College life consists of poorly decorated dorm rooms and listening to Christmas music on the way to class, in hopes of creating the same holiday atmosphere that you get in the suburbs. Of course, it can’t quite compare the Decembers of your childhood, but there’s no harm in thinking back on the best parts of Christmas at home and reminiscing about the days Santa’s existence was undoubtedly real.

1. Milk and cookies for Santa plus carrots for the reindeer.

Baking cookies is fun no matter the occasion, but the idea that Santa would be the one eating them just hours later made it so much more exciting. Cutting carrots up for the reindeer and waking up to find they had been eaten felt like definitive proof that Santa is real and reindeer do indeed guide him around the world on his sleigh. Even with the promise of Santa's arrival gone as you've gotten older, the tradition is worth continuing. Well at least the cookies. It simply means more gingerbread for you.

2. Writing a letter to the North Pole.

The grueling process of fine-tuning a letter to Santa Clause could take hours, even days. It seemed as though there was always another toy being advertised that couldn't be excluded from the list, yet the urgent need to finish in time for Christmas Eve always lingered in the back of your mind. That familiar and accomplished feeling came from finally perfecting the page long list of requests, and imagining the trip your envelope would be taking all the way to North Pole. Now it's safe to say you might be wasting a stamp trying to send a letter to Santa's workshop, but that doesn't mean you should stop keeping a list of the little things you want.

3. Hot cocoa all the time.

Before bed on Christmas Eve or on Christmas morning while opening gifts, hot chocolate becomes a common occurrence. It makes you feel full half-way through drinking it and by the time you've finished a cup, the chocolate has already made you feel drowsy, but it's all part of the experience. No night spent watching Christmas movies would be complete without at least one cup of cocoa topped with marshmallows.

4. Putting ornaments on the tree.

Every ornament has some memory attached to it whether it’s a “Baby’s First Christmas” ornament, or the art project you made in kindergarten. Hanging them on the tree brings a wave of nostalgia every year as you pull out the ones you forgot even existed. Trying to fit them all on the tree becomes a game until it’s a struggle to find the tree underneath the millions of knickknacks crowding the branches.

5. Driving around the neighborhood to see all the lights.

This may not be as common as the rest, but it should definitely become one of your traditions. After all the hard work you put into decorating your house, it's safe to say the lights lining your neighborhood deserve recognition and the only proper way of doing so is by driving around and admiring the displays. Getting the whole family packed into the car to do something as simple as this is something that you can really only make happen during the holidays.

6. Eating dessert for every meal.

It might be a gift basket of chocolate candies or one of the many homemade desserts made just for Christmas Eve, but it's safe to say the month of December does nothing to make up for the pounds of food devoured on Thanksgiving. It's hard not to reminisce about the days when you didn't have to stop and think before eating that second or third cupcake. Even as you get older though, Christmas is one of the few times during the year when it's okay to eat gross amounts of candy canes, pies, and reindeer shaped cookies without being judged for the lack of meals you consume of actual food groups.

The list of Christmas traditions goes on and on. These are just a few aspects that stick out when I think about make the holidays so special. I hope everyone gets a chance to experience at least a small number of these before the holidays are over!