Being an atheist, it may seem odd that I am a Christmas fanatic.

But I don't really care about three kings of orient are, or little towns of Bethlehem, or midnights clear. My love of Christmas has nothing to do with Christ. I get this warm, gushy, cozy feeling between Thanksgiving and Christmas. I hesitate to call it... the Christmas spirit.

I read this the other day and was really saddened by it. Maybe I buy into all of the "good will towards men" b.s. that advertisers and moviemakers throw at us this time of year, but I love the holidays so much. It is such a special time to me that I sympathize a ridiculously huge amount with anybody who doesn't feel it.

So what does it mean to me? I think it means Christmas lights in an otherwise dark room, a wine-glass filled with nutmeg-spackled egg nog, soft music, big fat flakes falling outside my window on a "snow day," family and friends. Togetherness, maybe.

Allow me to wax English major for a minute... but I guess I think of the blanket of snow on the ground as a metaphor. Around this time of year, all of the "bad" things--the grafitti, the homeless people, the dirty gutters, the road rage--all of that stuff is hidden away. Christmas encourages us to forget the negative things in the world for awhile, as we hide in our tinsel-laden wombs protected by a placenta of love and friendship.

People spend money they don't have to make the people they love feel happy, but for me all I need is to be together with those people, laughing, playing games, catching up. Next to the poinsettia, under the mistletoe, lighted by the glow of the Christmas tree.

I definitely have a Normal Rockwell interpretation of Christmas, even if it doesn't turn out that way every year.

Today I trimmed the tree while Christmas music played in the background, I drank my egg nog and nutmeg, I dimmed the lights and wished that I had someone here to curl up with. But my loneliness didn't get in the way of my enjoyment of the process and the season. One hundred dollars worth of decorations and four broken ornaments later, my "Christmas spirit" is still intact.

I think it's unflappable.