The holidays are always the best time of year. Not only is the food spectacular, but it’s also when some classic holiday movies are due a re-viewing. And one of my favorite movies has always been White Christmas, with Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye, Rosemary Clooney and Vera Ellen.
It’s a very (very) old movie, but the reason I love this one so much is because it reminds me of my mom and dad, who are no longer with me. When I was a child, this movie would play on Saturday nights every holiday season, and it was a special occasion. I would cuddle up with my parents and it was a particular favorite of my mom’s. It was an event night, and that made it even more special. My mom and I would sing all the songs, remark on Rosemary Clooney’s beautiful voice, and Vera Ellen’s small waist and amazing dance skills (after all, being girls, we had to identify with the ladies, right?).
After I grew up, I had two boys, who couldn’t really get into this movie (sad), but I introduced my stepdaughter to White Christmas, and she fell in love with it and still watches it every year. It fills me with warmth to know I’ve introduced this corny yet fun movie to a new generation. It’s just not the official holiday season until I’ve seen White Christmas.
Besides the costumes and music and dance, the romance between Bing Crosby and Rosemary Clooney is at the central core of the story. Two people who think they couldn’t be more wrong for each other, when in actuality they couldn’t be more right for each other. He pursues her, and she balks. She thinks he’s a player, but he might just be ready to settle down—with the right woman.
It’s very much like The Best Thing, my holiday novella coming December 3rd from Carina Press. Brody Kent is a notorious womanizer, and Tori Lewis wants nothing to do with him, even if she has carried a torch for him for years. Brody’s ready to settle down—with Tori, but Tori’s afraid she’s going ot end up just another notch on Brody’s bedpost. He intends to show her he’s serious this time, and doesn’t intend to let her go.
As part of the Twelve Days of Christmas Promotion, you can win a copy of THE BEST THING over a the Happily Ever After USA Today Blog, so head on over there to enter.
Here on my blog, you can win this awesome prize pack of 7 gifts as part of my 7th day of Christmas giveaway.
The prize pack includes two holiday LEDs, a mug, glass, measuring cups, cards and an iTunes gift card. To be entered to win the prize pack above, leave a comment about a family holiday tradition that means a lot to you. This contest will remain open until November 26th.
Also, be sure to check out the other authors participating in the Twelve Days of Christmas giveaway, both here and at Happily Ever After at USA Today (I’m linking to Ruthie Knox’s blog, because she’s so much more organized than me with her links. Go Ruthie!) 
Good luck, y’all!
[...] Nov. 13 – Jaci Burton (The Best Thing in the anthology Romancing the Holiday, out Dec. 3) – link to HEA post; link to Jaci’s pack of seven Christmas delights [...]
Jaci – thank you for sharing your White Christmas tradition. Your story reminded me if my parents who loved to watch the old movies and name the old stars. My family tradition is that I host Christmas for both sides of the family. We get to stay home but open our doors at 9am and serve breakfast and then a prime rib dinner for lunch. My kids enjoy not having to travel for the day. Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours!
Every year my family and I would go to the Disney parks in Orlando for the Christmas party for people that work there. When I was a kid, they would let us have The Magic Kingdom after all the day guests left. So we would ride all the outside rides in the dark, have cookies and juice, get our family picture taken. You know, the whole nine. Not a lot of kids can say that they got to do this and I looked forward to it every year. Now that I have kids of my own, I look forward to just spending time with my family and sharing all that Disney has to offer to my little ones. Merry Christmas to everyone entering this contest!!
For the past 18 years we have went and cut down our own Christmas tree the day after Thanksgiving. This year will be the same but different. My son started his career with the US Navy so he will be absent in body but hopefully not in spirit.
