I've mentioned briefly in another article that my second favorite holiday, after Halloween, is Christmas.

There's just some things you can't do the rest of the year that you can do at Christmas time.

It might sound cliche, but this time of year is just such a cozy and festive time. It can make you feel so happy, even amongst the freezing cold weather and possible snowstorms.

I remember when I was little, I used to love riding around in the car to look out for all the houses that were lit up with Christmas decorations. I would always try to count how many I'd see in one car trip. Sometimes my parents would even take extra routes or backroads just so my sister and I could see more lights. Such a simple thing pleased me so much. It was like going on an adventure.

I use to love visiting grandparents and friend's houses before Christmas to exchange gifts and spend a good chunk of the day there. It was like I got to celebrate multiple Christmases.

Now that I'm older, I still like to exchange gifts with friends or make a day of baking Christmas cookies. I even love to buy gifts now that I can afford to. I find so much joy in getting the perfect gift that isn't something they asked for and keeping it a secret and getting to wrap it all nice and pretty and then eventually having them open it to find out that they truly love the gift I bought for them.

Speaking of wrapping gifts — that's one of my absolute favorite things to do. I'm a perfectionist about it too. The paper has to fit the personality or style of the certain person I'm wrapping for, and the bow and tag have to match accordingly to the paper.

Another thing I'm obsessed with doing is decorating the tree. I decorate the main tree of the house with my sister and then I decorate my own six foot tree in my bedroom. Then if anyone I know needs a tree decorated that they don't feel like doing, I'm the first to hop on that and do it for them. I think I can compare my love of wrapping presents and decorating Christmas trees to my love of carving pumpkins at Halloween time.

Small things like wearing Christmas socks and fair isle printed clothing, eating candy canes and drinking hot chocolate, listening to Christmas music and watching Christmas movies just have that warm and fuzzy Christmas spirit attached to them that I love.

Call me crazy, but I think Christmas magic might actually happen on Christmas Eve.

However, no matter what holiday you celebrate around this time of year (or don't celebrate), I hope you have a wonderful end of the year and enjoy the time with friends and family.

Until next year, my friends — Merry Christmas!