Virtual Advent

Welcome to Day 19 of the Virtual Advent!

I've been doing these for a few years now and I have to admit I wondered what I could do new this year. And I settled on sharing a few of my favorite Christmas things I might talk about less often.

I love these things so much! I think they are really underrated to be honest, people don't go around talking about how great they are. But really, there's nothing better than the sweet candy cane flavor followed by a burst of chocolate! And also it's really hard to stop at just one. Do yourself a favor and go get some right now! I didn't discover them until they were on sale after Christmas one year and I was buying them for my students (I'm cheap okay?), but now they are a must have every year.

It's a Wonderful Life is my favorite Christmas movie but I also really love Holiday Inn and watch it every year. It's absolutely a movie of its time, by which I mean racist and sexist. But the music is really lovely and the dancing is a lot of fun. And I love the idea of the Inn so much, a place open just on holidays where a special performance is put on centered around the holiday. And I think there's a lot of fun humor as well. For me, it's like the ultimate comfort movie. Also! This is the movie White Christmas was first performed in. It came first okay? Before the movie White Christmas

I don't read a lot of romance anymore, but I always love discovering a collection of Christmas novellas each year. For some reason, the shorter nature of the stories plus all the Christmas cheer makes Christmas romance novellas really appealing to me. I really really like the ones that are all connected in some way, like they all take place in the same town, or there's a recurring character, or the characters from one story pop up in another. The YA collection, Let it Snow by Maureen Johnson, John Green, and Lauren Myracle would be a good example of that. In any case, the one pictured here is one I plan to read this year!

Andrew Peterson must always be mentioned! This CD is a favorite as it goes through the whole story of Jesus starting from the Old Testament and I always cry the first time I listen to it every year. It's Andrew Peterson, y'all, and that means it's meaty, beautiful, touching, funny, artistic, lovely, and true. For me, it's a great way to keep the perspective of the season, and I can't imagine my Christmas season without it. I always wanted to go to the show they put on in Nashville every year, but it still hasn't happened.

Every woman in my family has this nativity set. When I was like..in middle school my mom and I discovered some of the pieces on sale without boxes for like a dollar. So we got it for my grandma, who had just started my mom on the set. Eventually my sister and I started collections as well. I think it's a really beautiful set, and it's fun to collect new pieces for it when you can. So while this is my favorite nativity, I just love them in general. I love looking at the different collections or sets people have. And I have to admit it was adorable when my nieces knew to say "Baby Jesus" before many other words when they were little. Seeing how children connect to the Christmas story helped me understand why it has remained such a deep and important part of my life to this day.

So those are some of the things I love about Christmas! I want to know if you share any of them. Also I recommend you go and visit the other great stops today at Rebecca Reads, In Spring is is the Dawn, and Lighting my Light. Happy Holidays everyone!