors while singing the carols that have warmed the hearts of people like us for many generations.

The winter white stuff brings with it the trepidation of driving around on the slick roads, but it’s hard to deny the beauty of the snow. Bing Crosby had it right: “I’m dreaming of a white Christmas!”

I’ve always loved getting Christmas presents, but, growing up, I was taught that giving is better than receiving and I learned the true meaning of Christmas. Every year, before we were allowed to open our presents, Grandma would read the Christmas story from Luke: “And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.”

We would love to hear about your family’s holiday traditions and want to share them in an upcoming edition of the Springville Journal. Send us stories about your favorite Christmases, yearly traditions or memorable events to info@springvillejournal.com for consideration! Merry Christmas and a happy New Year to you and yours!