Things I love about Christmas featuring both northern and southern hemisphere stuff. In no particular order : 1. Holiday lattes Dem's the best! I love the peppermint candy, eggnog , Christmas cookie and gingerbread lattes NOMMMM. I wish we had better holiday Starbucks range here. 2. Eggnog in general I love, sadly I've yet to find the easy "buy in the supermarket" egg nog here in New Zealand but tis easy enough to make. 3. Being an only child I don't have to buy gifts for siblings or nieces or nephews - it makes Christmas shopping incredibly painless. 4. The eternal hope the weather will be nice enough to go swimming. It's Auckland, we know it won't be, but we hope every year....this afternoon we have been issued with a severe thunderstorm weatherwatch.... #soUN 5. Family time It sounds cheesy but I love Christmas Eve (when we celebrate Christmas in our house), with the turkey, and the pressies but mostly the sitting around reminiscing about past times, and people we love who are no longer with us. It really is the true spirit of Christmas (and I love playing geeky board games with my family too!). 6. Christmas trees The smell is so awesome, so fresh and great! And if you've spent as much time on the Martha Stewart website you will know how to deal with pesky pine needles. Northern hemisphere it was cool to have trees whose branches actually stuck out (Douglas Fir) - wish we had them here in NZ...