Christmas season (which is, let’s be honest, the month of December) is my favorite time of year. I think that I was conditioned early to love it by getting presents every year on the twenty-fifth. So, now, all these years later, even though I get things like shirts and books now, Christmas still holds vestigial excitement for me.

I just got an advent calendar for the first time in about twenty-eight years and I remember as a child how badly I wanted the days to pass faster to just get me to Christmas.

That desire has never really left me and there are lots of stimuli around that remind me that it is, in fact, Christmas and piles of loot await.*

I love all the lights, the ones on my Christmas tree, the ones on homes, the snowflake lights at every intersection along fifth avenue in Park Slope. I love window displays. I even kind of like hearing those damn Salvation Army bells.

But the pull for Christmas is so strong that there are things that aren’t that Christmas-y that get me in the Christmas spirit anyway. Here are a few.

Black Friday

Yeah, deals make me excited for Christmas. (If this isn’t proof that Christmas is a commercial holiday then I don’t know what is.) Maybe it’s newscasters calling it the unofficial start of the Christmas shopping season.  Maybe it’s the fact that Thanksgiving is over, which is also the unofficial start of the Christmas season.

Starbucks Cups

I’ve probably mentioned this before but the arrival of the red Starbucks cup for the year is one of the most exciting times of year. And then, in January, when the cups go white again, it’s a reminder of the Christmas hangover, the desolate winter months that don’t really let up until May.

Hanukkah

Yeah, the festival of lights. I suppose this is kind of like religious appropriation but in my town growing up, there was always a giant menorah downtown for Hanukkah and it meant that Christmas wasn’t far behind.

Car commercials

I don’t know who the people are that buy cars for each other on Christmas. I assumed they were a small portion of the population but they can’t be if they keep running these commericals. All I know is that when I see a giant bow on a Mercedes on my TV, I know that Christmas time is here.

Exams

This one is especially weird because exams were always stressful in high school and in college but, when they were over, not only was there a feeling of relief but there was the knowledge that Christmas was just days away. I remember senior year of college, finishing my last exam and heading to a bar to have some beers with some friends. It was some seasonal nutmeg infused lager and it was wonderful.

The Paper

A friend of mine posted an old school picture of a newspaper ad for video games and it filled me with the most blissful nostalgia. This memory was specific to adolescenece, looking at all the different Nintendo and Sega games, hoping that I would be getting a Gameboy or Genesis for Christmas.*