For me, the holiday season started this morning. Until 1am of December 21^st, I was buried under statistical reports, department meetings, esssays to be graded and a textbook manuscript to be edited. I finished the last of it in the wee hours of this morning, so I can finally turn my attention, undivided, to the Big Day.

Not that I haven’t been thinking about Christmas or doing things here and there. My parents treated my family to the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra’s Yuletide Celebration a couple weeks ago, which was lovely. I went to Metamora, a little town in eastern Indiana that does a “Christmas Walk” along its historic canal every year. I attended my old neighborhood’s annual Progressive Dinner and a couple of children’s parties. I have done snatches of shopping, wrapping and baking when I could fit them in.

My friends and family often reminded me that time was running short. And I even got some reminders from unlikely sources. Such as one friend, a Muslim PhD candidate from Indonesia, who comforted me when I learned we were expecting ANOTHER snowstorm: “But Jennifer, now you will get to play your Christmas sports,” he said with a sincere smile. I guess I looked confused because he explained, “You know, your skiing, your sledding, your snowball fighting.” So cute.

And during Hannukah, I tutored an exchange student from Israel. I was reading his paper, when I suddenly heard him humming “Jingle Bells.” Puzzled, I looked at him and asked, “Boaz, aren’t you Jewish?” He grinned and nodded. “Yeah, but your Christmas music is everywhere! It gets stuck in my head.” HA! (So much for the “war on Christmas” Fox News is always screaming about to all the retired W.A.S.P.s who actually believe it. If Jewish exchange students are singing Christmas music, I think the holiday’s safe, Bill O..)

Anyway, now I can finally concentrate on getting into some Christmas spirit. So the following lists are really just me brainstorming for my own benefit unless you, too, are trying to cram all your favorite Christmas traditions into three or four days!

Below are some of my favorite things about the season that I’m trying to get in before it’s over.

Songs:

(Remember, I’m a child of the 80’s.)

• ·         White Christmas – Bing Crosby
• ·         Little Drummer Boy – Bing Crosby and David Bowie
• ·         Do They Know It’s Christmas – Duran Duran and some other people
• ·         The Christmas Song – Nat King Cole
• ·         Joy to the World – Julie Andrews
• ·         Santa Claus Is Comin to Town – Bruce Springsteen
• ·         I Saw Momma Kissing Santa Claus – John Mellencamp
• ·         Rudolph – Gene Autry
• ·         Mary’s Boy Child – Boney M
• ·         Jingle Bell Rock – Bobby Helms
• ·         I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas
• ·         Happy Christmas – John Lennon
• ·         Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer – Elmo and Patsy
• ·         Christmas Wrapping – The Waitresses
• ·         All I Want for Christmas is You – Mariah Carey

Movies:

• ·         It’s a Wonderful Life
• ·         The Grinch
• ·         Rudolph
• ·         White Christmas
• ·         A Christmas Story
• ·         Mickey’s Christmas Carol
• ·         Scrooged
• ·         National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation
• ·         Holiday Inn
• ·         Die Hard
• ·         Love Actually

Books/Stories:

• A Christmas Carol - Dickens
• A Visit from St. Nicholas - Moore
• Gospel of Luke

Cookies:

• ·         Sugar cookie cutouts
• ·         Oatmeal craisin
• ·         Snickerdoodles
• ·         Jam thumbprints
• ·         Chocolate chip
• ·         Gingerbread

Other Holiday Food/Drinks:

• ·         Egg nog
• ·         Mulled wine
• ·         Cranberry “grog”
• ·         Spinach dip with Hawaiian bread
• ·         Honey ham
• ·         Green bean casserole
• ·         Jesus’ birthday cake

If I spend the next five days doing nothing but cooking, eating, reading, listening to music and watching movies, I think I can get it all in. The race is on! Merry Christmas!