By The Editorial Board

The holiday season has officially arrived, meaning it’s time for everything holly and jolly, too much eggnog and the annual return of the Christmas media multiverse. You know the one, where a single song can transport you to your second-grade Christmas party, where paper snowflakes hung sideways, someone’s mom brought the good hot chocolate and memories you didn’t know you were making are stitched in red and green in your heart.

Whether it’s a black-and-white classic, chaotic family holidays or the song that gets stuck in your head until March, these stories shape the season just as much as lights on the tree or cookies in the oven.

So in the spirit of festive nostalgia, The Editorial Board is sharing our personal holiday favorites. From the songs we belt out without shame to the movies that chain us to our couch, we’re unwrapping the media that makes our season shine just a little brighter. Grab some cocoa, settle in and enjoy our picks for the most wonderful time of the year.

Foster Nicholas | Editor-in-Chief

While there are no ingrained unique holiday traditions in my family, we always go back to watching “The Polar Express” around Christmas. With timeless animation, catchy tunes, my favorite of which shares the name of the movie and a significant message, I always look forward to watching the movie with my grandpa and drinking coffee instead of cocoa as a fun pre-Christmas evening.

Ashlyn Beck | News Editor

There’s nothing like the spirit of Christmas to once again awaken my raging individuality complex, so you won’t hear me citing Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas is You” or “Elf” as my favorite Christmas classics. When it comes to Christmas songs, Elvis Presley’s “Blue Christmas” is an all-time favorite. The jazzy ballad is the perfect song for a cozy Christmas evening in. And it can only be followed with the best Christmas movie ever, “It’s a Wonderful Life.” Memories of watching it with my family and seeing the themes of redemption, generosity and community as “Auld Lang Syne” plays in the background always gets me a little teary.

Mackenzie Grizzard | Assistant News Editor

With a Spotify Wrapped age of 68, I’ve come to embrace my old soul tendencies — and my Christmas favorites are no different. “A Christmas Story” and “It’s A Wonderful Life” were on generation runs in my mom’s house during Christmas, and Bruce Springsteen’s cover of “Santa Claus is Coming to Town” was always belted out by my dad on our way to Christmas Eve Mass. As a Floridian, I’ve never had a traditional “White Christmas,” but there’s nothing quite like stringing lights up around a palm tree in 70-degree weather with some Christmas classics playing in the background.

Olivia Turner | Arts & Life Editor

If there’s anything that gives me instant nostalgia, it’s Michael W. Smith’s 1998 “Christmastime” album. For as many Christmases as I can remember, my mother would blast these songs from our well-weathered beige Sony CD player as we decorated the tree and the rest of the house with lights, ornaments and garlands. As we transformed the kitchen, living room and dining room into an interior more akin to a cozy, north pole cabin than a house, we would try our hand at the complex harmonies and choir parts, singing every word whether we were on-key or not. I might not have been a child of the ‘90s, but I sure felt like one.

Anyone who knows Michael W. Smith’s discography can confirm — this guy is a musical genius, especially when it comes to Christmas music. In total, he has five Christmas-themed albums, but this one is my favorite by far. He’s able to take a normal, over-played holiday tune and turn it into a whole new sensation, complete with angelic choir harmonies and orchestral accompaniment moving enough to bring a tear to your eye. In fact, I’ll bet you’ve heard one of these songs before and didn’t even realize it was this icon.

Mariah Carey may be the Queen of Christmas (almost), but in my opinion at least, Michael W. Smith is the King.

Kalena Reynolds | Opinion Editor

There’s a few very specific things that I reserve simply for the joys of Christmas. Most of them I keep them tucked neatly in a back drawer until it’s socially acceptable to take them back out again. Those things are: glasses of egg nog, “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation” and “Last Christmas” by Wham!. First off, I have fond memories from my childhood watching the 1989 cult classic film ad nauseam with my parents every holiday season. While appreciation for the humor came with age, the love of film stayed the same. As far as “Last Christmas” goes … was there ever a better time for synths than the ’80s?

Hannah Webb | Focus Editor

My favorite Christmas music will always be the soundtrack of “The Nutcracker.” The moment those first notes drift in, it’s like someone opens a tiny slow globe in my memory and I am eight years old again, standing backstage in a too-sparkly costume, waiting for my cue under buzzing theater lights. I can still hear the soft shuffle of Marley floors, remember the awe of watching the Sugar Plum Fairy dance across the stage and the way the music made everything feel magical. It’s nostalgic in the best way: a reminder of childhood Decembers spent dancing in kingdoms of snow and sweets. No matter how many songs try to claim the season, nothing feels more like Christmas to me than Tchaikovsky. As for a movie, nothing is more reminiscent of backstage than “Barbie in the Nutcracker.”

Braden Murray | LTVN Executive Producer

As one of the newsroom’s resident old-heads, I’d have to say my favorite Christmas song is Bruce Springsteen’s cover of “Santa Claus is Coming to Town.” I really don’t know what it is about this song that does it for me, maybe the saxophone solo, but I’ve loved it since I was a child. The Beach Boys’ song “Little Saint Nick” has been making a solid push in recent years. As for my favorite movie, I’ve gotta go with the first “Home Alone.”