It is less than two months to Christmas.

Insert expletive here.

I love Christmas.  I can’t wait for Oct. 25 because it means that Christmas is EXACTLY two months away.  I love November 25 EVEN MORE because it means that Christmas is only one month away. If Will Ferrell’s ‘Elf’ character was real, he would be my boyfriend. Seriously.

So.  Now that you know how much I love Christmas let me tell you about one of my favourite things (and I have A LOT of favourite things) about Christmas.  And it’s unique to the Comox Valley.

The YANA Christmas crackers.  I buy 30 of them every year and put them in everyone’s stocking.  It’s one of the ways to contribute something meaningful during a time that can become all too commercial.

YANA volunteers hand-make 5000 of these little jewels.  I was lucky enough to walk into the YANA office yesterday for a meeting about the YANA Big Love event in February and I ended up smack dab in the middle of the Christmas cracker set up.  You could not wipe the smile from my face – it was like Santa’s workshop!  I even got to make one, and in the process partially fulfilled my life-long dream of becoming a Christmas elf.

These hardworking volunteers have already made 4000 (4001 if you count mine), and were well on their way to 5000 when I left yesterday.  Now that is some serious Christmas magic.

YANA’s Christmas crackers go on sale just after Remembrance Day via their office and a variety of other locations, which will be listed on their website https://www.yanacomoxvalley.com/ once the crackers are released.

So there’s one lovely little thing you can do this year to make Christmas a bit less commercial.  Get out and support the local businesses and charities this year – build a basket full of local goodies, make some frozen meals to put in people’s freezers for gifts, make a date night package for couples, do some donating in someone’s name – put some Big Love into Christmas this year. It’s fun.

I’ll get lost now.