Imagine yourself walking into your house after a cold winter day, the wet and chilly air blowing on your nose, snowflakes landing in your hair. You open the door to a cozy house, a fire burning in the corner of the room, its yellow and orange flames flowing through the glass and warming you up; The Christmas tree leaving a light smell of pine in the room. The lights on the tree are the only thing shining in the room as you flip on the light switch and see your room, decorated for Christmas time. I’m writing an essay about my favorite things for the holidays.

The holidays are all about the traditions, and traditions is where it all starts. These traditions are all around the house, community, and world. Traditions at your can include:  decorating the Christmas tree and house and making Christmas cookies. Traditions in your town can include a town lighting ceremony and parties, and then in the world, there are tons of traditions that everyone can enjoy. In my town, there is a town lighting ceremony that has been going on for at least twenty years. The entire first grade class colors a picture, and the best picture gets to turn the lights on, and the whole town gets together with hot chocolate and music. It’s an amazing time, that is worth the twenty years.

Next, the music. The music of Christmas is so important to the season. A lot of people know the song “The Twelve Days of Christmas”, because it is an old song, that people have loved for many years (Fun fact: if you received all of the presents in that song, you would receive three hundred and sixty four presents.) Many Christmas songs are comparable to “The Twelve Days of Christmas”; unfortunately, the first carol is not as well known as many. The first Christmas song ever written was called “Angel’s Sing” in 1464, which is around the time of the golden age for carols, being in 1300s-1500s.

I bet you didn’t know about the carols, here is some more fun facts on Christmas. In the United States, the first state to announce Christmas as a legal holiday was Alabama in 1836, and the last was Oklahoma in 1907, and inside these states, there are three towns with the name of “Santa Claus”. The holiday season is full of different facts that are different and unique.

Next time that you walk into that decorated house, with the Christmas tree and the fire burning, remember to enjoy it, because this time of year does not stay for long. Christmas time comes once a year, and only once a year, one more reason to cherish this time of the year.