It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

Jingle bells, jingle bells, December's finally here!

Since I have SO MANY Christmas-related topics/potential posts, I decided to write about them all in one central location.

The month is already filling up so quickly with different types of events, and I fear I won't have time to report on all the smaller traditional goodies I look forward to at this time of the year.

Winter is BY FAR my favourite season.

Here are a few Christmas things in full swing that I thought I'd take the time to tell you all about.

1. Advent Calendars:

Once December 1st rolled around, it was officially advent calendar time!

Growing up, advent calendars were never a huge thing in my house... My parents didn't get us the chocolate beauties until mid-December when they fell down to only costing a couple bucks. Hashtag Christmas hacks.

However, despite my parents' lack of adoption concerning the advent calendar tradition, I decided it's something I want to start up and carry on in our two-person family starting this year.

I went all out on Riley's calendar this year since it's our first Christmas as a married couple. Thanks to a little help from Pinterest, I made him a beer advent calendar!

It was pretty simple actually. I went to two locations: a craft beer store in Quebec City called La Boîte à Bières, and Provigo (a grocery store).

Without giving too many details away since Riley is now on beer #3, the 24 beers include a mixture of craft IPA beers and some of his favourite regular brands.

He opens the beer of the day in the morning, puts it in the fridge to cool, and enjoys it that evening. (At least, that's what he's been doing thus far...)

I think I'm going to make him a homemade calendar every year. Since the calendar falls into our total gift budget for one another, some years I may go big, and some small, depending on what other ideas I have for him.

This concept works out perfectly, since it's rare I don't have all my gifts purchased by the first week of December, AND I'm the most impatient person ever... Best solution!

I purchased myself a Lindt advent calendar. Yummy!

There are so many cool editions out now. Wine, gin, coffee, tea, makeup, hand creams, you name it! There's always next year... ;)

2. Christmas Playlist:

Not going to lie, I started dipping into this one as early as the first week of November. Seeing that we've officially crossed the December 1st barrier, it's now culturally appropriate to discuss the type of music I have on my almost 8-hour Christmas playlist.

The full albums that adorn my festive list include (in this particular order):

- Michael Bublé - Christmas (Deluxe Special Edition)

- Blake Shelton - Cheers, It's Christmas. (Deluxe Version)

- Taylor Swift - The Taylor Swift Holiday Collection - EP

- Frank Sinatra - Christmas With Frank Sinatra and Friends

- James Taylor - James Taylor At Christmas (Bonus Track Version)

- Josh Groban - Noël (Deluxe Edition)

- Lady Antebellum - On This Winter's Night

- Justin Bieber - Under The Mistletoe (Deluxe Edition)

- Bing Crosby, Ken Darby Singers & John Scott Trotter and His Orchestra - White Christmas

- Nat "King" Cole - The Christmas Song

- Sia - Everyday Is Christmas

This playlist will be rockin' (around the Christmas tree) when Riley and I drive to Ontario in a couple weeks to visit my grandmas.

3. Christmas Movies

I'm a huge Christmas movie nut.

Riley and I have already started watching them and there are countless others on our Netflix must-watch list.

These are the 11 fave holiday classics (and newbies) that I'm looking forward to watching (or mostly... re-watching) this season. To keep things non-competitive between them, they are in no particular order... ;)

- Elf (I think Hannah and I watched this 10+ times one year and never stopped laughing at the jokes)

- Home Alone (1 or 2.. but nothing past that)

- Rudolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer (a classic I watched with my siblings at my Nana's house)

- Four Christmases (I freaking love Vince Vaughn and Reese Witherspoon paired on screen)

- Dr Seuss' How The Grinch Stole Christmas (new or old , doesn't really matter to me)

- The Family Stone (I've had this movie for so long and the all-star cast including my girl-crush Rachel McAdams is top notch)

- The Santa Clause 2 (I usually fall asleep during #1, so #2 has always been my fave)

- Adam Sandler's Eight Crazy Nights (although I'm not of Jewish decent, this movie is so hilarious that I add it to the list without fail)

- The Polar Express (when the kids sing the song "When Christmas Comes to Town" my heart melts)

- To Grandmother's House We Go (the Olsen twins rocked this one)

- Arthur Christmas (watched it for the first time recently and it didn't disappoint)

Special mention: All the Netflix low-budget Christmas movies. I love them so much for their mediocre acting and predictable story lines.

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I heart Christmas!!!