One thing I particularly love about college is that winter break is more than a week and a half in length and there is absolutely no classwork to be swamped with. This allows the stressed-out college student to fully relax and enjoy their time off with their families, friends, pets, and food.

I have always loved Christmas more than any other holiday. So, with Christmas quickly approaching, I would like to talk about all of the reasons why Christmas is my favorite.

1. Christmas Music.

Perhaps it's because I have been interested in making and listening to music since I was little, but whatever the reason, I absolutely adore Christmas music. I'm not only talking about the pop hits that everyone overplays, I'm also referring to the beautiful church hymns that are sung during mass.

2. Christmas Cookies.

I love to bake and I love to eat baked goods. The aroma that fills a house when Christmas cookies are in the oven is absolutely mouthwatering. I can actually smell peanut butter cookie dough while thinking about this. My family bakes all different types of cookies leading up to Christmas Day. (My personal favorites are the rainbow layer cookies and Linzer tarts my mom makes and peanut butter blossoms (made by anyone)).

3. Christmas Decorations.

I've always loved the way everyone decorated their houses for this wonderful holiday: lights everywhere, inflatables or reindeer statues lining lawns, candy canes outlining the sidewalk, and all the different colors. My family and I used to go to a sort of Christmas light display where we would stay in the car and drive around this lot to look at all the lights that were set up. A lot of them were fun "action" lights which were a series of pictures of, say, Santa Claus going down a chimney, which would light up in a sequence.

4. Decorating The Tree.

If your family is anything like mine, there will be bickering involved in pretty much everything that involves you all trying to do something at the same time. Picking out the tree is usually the smoother part of the whole ordeal (for us, anyway). Decorating the tree is always tons of fun though. We put the radio on in our living room and listen to Christmas songs (and sing along, if you're like me) while we go through our box of ornaments and gradually adorn our too-big-for-the-space-it's-in tree. Naturally, each person hangs their respective ornaments on the tree and any ornaments that want to be added but not seen go to the back. My mom usually puts the lights on the tree before we begin decorating and my sister always puts the tinsel on the tree afterward when we've sufficiently decorated.

5. Gingerbread House Decorating.

Unfortunately, we do not always decorate gingerbread houses, but it is something I enjoy doing. With our different schedules, we tend to not have the time to accomplish this task before Christmas actually arrives, so the pre-bought set usually sits around until the next year and ultimately goes to waste.

6. Christmas Eve.

Just the knowledge that it is almost Christmas fills me with so much joy and I can't help but be excited. At this point, I'm probably helping everyone wrap their presents (which I'll get into more in a bit) or just relaxing and watching The Santa Clause 2 (because they only seem to play it twice a year and I will NOT miss it) or other Christmas movies on Freeform (aka ABC Family).

7. Midnight Mass.

Even though I'm not really religious anymore, I still do love going to Christmas Mass. The church is all decorated for the holiday, those Christmas hymns that I love are sung, and I get to dress up, which is always a plus.

8. Wrapping Presents.

Once we all get home from mass, it's grind time for present wrapping. Generally, my mom and sisters will stay up most of the night wrapping the gifts they bought and for the past few years, I'll stay up to help them. I genuinely have such a passion for wrapping gifts and it's so fun to me. I love the way they look when they're done, although I can be a bit of a perfectionist. Even though I know they'll be ripped apart less than 12 hours after, I still take great care to ensure that they look their best.

9. Christmas Day.

After sleeping until whenever breakfast is made and served until we've all had something to eat. Movies will be watched and music will be listened to. The morning is mostly chill and relaxing until we all get up and decide it's time to open presents.

10. Opening Presents.

We may decide on a time to open presents and make sure everyone is up and ready by said time, or we may play it by ear to see how everyone is feeling and then unwrap when we're ready. Everyone participates, even our dog, Zeus!

11. Christmas Dinner.

Last, but certainly not least, Christmas dinner. Baked, glazed spiral ham with all the fixings fills our bellies as the festivities come to a close. We wash our food down with sparkling apple cider, making sure to leave room for dessert as pies, cheesecake, and dozens of cookies waiting for us.

Christmas isn't about all of the superficial things, but as I said before, I'm not really religious anymore, so I won't be going into "what Christmas is really about." I will comment on how excited I am for Christmas to come and that it hopefully brings well-needed rest and tranquility to this stressed out mind.