Dear Christmas,

You aren’t actually a human being, so writing you this love letter may seem strange, but while you aren’t living, you breathe so much life into December. Twinkling lights dazzle, strung carefully around railings, roofs, and trees. Hot cocoa is held in the mitten-clad hands of children, their cheeks and noses pink from a chill in the air, snowflakes balancing on their eyelashes like little jewels. (That is, If you decide to wear a layer of snow over your grassy green suit.) Santa sits cheerily in a reindeer-drawn sleigh on festooned front lawns. Shoppers bustle from store to store searching for the perfect presents to put under the tree, merry music blasting all the while. The smell of fresh pine and sweet peppermint and gingerbread swirls through houses.

Everything about you is magical.

I believe in you because you bring families together. You bring friends together. And, amazingly enough, you can bring strangers together as well.

How can I describe the feelings you evoke? Joy. Bliss. Utter happiness. Warmth. Feelings that saturate every speck of my being, come November first. How do you do it? How do you create such serenity? All stress can instantly be alleviated by the mere thought of you. The thought of waking up and dashing to the stockings and tree like a child, eyes wide with excitement. The thought of decorating sugar cookies with friends and family to look like Rudolph or Frosty the Snowman. The thought of hanging up the ornaments and lining the windowsills with garland. The thought of snuggling up in festive pjs to watch “Elf” for the hundredth time.

They say nobody’s perfect, but they mustn't be acquainted with you. You are perfect in every way. Even when I’m driving after the November or December sun has set and the night is dark, I don’t feel a foreboding darkness, I feel a brightness in the promise of your arrival. You are an embodiment of light, impervious to gloom.

I may celebrate you early, but it’s only because of how special you are to me. Memories of you throughout my life are some of my most cherished memories of all. I’m overzealous when it comes time to “deck the hall with boughs of holly” and I opt out of having only one “cup of cheer”—I have about fifty.

So thank you for being you, my all-time favorite holiday. Stay holly and jolly, and continue being the most wonderful time of the year.

Love,

Your Number One Fan