Out of all the holidays, the best one for me is Christmas. Christmas may be 2 days out of the year, but in my house it’s celebrated pretty much from the day after Thanksgiving to Christmas day. The day after Thanksgiving, it becomes okay to listen to Christmas music and get some of the decorations out. We have some pretty cool traditions in my family that we do every year and I’m going to tell you about them.

1.The first thing that goes on in my house is getting the decorations down from the attic. My brothers and I always argue over who actually gets to get up in the attic because that’s the most fun part (and you get to climb things). Once everything is down, we decorate, and we also turn on the Christmas jams and sing really loud. The inside of the house looks like Santa’s Workshop when we’re done, then we move to the outside. We repeat the process except there’s not as much for the outside.

2.A week or so after the inside is decorated, we go and get our Christmas tree. We have tall ceilings in my house, so a 7 to 8 foot tall tree is the ideal tree size for us. Once our tree has been acquired, it’s decoration time. We have a lot of cool ornaments and some really weird ones. My dad really likes airplanes so he has 10 airplane ornaments that he always hangs at the top of the tree. By far the best ornament we have is a Taylor Swift one that sings “Shake It Off” when you push the button. Once my brothers leave the house, I print out a picture of Paramore and stick it at the top of the tree. Eventually, they notice and take it off which I don't appreciate.

3.Baking cookies is probably my favorite tradition because it involves food. My mom and I make like 10 different types of cookies and other candies. We start at 10 in the morning and don’t finish until 7 P.M., it’s pretty intense and it’s also a lot of washing dishes. Once we are done making cookies, we eat them and give some away to friends over the course of 2 weeks until Christmas.

4.During the Christmas season we watch just about every Christmas movie around. Everything from Elf to The Sound Of Music gets watched. Elf and Eloise at Christmastime are my favorite ones. When my mom’s family is visiting for Christmas and they watch The Sound Of Music, they all sing and it’s really hilarious. I know there’s a Youtube video out there somewhere of all of them singing!

5.A week or so before Christmas, we all pile in the car and drive around and look at all the Christmas lights around the area that we live in. We bring along provisions in the form of cookies and blankets. There are some seriously bad light jobs on some houses and also some people that go all out and put lights everywhere on the outside of their houses. Some people have a lot more dedication to the amount of lights that they put up.

6.The last things we do that are probably the most important take place on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Christmas Eve my grandparents come over for dinner and what we eat for dinner changes every year, we started with chili now we’re at pasta. My brothers and I open 1 present before we go to bed and then we go to sleep.

7.The next day, my youngest brother usually wakes up first and then wakes all my second brother and I, we quietly sneak out and look at all the presents down below and then we go into my bedroom and wait. We aren't allowed to wake my parents until 7:30 and even though we are older, we still wake up at 6 A.M every Christmas. Christmas day plays out like this: First we open presents, then we eat this super good hash brown casserole, we then change out of our PJ’s and dress up, we meet up with my grandparents and go to church. After church we go to my grandparents house and eat lunch, which is sandwiches and my grandma gets this really good mustard and it’s the best. We then wait for my other cousins to show up and they are usually always late (they live kind of far away). We open presents with the cousins then we hang out, an epic game of hide 'n go seek ensues between all the cousins and last until dinner. Dinner is awesome, we eat roast beef and mashed potatoes and some other stuff. We pop our Christmas poppers and eat with our crowns on and tell jokes that we get in our poppers. Dessert comes last and then we all go home.

Christmas is a pretty big thing for most families, mine included and it get’s pretty stressful. But just remember you get to eat lots of food and hang out with family. Merry Christmas Ya Filthy Animals.