How To Not Be A Scrooge

Pre-Raphaelite artist Dante Gabriel Rosetti depicts the Nativity

Today, noting that the month of December had arrived, I began to brainstorm my favorite ways to get into the spirit of Christmas.

1) Spend an evening baking cookies, then give them away... But not before tasting a few (or a lot!) myself.

2) Watch the ultimate Christmas movie, in my opinion - "It's A Wonderful Life"! That Jimmy Stewart - such a sweetheart. I cry my eyes out every time I watch it, starting when the mean druggist boxes his ears. Jimmy also stars in my second favorite Christmas film, "Mr. Kreugar's Christmas". My third favorite one is probably Elf, but Will Farrell is no Jimmay Shtewart.

3) Pick a family and do the 12 Days of Christmas for them. Leave little gifts on their doorstep each of the 12 days preceding Christmas. Still trying to pick our family - let me know if you want to volunteer. ;-)

4) Indulge in the beautiful arts. Thus far, we are planning on attending the Sacramento Master Singers' performance at St. Francis cathedral for some classical seasonal music, the Sacramento Ballet's "Nutcracker", our church charity choir concert/canned food drive, and my little siblings' Galena Street East performance. I need to fit some Handel in there somewhere too- my absolute favorite.

5) Drive through a festive neighborhood and enjoy the lights. I'm not sure where I'll go - maybe the Fab 40's? Ideas?

6) We bought a tree and decorated it. I even have my husband's presents wrapped and underneath, half for the sake of festivity and half to give him something to anticipate.

7) Today our bishop challenged each member of our congregation to read the 4 Gospels prior to Christmas. That is going to take a lot of time each day, but we started tonight. As I prepared dinner, Paul read 6 chapters aloud to me. I am excited to attempt to do this, because even tonight's reading served to remind me how much I love the stories and parables in the Bible!

8) Wrapping Christmas presents while listening to Christmas songs on the radio. Most despised: "Christmas Shoes". Too contrived and melodramatic. Favorite: Mostly the older stuff, before modern singers decided to add more runs to their holiday songs than a marathon trainer. I also like to do a sort of one-woman congo line to "Let It Snow" by Gloria Estefan. You know the part - in the bridge, where the brass comes in, "Buh, buh duh duh duh duh duh duh.... BUH!"

Any other ideas will be greatly appreciated! Merry Christmas to all!