Some people point to the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade as the true kick-off to the Christmas season. But for me, it's not truly Christmastime in the city until Donny Hathaway's mellifluous voice croons "Hang all the mistletoe, I'm gonna get to know you better...This Christmas..."

That's when it happens. Warm and fuzzy images of Christmas tree trimming, sipping hot chocolate, and watching the snow fall from inside a home heated with love and the spirit of the season. Ah yes. 'Tis the season for love, giving, and yuletide cheer laid over a soulful soundtrack.

For most people, scent is the number one trigger of specific memories. For me, it has always been music. And so the songs that played in the background of my Christmases past have become imaginary photo albums. A montage of memories that invoke all of the warmth associated with the season.

For instance, The Temptations' Christmas album, featuring "Silent Night" and "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" bring fond memories of my best friend in our childhood. Her round kind face and bubbly childhood sweetness play in my mind as I recall our second grade Christmas party where she provided the tape as the soundtrack. At 25, she is a mother-to-be, waiting to give all that same bubbly kindness to her son upon his arrival.

There's Luther Vandross's "Every Christmas," that takes me back to celebrating Christmas at my grandmother's house where I grew up. Luther Vandross was to her what Frank Sinatra and BIng Crosby may have been to other grandmas across the country. Luther played in her kitchen every year as she baked the sweet potatoe pies, sugar cookies, and german chocolate cakes that accompanied our Christmas dinners. Christmas 1999 was the last time I watched my Grandma labor lovingly in her kitchen, before she fell victim to a massive stroke in November 2000. Eight years later, she still smiles when she hears Luther Vandross's "Every Christmas" play on the CD player next to her hospital bed.

Nat King Cole's "The Christmas Song" will always take me back to the Christmas Eves of my childhood. I'd sit in front of the Christmas tree, one of the "tiny tots with their eyes all aglow" wondering how on Earth I was going to be able to sleep through the night.

And finally, there's Donny Hathaway's "This Christmas," which will forever remind me of the sweetness of sharing a first Christmas with my first serious boyfriend. The long evening we spent decorating the Christmas tree in my mother's apartment. The kisses shared on the couch as we'd sit by the tree on those cold December nights. The laughs we shared watching the cult classic "A Christmas Story." And the future Christmases that we have ahead of us. (Fingers are crossed behind my back, folks!)

So, now that I've shared my recipe for a warm and fuzzy Christmas with you, tell me: What songs are on your Christmas playlist?