Five Reasons Why I Love Christmas :-)

I was thinking it's been a while since I last posted something, so why not changing this deplorable routine with a (belated) Christmas post? ;-)

-I'm sorry but this is going to be a monolingual post! This time I didn't want to spend too much time translating it in Italian. I guess Google Translate is going to do all the work this time! :-)-

This 2016 is about to draw to an end and another Christmas is gone. Each and every year, this is the period I wait for and enjoy living the most, as I'm sure many many others do.

Each person has his/her own reason for loving this festivity, but here I have a top 5 I'd like to share.

-1) The atmosphere. You can feel the Christmas spirit spreading already since the very first days of December: decorations, lights, festoons, Santas, the trees, everyone's joyous, etc...
During these days it's truly hard to stay at home. In fact, I feel the need to go out more now despite the much colder weather (regardless of my love for winter and cold ;-) ) than in summer. And in most of these cases I haven't got a specific reason or task to do, I'm just happy with taking a stroll around, that's honestly all I need! :-)

-2) The family. I happen to celebrate Christmas with family, as, I believe, everyone should do. And this is because of the happiness I was talking about. I personally love having dinner/lunch (though this is gonna be point 3 ;-) ) and sharing gifts, jokes, stories and laughter all together. The magic of Christmas makes it possible, everyone somehow manages to leave their problems and struggles out in the cold, as excitement and joy are the only feelings allowed inside the house :-).

-3) The eating. For someone who loves eating good food, this is probably the best time of the year. I'm not really an expert of other countries eating tradition at Christmas -I'm sorry for that, but feel free to comment below and add some of them, I'd be happy to learn something new!-, but here in Italy food plays a main role. In my case, everything is doubled, which justifies the typical gain in weight when festivities are over ;-). On the 24th, fish based dinner (as you might know, Im not a real fan of fish, but oh well, such is tradition, right? And my grandfather has some skill with the Baccalà, which makes everything more bearable ;-) ). On Christmas day, a four course lunch, followed by an afternoon of Panettone and other "edibilities" (cit.) with the rest of the fam. Pretty filling, eh? ;-)

-4) The gifts exchange. Firstly, I need to point out I do not really care about the material gifts themselves, I'm much more fond of the whole idea of sharing presents of all size and shape. Personally, every year I am so excited because I always put much effort into buying the right thing (which doesn't necessarily mean -and it shouldn't- "the most expensive"), which requires a deep knowledge of the person you're buying for. Example, I saw some truly lovely handmade wood decorations and, knowing my mother, I bought them for her. I didn't spend much, but I made a person happy. This is what really matters. Matching all these variables often requires hard work and a great deal of time, but the sincere smile on other people's faces when they unwrap the present and see something they love is the biggest reward anyone can possibly get. Sometimes you don't even need a gift, a card is more than enough. I received a couple of truly lovely Christmas cards from some equally lovely people, and I felt so joyful and blessed for that. It's the thought that matters and it's always going to be so!

-5) The carols. I could've included this bit into point n°1, but I felt it deserved its own moment of glory you know ;-). Christmas songs are a main part of the magic I mentioned earlier. I personally have my playlist, which I enjoy playing in loop multiple times pretty much daily. Come on, who doesn't do it?! ;-). Some of the songs included are Deck The Halls (both the English and the Italian versions), Let It Snow, Silent Night, Carol Of The Bells, but there are many others. Jingle Bells is a must of course! ;-)

And that's all folks! I honestly hope you all had a wonderful time at Christmas, and I take the chance of this blogpost to wish you all a belated Merry Christmas!!! :-)