This may sound a little bit crazy and maybe tmi, but we always had a special dinner on Christmas Eve. The same foods Grandma made, then Mom. I continued the tradition after my mom passed away. Two years ago, my kiddo was kind enough to bring home a bug that felled all of us just after dinner. We all spent Christmas day in bed. So the following year, still not able to even think about that dinner, we decided to start a whole new tradition of dinner menu on Christmas eve. One we picked out as a family. We all laugh at it now, but it turns out that sometimes it is good to break traditions and start new ones!
My kids LOVE “White Christmas”. At our house, we must act out all the songs, especially ” Sisters” . It is loud and enthusiastic and the new brother-in-law is not allowed to participate!!
I love this time of year. It’s about family, being together, loving one another, and of course exchanging gifts. There isn’t a particular tradition that I love more than any other, I just love being with my family. We are all together so few times a year, so it’s fun to see all the kids get excited and play together.
Even though I no longer have a relationship with my mother I am forever grateful that as a child growing up in the nineties every Christmas she “made” me watch Holiday Inn, The Bells Of St. Mary’s, Holiday Affair, White Christmas etc…those movies and love affairs are timeless. Thank you for reminding me of the “little things” that can not be taken away:)
Every year we take our 3 kids to cut down our own tree. It is so much fun for the little ones. We are hurting finacially this year so I am praying that we don’t have to skip this year on the tree. Love all your books.
I love so many of our holiday traditions. Everything from deep frying our turkey every Thanksgiving (if you haven’t….you must), to making Christmas Eve cookies for Santa. I love making Reindeer Food with the kids (oats, colored sugar, holiday sprinkles and glitter) and adding new ornaments to the tree that the kids have made in school. One of my very favorites is just sitting in front of the tree, all full of lights, sipping cocoa and watching Christmas movies with my family. Best season ever. <3
My children are still young, 6 and 3, but we have started our family tradition of baking cookies for Santa the night before Christmas! My girls have so much fun doing this! We also make reindeer food with a little bit of glitter in it so the reindeer can see it. We sit a plate of cookies out for Santa with a big glass of milk, then we sprinkle the reindeer food by the steps and leave them a big bowl of water! The next morning, they usually check to see if the cookies are gone before they even look under the tree. The smiles on their face is priceless. Then we dig into the presents. And after that it’s off to Nana’s house!! I love Christmas! Can’t wait until this year!
I love watching all the Christmas movies. My favorite one is A Christmas Story. I also love watching This Christmas.
I am Cuban so I did not have many experiences while I was growing up celebrating Christmas. Communist country does not celebrate Christmas. My only memory was going to church once I became a teenager and singing during Christmas Eve mass. Now I have 2 kids and I do make a big deal out of Christmas for them. One of our favorite things is to go to the North Pole Express train that is located in Essex CT. The train becomes magical with lights, singing, Santa, elves, hot chocolate and cookies. My family and I look forward to that every year.
I spent most of my childhood in Europe (Dad was in the Army). My favorite Christmas’ were spent around the tree at my Aunt and Uncle’s house in a small town in Germany opening presents on Christmas Eve!
My family gets together on Christmas Eve and watch “Chevy Chase’s Christmas Vacation”, have a big dinner, watch the kids open their presents and just spend time together. Thanks for sharing your Christmas tradition.
rmwyer at shaw dot ca
My family tradition is On Xmas morning Mom, Dad, Mom in law and Dad in law and of course my hubby and kids would open our Xmas gifts together then I made the Xmas breakfast: eggs, bacon, tomatoes toast and coffee. We had a great time; now there’s only my own; but I still keep the tradition going.
Every year my family watches 24 hours of A Christmas Story on TV starting at 8pm Christmas Eve at my grandmother’s house and continuing into Christmas Day. It is constantly on at least one TV in our house. A Christmas Story has always been my Dad’s favorite Christmas movie and it is one of mine as well. I also live hearing my Mom complain about the movie because she doesn’t particularly like it and she is tired of watching it every year. Also leading up to Christmas, I have always watched ABC Christmas movies with my Mom at least once a week. Its always been a great unofficial tradition for us.
