Decorating with Christmas lights is one of my favorite ways to get into the season. My choices for the Christmas tree are the colored lights with preprogrammed patterns. My family has been using them for years. Although I don’t have a Christmas tree yet, I did decorate our balcony with a garland and lights:

Some people really go crazy with the outdoor Christmas decorations, and I can only imagine how high their energy bill must be. Here is a cool Christmas Lights Map which maps out the most extensive Christmas light displays in the U.S. Zoom in to see more displays in any area. There are a few here in Austin, including the famous 37th street neighborhood, which is an entire street completely covered in Christmas lights and decorations.

Here is a video of my favorite Christmas lights display. The music was broadcast on a specific radio station so that people could drive by and listen to the music in their cars. This video is from a few years ago, but this particular display was also featured in a beer commercial.

Hark how the bells,
Sweet silver bells,
All seem to say,
Throw cares away

Christmas music is both loved and hated. For some it is a way to celebrate the excitement of the Christmas season, while for others it only emphasizes the over commercialization of the holiday. I still belong to the former group, though I struggle not to get sucked in to the commercial aspect of it.

When I was growing up, Christmas music was a very strong tradition in my family. My Dad would put on orchestral or choral Christmas music over our sound system at home when the holiday drew near, which is why I still prefer instrumental or choral Christmas music to the pop versions of traditional songs. The music was part of our family celebration, and listening to it now brings back memories of celebrating the holidays with my family.

My favorite Christmas melody is Carol of the Bells, both instrumental and choral versions. Unfortunately, this song has been used quite a bit in stores, TV ads, and even parodies, but I don’t tire of it around Christmas time. Other favorites include The Nutcracker Suite, God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen, The First Noel, and O Holy Night.

Although I prefer traditional Christmas music like that of The Morman Tabernacle Choir and the Vienna Boys Choir, I have also expanded my music collection to include newer stuff like Charlotte Church and The Trans-Siberian Orchestra. I especially like TSO’s take on Carol of the Bells and The Nutcracker Suite. Having different styles of the same songs helps break up the monotony of it, even if I do love the songs themselves.

This is hopefully just the first of a series of posts I’m going to make about Christmas. It is, after all, my favorite time of year, and music always helps me get in the right mood.

I just want to wish a Merry Christmas to all of my friends and family. I hope the season has been filled with lots of laughter and relaxation.

If you like Scrubs and Charlie Brown, watch the following video. It’s the video from the Charlie Brown Christmas show with voices (and the lines) redone by Scrubs characters. I don’t know if this is available on a DVD anywhere (I got it from YouTube)… I think it may have been just something fun for the cast to do.

Christmas lights are one of my favorite parts of Christmas. Some people have decorations that get bigger and more flamboyant every year. However, simply throwing as many in as you can doesn’t make for a good display. It has to be coordinated and look like a complete theme rather than just a bunch of pieces.

Here is my favorite Christmas light setup that I’ve seen (found last year). It’s not just lights, but lights coordinated with music. This guy lives in Ohio, and broadcasts the music (Wizards in Winter by Trans-Siberian Orchestra) on a low frequency FM radio station. People would drive by, tune into the radio station and watch the show.

Here is another fun Christmas lights link: Christmas Wonderland. It shows a map of the U.S. which shows bright Christmas light displays all over the country. Check for some near you!

Okay, so I’m a little old for this, but I thought it was funny. There is an online site called NORAD which claims to track Santa via radar (and satellites, Santa Cams, and jet fighter aircraft). The text describing the process is completely serious. Personally I think this takes things a little far, but I’m sure it’s fun for kids. I hope that there isn’t a lot of real money spent on this though!

The funniest part is the Celebrities section. There are video clips of celebrities saying hello and talking about how NORAD is fun for the kids. David Boreanaz (Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel) and Edward James Olmos (Battlestar Galactica) are both on there. David Boreanaz is pretty funny… he looks like he’s just making up stuff to say.

In the spirit of the season, here is a fun online utility which allows you to create your own snowflakes: Make-a-Flake. The result is a jpeg version of your snowflake, which you can save or email to friends. If you like to create your own snowflakes out of paper, the animations in the utility show how to create a 6-sided snowflake instead of the easier 8-sided version.

Here are the snowflakes I created: