You know it's Christmastime when...

[Diner Girl]

With all the smells, tastes and sounds I associate with the holidays, one of my favorite sounds is the old Folger's commercial where the little girl is coming down the stairs of her home late at night to get a drink of water and the front door opens to reveal her older brother in uniform, coming home from the military to surprise his family for the holidays. Shortly after, the mother comes in to see what's going on... and all she says is, "Peter, you're home" and I'm in tears. Every freakin' time. And, even though the taste of Folger's makes me gag, that commercial makes me crave coffee.

Then, of course, the holiday season has officially kicked off. And, that means, I can fill my kitchen with the smell of satsumas from Louisiana and a Christmas tree from the farm back home, and all the foods I love. What sounds, tastes and smells "kick off" the holiday season for you all?

[Della]

My first egg nog latte of the season - says Merry Christmas to mouth!

[Kim Shook]

All those Christmas commercials get me in the spirit, for some stupid reason. We always compete to see who sees the first commercial of the season. For years it was the Norelco (sp?) Santa! The Folger's one always chokes me up, too.

[Lori in PA]

17 yodd says it is the smell of me cooking the stuffing veggies on Thanksgiving morning, though she doesn't care for stuffing herself.

[Katie Nell]

That is my favorite commercial of all time!!! I wait in anticipation every year! Yes, it's official... I'm a dork!

[I_call_the_duck]

I haven't seen the Folger's commercial in a long time, but it always chokes me up. I was watching "A Charlie Brown Christmas" and I saw my favorite Christmas commercial with the M&Ms. Red and yellow are walking in the house and run into Santa.

"He does exist!" says Red.

"They do exist!" says Santa.

Both faint. Funny. Yeah, I'm a dork too.

[mizducky]

I'm not much of a Christmas celebrator, but I have a certain fondness for seeing that Christmas ribbon candy in the stores. I don't even necessarily care to eat it--usually it just tastes of sugar and an overly agressive amount of clove extract or something like that--but I just like the way the stuff looks.

Ditto candy canes. Seldom do they taste as good as they look, although sometimes you happen upon some retro canes whose makers go to the trouble of flavoring them interestingly, going multi-color with the stripes, etc. But they sure can look purty.

(At the risk of sounding like a preternaturally old Old Fart, I think of those Folgers and M&Ms holiday commercials as relatively recent additions to the holiday TV pantheon. I'm hard-pressed, however, to think of any earlier food-related holiday commercial that has wedged itself in my memory.)

[daniellewiley]

I'm not much of a Christmas celebrator, but I have a certain fondness for seeing that Christmas ribbon candy in the stores. I don't even necessarily care to eat it--usually it just tastes of sugar and an overly agressive amount of clove extract or something like that--but I just like the way the stuff looks.

We ALWAYS get a box of this for my (soon to be ex) husband's grandmother at Christmastime. The woman is almost 91. She always has hard candy or salt water taffy in her house, she has never been to the dentist, and yet somehow, she still has all of her teeth. Now, mind you, they look horrid, but they are all there.

So, anyway, we contribute to the decay with her beloved ribbon candy every year.

She also likes those tins of multi-colored candies. Let me find a link: kind of like this

[Diner Girl]

She also likes those tins of multi-colored candies. Let me find a link: kind of like this

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[andiesenji]

I know the holidays are near when I see the stacks of chocolate-covered cherries in every store, especially the drug stores. The Walgreens here has a mountain of them right next to the entrance to the checkout lane (form a single line, person in front goes to the next open checker.) I don't eat chocolate but for some reason, those always make my mouth water.

[andiesenji]

She also likes those tins of multi-colored candies. Let me find a link: kind of like this

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Oh my God, I LOVE that stuff. My grandparents always had it at Christmas, and now that they're no longer with us, I miss that stuff. I'm going to have to get some this year and just rot my teeth out. Yum! Thanks for reminding me of this stuff.

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[mizducky]

As long as we're pursuing this tangent of mail-order holiday candy, I'd like to enthusiastically recommend the offerings from The Vermont Country Store. They really have some charming goodies, both holiday and otherwise, including lots of retro sweets. (Although the only disadvantage of ordering from them over the Internet is that you don't get to browse through their wonderfully funky little paper catalog...)