Every year, on the first Saturday following Thanksgiving, my family and I prepare for Christmas. To start our day, we drive to a cozy little Italian restaurant for lunch; it's convenient since it is only about five minutes from the Christmas tree farm we love. After fixing on salad and hoagies, we drive to the tree farm where we select our tree for the season.

It's a collective decision, but once we decide on the tree we love, we go inside and help ourselves to some cookies and hot chocolate, while the workers cut the tree for us. We usually also pick out a wreath to put on our front door, so it is also in the Christmas spirit. The workers then strap it to the top of our SUV, and we make the trek back to our house.

The highlight of the day is trying to shove the tree into our front door; it's always a struggle and takes longer than it should, but it is still the funniest moment every year. After securing it into the stand, we turn on some Christmas music, for the first time of the year; many people start listening on the first of November, but we wait until after Thanksgiving.

To decorate the tree, we start with lights, then tinsel, and then our variety of ornaments, my favorite part. After the tree is done, we set up other decorations throughout the house, and by that time it's time for dinner. We order take-out chinse food every year. I never really understood why, but after talking to my parents, I realized that it's because we lived in Singapore for three and a half years when I was little, so we want to keep the chinse food tradition alive.

We usually conclude the night with one of our favorite Christmas movies, either A Christmas Story or Elf.