It's easy to talk about the obvious things. Like presents. I must admit that I turn into a 5-year-old about my birthday and Christmas. I love getting presents. I also love to give presents, so I guess that offsets the 5-year-old mentality a little bit. I particularly enjoy when I come up with a clever present. For example, this year, my brother-in-law requested a few items, including a free trip to either Alaska or New Zealand to go fly fishing. It was meant as a joke. So what I did was get him travel books for such a trip - on fly fishing in both places. That was fun!
One of the other things about Christmas that harkens back to childhood is the good homemade sweets. My mother used to make about 15 kinds of cookies. We're down to about 8 kinds, but still all good and somehow there are always more than enough cookies for everyone to have their fill - and then some. One of our other family traditions is a great coffee cake for Christmas breakfast. Doughy dough, pecans, cinnamon, butter - good stuff. Christmas is the only time of the year we have that coffee cake. We've talked about making it other times of the year, but somehow that would dilute the excitement of having it on Christmas morning with the presents.
Beyond being a small child, I love that people tend to be just a little nicer. Perhaps it's shades of our childhoods when we might have worried about whether we were going to end up on Santa's Naughty or Nice list. But I think it's more that Christmas reminds us that we are supposed to be nice to our fellow man. That's part of the point of religion in general. But somehow, usually, around the holidays, people tend to be just a little more patient, a little more kind, a little more likely to go out of their way to do something nice for others.
But the best thing, for me, about the Christmas is a chance to spend time with the whole family. My family - all 12 of us - see each other in smaller groups throughout the year. Every once in a while, we do get the whole crew together at times other than Christmas. But really, the holidays are the time that we will most likely get the whole family together - parents, their kids, the in-laws, and Chris' kids and their significant others. This year, we had a few such days as we took a family portrait on the 23rd and then celebrated Christmas eve with Chris' kids. Two days in a row with some of my favorite people. Can't ask for much more than that. Ultimately, the best thing about Christmas.
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