My Favorite Christmas Things!

This one is for you, Jacque!

My Favorite Christmas Movies:

1. It's A Wonderful Life(hands down the BEST ever)
2. Home Alone
3. The Snowman
4. National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation
5. A Christmas Story
6. How The Grinch Stole Christmas...(the real one, not the Jim Carrey one)
7. A Charlie Brown Christmas(I LOVE the music in this movie...I have the soundtrack)
8. You've Got Mail( I know this isn't really a "Christmas Movie" but in the movie it's Christmas at some points and I just love the way Meg Ryan decorates her little bookshop with the tree and everything.)

My Favorite Christmas Books

Now, I havn't read a lot of Christmas books, but these are great ones that are kinda more in the "children's" category...
1. The Polar Express (now actually, this book is wonderful for all ages.)
2. Snowmen at Christmas
3. A Very Marley Christmas
4. You are My Miracle
5. How The Grinch Stole Christmas!
6. A Very Snowy Christmas
7. Snowmen at Night
8. The Littlest Christmas Tree


My Favorite Traditions

1. Breakfast with Santa (I think my parents started this when I was about 7 or 8 years old and we kept it up every year. Now I do it with my girls!
2. Getting our own ornament and hanging it on the tree (again, another one that my parents started with us and that I keep going with the girls. It's so fun to get them all out year after year. Gotta be careful though, you can really start adding up and the tree can get crowded. I guess that's why people have more than one tree.)
3. Going to The Lion House and then to Temple Square to look at the lights.
(It's always so amazing every year...those Temple Square lights!)
4. The Fish Pond (Only the closest of family members will know what this one is. A Christmas Eve tradition that my grandparents started. We all take turns putting a "fishing pole" over a big bed sheet and getting a present. Like we are going fishing. We usually get a bunch of Dollar Store gifts. They are very useful though! Elizabeth loves this one now.)
5. Making cookies and putting out a glass of milk for Santa.(Then I'd always get a Thank You note from him!)
6. Going to The Festival of Trees
7. Going to The Nutcracker (The music!!!! Oh my)
8. Listening to my dad read the Christmas story from the scriptures at the Christmas Eve party. (It always creates such a special, quiet feeling in the room after an evening of total chaos and loud talking and laughing...it's always one of my favorite parts of Christmas.)

That was way fun to think back on all my Christmas memories!
I know the holiday season is almost over, but I challenge anyone who wants to or who has time to do this, to do it, too.