Well, my father is a pastor, which means he always works on Christmas Eve. The 11 o’clock service that ends at midnight on Christmas morning was something I wasn’t allowed to go to until I was a little older. When I was 10 my dad invited me to the late service and said if I helped put away the candles and such we would get a treat. Of course I said yes! After the service my dad and I went to his Christmas morning ritual: getting a slurpee at 7-11! I felt so grown up staying up late and participating in his tradition and we still do it every year!
The holidays start in my family on Thanksgiving. My birthday (11/26) is around then so I always go shopping on black Friday so that I can get what I want cheap enough that it doesn’t effect the holiday budget. Christmas Eve is just for my husband, daughter and I. We make dinner together and then open our presents and watch holiday movies (A Christmas Story is usually one movie we watch). Christmas is spent visiting our different family members. His family for breakfast or brunch and my family for lunch or dinner. Then, we try to take in a movie since the theatres are usually slow. It’s really all about family time.
We read The Night Before Christmas the night before Christmas!
My family dress up formally to take beautiful christmas pictures next to our christmas tree and gifts. Our family grew in the last few years with my aunts and uncles having kids so it’s definitely a lot rowdier with all the kids running around laughing or crying (the latter gets very scary cause it’s a chain reaction).
I’m originally from Finland, we always celebrate Christmas on Christmas Eve. Wonderful time for the whole family to get together.
We all gather at my dad’s house on Christmas day for dinner. I love this time spent with my family.
My favorite holiday tradition would be when my sister & I were young and our mother’s parents were still alive. We would drive up to their house and stand outside their front door singing Christmas Carols. One year, we went in the middle of a blizzard and my grandfather had no idea who was out there in the white out (considering we went every year, I’m not sure how he didn’t know it was us…) Lucky for us, my Nana convinced him not to call the cops. But the twist of this story is that my family is Jewish… we just like to sing christmas carols…
We always make Christmas cookies as well as a Gingerbread house. The kids love making them as much as eating them!
What an awesome giveaway! One of the Christmas traditions we have at my house is that we always watch Christmas Vacation the night before, and then on Christmas day we turn the tv to the 24 hour marathon of A Christmas Story so it plays while we open gifts, cook lunch and then we all gather round afterwords to chat and laugh at all our favorite parts over and over again! It’s my favorite day of the year-besides thanksgiving of course, where we watch Christmas Vacation then, too!
My daughters and I love watching White Christmas and It’s a Wonderful Life every year. My husband always either falls asleep or has something else to do but it is fun to watch them with my girls!
Christmas is a very special holiday to spend with family and friends. When you live away from your family the get together is even more sweet! Cherish your love ones while you have them. Have a very Merry Christmas!!!!
My holiday traditions are usually always the same, but that doesn’t mean it’s any less exciting! We always start off going to an aunt’s house for Christmas Eve dinner, and then rush to make it on time for midnight mass. On Christmas morning, we enjoy brunch at my grandparent’s house (mom’s side) which is followed by opening tons of presents
. Around 4, we head home to deposit our gifts and pick up a new load for the dinner at my uncle’s house (dad’s side). The night is spent having dinner, playing games, and opening more presents! I would like Boxing day to be my resting day, but it never happens. We usually have some sort of plans, but that always changes so I’m excited to find out what it’ll be this year 
!
We don’t have many Christmas traditions in my family but we do get together every year on Christmas and have a big family pot luck. It’s the one day that everyone puts asides their differences and bickering we all just get along and have a great time.
I too love a good Christmas romance! Since my kids are grown and there are no babies in the family anymore it seems I am the only one who still enjoys the old Christmas movies and stories…but I still look forward every year to the traditions and family of the holidays….
One of my our traditions is that we like to open our presents at midnight instead of Christmas morning.
A tradition I started with my first nephew is getting a new ornament for them every year. I know have 8 and a great-nephew. My tree is packed. I love doing it. Sometimes they made the ornament for me.
