I love this time of year! The colorful lights, the smell of pine, the happier faces you see, even in the long lines to get gifts wrapped, food purchased or trees selected, and the general good cheer that seems to follow you, no matter where you go.

There’s just something about Christmas. I’ve always loved the holiday. From a youngster, my family always made it a special time. Daddy would always load us up a few weeks before Christmas to head down to the tree lot, where my brother and I would get to choose our favorite. Naturally, we often fought over which one was the best, but, in true holiday fashion, or because of my daddy’s stern look, we’d finally agree on one that could be lugged to the car, taken home and decorated.

I can still remember standing in the center of those trees taking in the wonderful smell, loving every minute.

I also loved times at my grandmother’s house. A white house situated in a grove of trees, a wrap-around porch often my playground, it turned into a Christmas wonderland about every Dec. 5. There’d be colored lights in every window, a wreath on the door and the most beautiful Christmas tree one can imagine, not a real one, but a sparkling silver that, when lit by those color wheels popular in the 1960s, would change shades in a magical way that always made me shriek with delight.

And, there was always Christmas Eve dinners at my other grandmother’s in Clinton, where all my cousins and I would happily rearrange the furniture each year in order to reenact the nativity scene for Ma-Ma Jones, our parents and our aunts and uncles.

A worn leather stool was always the manger, someone’s baby doll transformed into the Baby Jesus. Someone would read the Christmas story from the Bible and we’d march in, the Jones’ clan, in our best portrayal of Mary, Joseph, the kings, shepherds and wisemen.

They were all the best times, Christmas traditions that hold a very special place in my heart, all things that have helped shape the person I’ve become and instilled in me a love of this time of year that cannot be erased.

What’s most interesting, of course, is that all these memories had little to do with the material side of the season, rather the closeness of family and friends, sharing love, laughter and faith, making memories that would last a lifetime.

Today, long grown up, Christmas still evokes all those memories of holidays past. And those, added to the traditions that I’m very blessed to be a part of now, keep a smile on my face long into the new year.

This year, my newspaper family and I, have added yet another tradition to the long list of holiday memories I’ve stored away. Rather than exchanging gifts among ourselves, we adopted six needy children to deliver Christmas surprises to.

They may love every single item we got for them, but there’s absolutely no way they can enjoy the gifts any more than we did buying them.

In the editorial and ad services departments, we teamed to buy gifts for three of the six little ones we adopted as Christmas angels. The guys opted to stay at work Friday when we did the holiday shopping, but Katie, Jessie, Christina, Michelle and I were up for the hour-long spree in a local store’s toy department.

I had no idea there were so many toys out there, and I really didn’t have a clue what some were. I mean, who would automatically know what a Little People’s play set was? Well someone without children sure didn’t.

We went down first one aisle and then another, loading our cart with an assortment of brightly-colored items, laughing all the way, our hearts bursting with joy at being able to do something for someone else.

By hour’s end, our shopping was complete, but our good mood certainly wasn’t. We talked all the way back to work about how happy we hoped these gifts would make the babies and toddlers, but more importantly we talked about how happy the gift-buying had made us.

It made me thankful, too, of all the things I have, all the Christmases made special by someone in my life, and it reminded me yet again of what this season is all about — a baby born in a manger, the promised Messiah who would provide us the greatest gift of all.