By Hannah Ellington, News Editor

You might have your own Christmas traditions — baking cookies for Santa, opening up one present on Christmas Eve, decorating the house with lights or religiously watching Hallmark movies. Around this point, you would say you have Christmas spirit.

But it’s unlikely you have as much spirit as junior Lauren Law, who starts getting into the festive mood well before Halloween.

You might know her around the halls as the girl with the Christmas sweaters — and that’s because she is. With 23 sweaters and counting, six T-shirts, two pairs of leggings, 40 pairs of earrings, six bracelets, five necklaces, a pair of shoes, two purses and 21 pairs of socks, Law has a whole lot of Christmas.

“I didn’t start obsessing over it until freshman year of high school,” Law said. “In eighth grade, there was an ugly sweater day at the middle school the last day before Christmas break and I had one sweater that kind of fit. I saw everyone wearing their sweaters and I thought it was so cool.”

In order to fit in all her outfits before winter break, Law wears different sweaters each day to show off her Christmas spirit. With the rate she’s going, she’ll have have to start in October in future years.

“Freshman year I had a week’s worth of sweaters, and then sophomore year I had a month’s worth of sweaters,” Law said. “This year I had to start two weeks before Thanksgiving to fit it all in and I still don’t have enough days to wear it all.”

Law has a special system she goes by for wearing her festive sweaters. She plans out each day in advance and already has plans to wear her favorite on her birthday, Dec. 14.

“I try to wear the more subtle ones first, like one that has red and white stripes like a candy cane,” Law said. “It gets gradually tacky as the month goes on, so I save the tackiest stuff until the week before Christmas break. Those are the sweaters that have bells on them and they jingle.”

Sometimes, Law worries that by wearing her sweaters so early, people could get offended. But that doesn’t stop her.

“I don’t see anything wrong with eating a Thanksgiving dinner next to a Christmas tree in a Christmas sweater. The turkey tastes the same — no problem with me,” Law said with a laugh.

The junior has gradually grown her collection of sweaters with help from her grandmother as well as by browsing thrift stores, yard sales and eBay.

“When I first started collecting them, my grandmother had gotten them for my birthday because it is also in December, and I got a few for Christmas,” Law said. “A few of them my grandmother gave me were hers in the ‘80s and ‘90s. Most of them are vintage. I prefer the vintage ones over the new ones.”

In fact, her most expensive sweater is vintage.

“(It’s) a Charlie Brown and Woodstock one, it was $40 on eBay. It’s vintage and rare, so it could go for $80 if I wanted to resell it,” she said.

Law also puts in a lot of creativity with her outfits by decorating her own shoes and creating her own earrings.

“I got a pair of Christmas ornaments from Dollar Tree that I’m going to make into a pair of earrings,” she said.

Law’s Christmas obsession also shines through in her decoration skills at home.

“I try to always take charge of decorating the Christmas tree. I try not to be too bossy about it, but I want it to look perfect,” Law said. “My parents want to throw all the random decorations we have on there and make it look like a normal Christmas tree, and I want an in-the-magazines, picture-perfect Christmas tree.”

But when it comes down to it, there are compromises that have to be made.

“You get up close and you see all the little pictures from kindergarten with the decorated frames and the ones with all the pets in them, and my parents have these ornaments they got on their honeymoon they always put on there,” Law explained. “Never matches my theme, but I can’t force them to not put them on there.”

Many times, her parents do not want her to decorate the house before the “appropriate” time. Despite that, Law takes matters into her own hands and secretly does it while they’re gone. This year she went with a gingerbread house theme with icicle lights.

Law hopes that one day she can go all out with her outside decorations.

“I would like to go as intense as the Poulos’ house, that’s my dream. One day that will be me,” she said with a smile, referring to the Outer Banks’ most famous festive family.

Holiday traditions are also very prominent in the Law household: opening one gift on Christmas Eve, baking cookies, laying out carrots for the reindeer, watching movies (especially “Elf”) and even going out for Chinese food for Christmas dinner.

“One year, our grandma tried to cook us a turkey,” Law recalled. “It was on a glass pan and she put it on top of the hot oven where it was so hot and it exploded, so there was turkey and glass all over. It was the funniest thing. We were just like, ‘Fine, we’ll just go get Chinese food again.’ ”

For all their Christmas spirit, even the Laws have their flaws. Most often, those flaws are packaged on a sleigh fueled by the power of procrastination.

“We always go last-minute Christmas shopping because my family is very last minute,” Law said. “It’s Dec. 20 and they’re like, ‘We don’t have any gifts for anyone.’”

Even after all those presents have been opened, the Christmas spirit lingers for Law and her family. They leave their tree up as long as possible and only reluctantly put away all the decorations until next year.

Law’s obsession with Christmas has even led her to think about a future in which “it’s Christmas all year long.”

“I have dreams of marrying into a Christmas tree farm,” she said with a laugh, only partially joking. “I think it would really suit me. I think it would be really fun to help people find their perfect Christmas tree.”

The outfits and accessories are certainly ready. There’s no doubt Law has Christmas in the (gift-wrapped) bag.

“I love Christmas because it’s such a great time of the year,” she said. “Everyone is happy and it’s really hard to be sad during this time of the year, especially if you’re wearing a Christmas sweater.”

Junior Hannah Ellington can be reached at ellingtonha1214@daretolearn.org.