Thanks for the great giveaway
White Christmas is also my favorite holiday movie. I get choked up every time when they surprise the General with all his troops near the end of the story.
In my family, it has always been a tradition for us to all get together on Christmas Eve and read Charles Dicken’s The Christmas Carol. We make cocoa with tons of marshmallows (and schnapps for the adults) and pass the book around and take turns reading it aloud. It is a small tradition but it is very special to my family and one of the few things that has carried on now that we are all adults.
Ever since I can remember my whole family has gotten together at my aunt and uncle’s house every Christmas Eve. I cannot miss it. Can. Not.
b(dot)cardone(at)hotmail(dot)com
Its really just as simple as we all still get together to eat and chat on the holidays.
Jaci–
Thanks for a fun post. I LOVE the movie White Christmas. It was l such a holiday highlight for my sister and me to watch it each year on TV. What about Holiday Inn? Did you discover that oldie, too?
We still have lots of family Christmas traditions–opening family (but not Santa Claus) gifts on Christmas Eve, sharing a large turkey dinner on Christmas day, listening to lots of Christmas music beginning Dec.1, decorating the house and yard the weekend after Thanksgiving.
My favorite family tradition is seeing my Dad sing in the choir on Christmas Eve. We all go as a family and now that he is 83 it makes it even more special. I know he really loves that all the grandkids make a special effort to be there.
Ann(dot)sheiring(at)gmail(dot)com
My brother and I listen to Perry Como while we decorate the tree.
On Christmas Eve, my family drives around looking at the lights and listening to Christmas music. We then go home, put in the Yule Log DVD, and open presents. On Christmas morning, we all sleep in then have a huge brunch and watch Christmas movies.
My Mom always gives at least one person coal for something they did during the year (I got it for getting another dog, because she said no one needs three dogs, my sister got it the same year for the same thing). Everyone looks forward to seeing who will get the coal and why they received it. The year my four nephews got it for not visiting their grandma enough was great because the next year they all stopped to visit at least once a month and some more often than that.
Our funniest and greatest holiday tradition is playing dirty Santa . We have our relatives come down from st. Louis. We use to pull names for gifts but that has been kind of expensive every year so we kept the tradition of gifts but changed it a little bit
( yes.4eva.r@ gmail.com )
I mentioned this over at Ruthie’s blog…I don’t really have many holiday traditions and I’m afraid that this Christmas will be somewhat bittersweet for me. We had a shed fire in April and EVERY Christmas item we had was destroyed (except one Christmas card holder that was my mother-in-law’s). We don’t have kids, it’s just the 2 of us, but every year I took great pleasure in him putting up the tree and then us unwrapping each and every ornament in our eclectic collection–no matchy-matchy for me! I’d say to dah hubby, “OHHHH…do you remember when we got this one on our honeymoon” or “My mom gave us this one for the cats…,” etc. Several of the ornaments are ones that I had made as a child–40 years ago! I’m thankful that no people (or pets) were hurt and that the house was fine, but Christmas will be VERY different this year. Maybe it will be an incentive to start a NEW tradition!
I’m looking forward to The Best Thing. It’s coming out the day before my birthday! Whoo Hoo!
My husband and I have been married for 10 years, but this is something he began many years ago. He is in the health care field and works at the local hospital. As you know, these hard working people are there 24/7/365. Every year, he volunteers to work Christmas morning for his co-worker with the youngest child. We’re adults with no children and know how much it will mean to both his co-worker and their child to have Christmas morning together. I get up Christmas morning and get him off to the hospital, then spend my day cooking for us. He’s home by early afternoon and we celebrate then. I think he’s pretty terrific for wanting to give in this way each year!
Watching How The Grinch Stole Christmas (the ORIGINAL, thankyouverymuch) repeatedly while wrapping gifts.
My grandmother’s made-from-scratch pierogi on Christmas Eve. She’s been gone since I was 5, but I still make them every year. Except I use my dad’s sauerkraut, because his is better. LOL.
