12 Days of Winter Cheer: Staff’s Favorite Winter Traditions

Christmas morning. The moment everything leads up to. All of the lights, songs on the radio, and presents people struggle to find lead up to one morning. Every Christmas morning, my sister and I wake up first. We creep into the other’s room and wait for an appropriate time to awaken the rest of the family. Next is my brother, and not bothering to creep, we go and jump on his bed, doing whatever...

Being the baby in my family has always meant that I am the center of attention, especially on Christmas. I always get a few more presents than my older siblings, and even if I have less, the ones I do receive are bigger, like a bike or a Fisher-Price kitchen. Now that I am older and an introvert, I’ve begun to resent this factor. However, as a little girl, special attention was my kryptonite.  ...

The holiday season has been losing it’s pine-scented touch over the years. Replaced by alternative supplements, the pill that is excitement for the holidays sits idly by in the cupboard under my sink. This list is including, but not limited to, exams, Panera Bread, holiday shopping, and a nagging fear of final grades. Nonetheless, one of my favorite holiday traditions is planned for Christmas Eve: me...

I have always adored driving around at night and looking at the Christmas decorations that each house has spent hours perfecting.  Maybe it’s because my family has made the choice to keep our decorations quite minimal. Maybe it’s because it’s something that I can only see for a limited time each year. Maybe it’s because those decorations represent the one time a year that I feel the most h...

For as long as I can remember, my family and I would go to Bronners Christmas store. We would walk in, and I would instantly know the holiday season was upon us. I was surrounded by lights, ornaments, candy canes, and every other Christmas related thing you could think of. However, nothing could distract me from getting to the Christmas village display. Each year, we picked out a house or buil...

It was November 27 this year—my probable favorite day of the year, the day after Thanksgiving, Black Friday but more importantly “Christmas Tree Day.”  When I was younger and the world was still black and white—when everything fit inside the lines and I was still trying to impose my rigid structures on the bubble of life around me--was when Christmas really started.  It was when ou...

The twinkling Christmas lights on the tree seem to glow to the beat of my favorite Christmas tune.  The only sound in the room is the soft hum of the timer plugged into the wall—it keeps the lights on a strict time table. My sister and I put the tree up with little to no help from our brothers. When we were younger, we would watch my parents struggle to carry all the boxes up from the ...

Despite a sun lamp illuminating my hunched figure stooped over my laptop at all hours of the afternoon, despite the bite of the air and the wind personally painting my cheeks and nose shades of red that could never compare to my Glossier blush, and despite my forever hatred for the chilling months of the Midwest winters I’ve never been able to escape, there are always, always, always redeeming moment...

I can’t tell if I love Christmas or if I really just hate Thanksgiving. Either way, November in my mind is just pre-December, and December is utter euphoria. Yet I couldn’t really tell anyone why—I don’t have a strong attachment to the holidays. I’m not religious, and I haven’t celebrated Christmas with my entire family for a while. Quite frankly, I have no strong ties to the holiday s...