Conjuring Christmas

Have you found your Christmas mojo yet?

Mine's still lurking somewhere in the shadows. Maybe it's up in the Anne Frank room waiting to be brought down, dusted off and placed jauntily around the room — a few decorations might summon the seasonal spirits. Perhaps actually buying a gift or two will get things rolling, or going to the effort of putting up a tree.

Or maybe I need to go back to basics ... the ritual of food. Nothing says Christmas like a batch of my Grandma's Nuts and Bolts (her reworking of good old Chex mix, but I don't think I can find the ingredients here).

When we were little, my sister and I each had a long, thin Christmas ribbon that hung in our rooms . An Advent calendar of candy. It was made of red and green felt, and there were 24 pieces of Brach's Christmas nougat tied to it,. There was a poem or something on the top, my mom had probably typed it up, copied from some long-forgotten source. Each night in December, we'd get a piece of candy before bed. Unwrapping the last piece of chewy mintyness meant that Santa was on his way.

What traditions get your mojo rising?