The Christmas Spirit found its way to our house a littler earlier than usual this year thanks to my 16-year-old son. I normally decorate for Christmas around the week of Thanksgiving, but my son had other plans. He kept telling us we should decorate November 1st and I kept telling him that was too early. Not to be detracted, he took matters into his own hands.

When he and his friends were done passing out candy on Halloween, and my husband and I were at our neighbors’ house, these boys, who were dressed like scary clowns and movie villains, put up our artificial Christmas tree, sans ornaments. They did a great job and it looks perfect sparkling with multi-colored lights from our front-room window.  Thanks to his enthusiasm, we officially started the Holiday Season at 10 p.m. on Halloween. This is a definite first for me!

Dressing up the tree with its ornaments came later because it’s a tradition for us to do it together. My tree is a family tree, one with all the ornaments my children made in school, lots of pictures, and fun tributes to pop culture icons. While we are decorating it, I love looking through all of the old ornaments and reminiscing about past Christmases. Maybe one day I will have two trees: one with all the mismatched ornaments and one that’s a statement piece, but for now I am a sucker for nostalgia.

KCFM readers are also excited to ring in the Holiday Spirit. In Callie Collin’s article, “Readers Respond: What are You Looking Forward to this Month?” on page12, she received many great responses. Most readers are looking forward to family time and all the traditions that go along with the season.

Make sure to check out our 2022 "Holiday Fun & Games Book" on page 13. You will find all kinds of activities and family fun for the Holidays. I use it for singalongs around the piano. I grab a few extra books so we all have copies for the lyrics, and my son plays the piano while we sing. It’s so much fun!

For this month’s Humor at Home article on page 30, “Twelve: The Age of Loud Sighs and Eye Rolls, Julie Willis writes about how she and her daughter are navigating their relationship as her daughter is TWELVE. We all remember that awkward age, right? As Julie writes, she can remember being a pre-teen and she knows this too shall pass, and one day her daughter will be all grown up and remember these years with fondness.

In Callie Collins’ article, “Hello, Happy Mama,” she spends some time catching up with the 11 Happy Mamas featured this year. To find out what these ladies have been up to this year, you can turn to page 11. As one of the lucky ones featured, you can read how my 2022 parenting mantra and hashtag changed as my family had a milestone of sending our son off to college.

The Holiday Season really is the best time of year, so I am lucky that mine started earlier than I planned! I enjoy it all:  music, decorations, cider, peppermint, shopping, gift-wrapping, and treats! But, most of all, I enjoy spending it with those I love. As we learned in The Polar Express,” Just remember, the true spirit of Christmas lies in your heart.”

We want to send a VERY special thank you to our readers this beautiful season. KCFM has a lot to be grateful for this year, as we recently won four awards, one gold and three silver, from Parenting Media Association’s 2022 Design and Editorial Awards Program. We could not have done it without YOU and your families.

Thanks so much for letting us be a part of your lives!