by Kaitlyn Hamilton

Created on: October 26, 2008   Last Updated: October 31, 2008

The sparkle of Christmas lights brightening up a cold night always makes me smile. I've even been known to visit the Christmas specialty stores in nearby Pigeon Forge, TN in the middle of July. Everything about Christmas makes me feel warm and happy, but especially the lights. I remember as a child helping my mother string lights on the Christmas tree in our living room. We would spend hours the day after Thanksgiving decorating the Christmas tree. Once it was finished, we would start on the outside of the house. We always had to have a little help from my older brothers who would climb up on the roof and string the lights around the roofline. All of the bushes in front of the house were covered in colorful strings of bulbs and there was always a colorful wreath hung on the front door.

Dad always spends that afternoon putting together a manger scene out front that is complete with a light-up set of Mary, Joseph, Baby Jesus, three wise men, a huge camel (I named him George), and a few little lambs. In just a few more weeks it will be Thanksgiving and I can't wait to start decorating. Of course, my parents are getting older and I'm not exactly a teenager anymore, but I still look forward to putting up the lights as much as I did when I was a child.

When I was a little girl, almost the entire neighborhood would have their homes decorated from one end to the other with all sorts of Christmas items and it was the most beatiful sight you can imagine. I miss those days. Only a few houses in the neighborhood even bother putting up a Christmas tree these days. I know people are busy, and not as many people celebrate Christmas as they once did, but they're really missing out on a lot of fun and making warm memories that will last a lifetime.

The sight of Christmas lights always brings back those wonderful childhood memories of having friends and family over for hot cocoa by the fire served with a huge assortment of Christmas cookies, candies, and desserts that we made ourselves. We always had Bing Crosby albums playing in the background and dozens of colorful gifts scattered about the livingroom and beneath the tree. From Thanksgiving to New Years Eve there was always a stream of friends, neighbors, family members, co-workers, church members and anyone else who cared to visit and sample some of our homemade goodies. Those were some of the best times of my life.

It isn't quite Halloween just yet, but the local department stores are already flooded with Christmas trees, strings

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