The big December contest!

When I rolled over this morning and looked at my alarm clock, it said “7:32 a.m. Dec. 1.” I got a smile on my face right away. I love December — the cold (requiring sweaters and coats and cute hats), warm fires, decorations, gathering together with family and friends at parties and holiday gatherings and much more. It’s definitely one of my favorite times of year, and I’m all wrapped up in the Christmas spirit already this morning.

For this month’s giveaway, I wanted to throw a little holiday spirit at one lucky blog reader, plus a few recommendations to get all of you as excited as I am about this wonderful season. My favorite Christmas book? Holidays on Ice, by David Sedaris. My favorite Christmas snack food? Clementines. Favorite beverage? Egg nog or peppermint hot chocolate — homemade, not from Starbucks. My favorite Christmas movies: Love Actually, The Family Stone, Elf, It’s a Wonderful Life, A Charlie Brown Christmas, Mixed Nuts and Miracle on 34th Street.

For me, though, nothing beats Christmas music. I pretty much keep my iTunes playlist on a roll all through December. Here are my top recommendations for Christmas albums that I can’t get enough of:

Diana Krall’s “Christmas Songs”

Sufjan Stevens’ “Songs for Christmas”

Harry Connick Jr.’s “Harry for the Holidays”

James Taylor’s “At Christmas”

Pottery Barn’s “Classic Christmas” compilation

I want to give one lucky blog reader a chance to pick up one or two of these albums (or their choice), so I’m giving away a $25 iTunes gift card! The drill is the same as always: enter to win by commenting on this post (either on Facebook or on the blog) and I’ll draw a winner at random on Thursday morning at 8 a.m. Winner will be announced on the blog sometime around noon on Thursday. Good luck to you all, and happy December!