Pencil and Paper: 12 (business) Days of Christmas

Last year I did a daily email to a small group of friends that I called the "12 Days of Christmas" daily email. The title alone took me hours to come up with! The basic purpose was to help all of us take a moment each day leading up to Christmas to truly enjoy the season. Once Thanksgiving passes, the final month leading up to Christmas day seems to come and go so quickly that you're left sitting there on December 26th wishing you had taken more time to enjoy those things that make Christmas, Christmas. So, last year I decided that I would send a little "something" out to my friends each business day leading up to the greatest day of the year. I purposely left off the weekends because the weekend is typically the only time that we do actually manage to do something Christmasy so I wanted to spread a little cheer while we were all stuck at work or school.

Obviously, the things that make Christmas so special are different for all of us and something that I loved might hold zero meaning to somebody else. However, everything did point to Christmas in some way so even if what I sent was completely devoid of the meaning it had for me personally it was still, what I thought,a nice reminder for everybody else. Some of the things I sent were silly, like an old TV commercial, and others were more profound like a choir singing the Hallelujah Chorus. But in the end, it was all Christmas!

That brings us to this year. I woke up today and realized that we are 12 business days from Christmas day and I can't, in good concsience, neglect my self-appointed duty to bring a little frivolity, joy and wonder to Christmas Season 2013. I currently have no idea what I'm going to post over the next 12 days or how I'm going to find time to do it but, dagnabit, I'm going to find a way.

So with all that being said, fire up the yule log, knock back some egg nog and prepare to laugh, cry, gasp in wonder or ponder what influences I'm under over the next 12 (businesss) days as we embark on operation, "Don't forget to enjoy Christmas before it passes you by in a blur," 2013 edition! Again, hours and hours on that title...

Feel free to share these posts with friends and family and anybody else who might enjoy a little Christmas pick me up.

To start things off I'll go back to what is for many of us like another member of the family. I am of course talking about TV. What says Christmas more than a classic Christmas TV commercial. My all-time favorite happens to be the Hershey's Kisses "We Wish You A Merry Christmas" bell choir but I used that last year and I don't want to be accused of laziness so here's another great one from the Mars Corporation (I thought I would give equal time). Merry day 12 of Christmas everybody!!