Actually, one of the favorite things I have continued with my daughter is a pair of new pajamas to be opened on Christmas Eve. Those are ONLY from her daddy. My mom did that with me until I was married! Yes, I got pjs on Christmas Eve from my daddy when I was engaged!
The other is watching Charlie Brown, Rudolph, Frosty and all those other Christmas cartoons with my daughter.
Thanks for sharing , Jaci. I spend a quiet day watching the old movie marathons and read in between. I visit my son and daughter-in-love in November to avoid snow.
My favorite is after the christmas eve party we go home and let the kids open there presents its the best we’ve done that since I was a little girl
Our family has a tradition where we get up early on Christmas, daddy makes cinnamon rolls for breakfast, and by the time we finish unwrapping the gifts, the cinnamon rolls are ready. Even now, after I have moved out and married, we still go to my dad’s house for presents and breakfast!
Family traditions are very important to me and my family. We have a tradition that while putting up the Christmas tree, we have 4-minute fudge, eggnog, and listen to Christmas music as we reminisce about the history of the ornaments as we hang them on the tree.
Our holiday tradition are putting up the tree, litening to christmas music and taking lots of pics.!
We don’t the a tradtoin I like spending time with them great prize thanks
Every year a few weeks before Christmas, our family go out to buy a tree, then come home, put on the fire and some carols and decorate it together
We sing songs, munch cookies and sip on hot chocolate. I look forward to this occasion every year 
Our favorite holiday tradition is to go to the Christmas Eve Carole sing in the center of town around the green – then to church for the candlelight service – then back home for dessert!
Every year on Thanksgiving and Christmas my whole family goes to see a movie before we come back to the house and eat our feast
We have a family tradition in our house at Christmas time for the kids. Every year we let the kids pick out an ornament to place on the Christmas Tree. We label it with their name and the year. When it is finally time for them to leave the next I will send them on their way with a set of ornaments.
I have two sisters and on Christmas Eve we open each others’ presents. When we were younger this kept us from trying to peek into our other presents, but now it’s just nice to have something with them.
Thanks for sharing your memories with us. We don’t have really any specific traditions except that it is the one time that my whole family works to be all together in the same place. We all live in different cities so we make sure to be home together for christmas eve. not to give presents but to be together.
The one that means the most to me is Christmas day being with my extended family. On Dec 25 my extended family get together and celebrates. We have been doing this for the past 32 years at the same location and will be doing it again this year. There are so many of us that we have to rent a hall. There are a little of 100+ of us, with my mom having 10 brothers & sisters and them having atleast 2 kids, and them having kids now. It is a great time for food, talking, and playing some card games. I look forward to this every year.
Well the one that means most to me is that the whole family ,aunts,grandma’s nieces just everyone get together on the evening of the 24 th to open presents ,as we all go (problem is not everyone goes to the same one and on Christmas day it is mostly text messages to say happy happy and you don’t see everyone )to church on Christmas day and then have lunch ,but yes the get together for the 24 th means alot to me as I get to see everyone ,this year both my grandmothers sadly will not be with us as both passed away earlier this year,so this year I am sure will be hard on us all but atleast the rest of us will still be together. Thank you for the very lovely giveaway
Our family always trims the tree with all of the items they made in school and church for me at Christmas time. It makes our tree special and full of home made love!! Laughter and memories fill the house as we decorate the tree. It is a happy time for me as a mother.
In my family we have a tradition that we have dinner together and give thanks for enjoying another year together. We also wait until Christmas day to open our gifts. My mom also makes traditional tamales and we have them for breakfast.
Cutting down our Christmas tree, bringing it home, and decorating it is my favorite tradition. Did it when the kids are small and now they are grown.
flip at ida dot net
Decorating the Christmas tree as a family is a favorite tradition.
Every year we go and cut down a Christmas tree. This is the 24th year my hubby and I have done this!
Going to church on Christmas eve
bituin76 at hotmail dot com