I’ll admit it: Sometimes it’s a little hard for me to get into the holiday spirit. When the carved pumpkins are still on the porches and my children’s conversations are filled with the details of Halloween costumes and the most efficient trick-or-treating routes through the neighborhood, my brain is 100% dancing sugarplum-free.

Frankly, it’s hard to think about Christmas when there are leaves on the trees and temperatures in the 60s.

But magazine deadlines are what they are, so at Volume One, we start gearing up for the holiday season more than a few weeks in advance. Luckily, this year my Grinch-like heart was nudged toward some holiday growth by two things. First was the snowfall on Halloween morning, which came as we began working on the issue you hold in your hands. A dusting of white, no matter how fleeting, never fails to have me humming “It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas.” (Literally: Ask my coworkers!)

The second factor had nothing to do with the weather: It was the hard work of a dozen of my coworkers on the first weekend of November to transform The Local Store at Volume One World Headquarters into a magical winter wonderland. It’s hard to harbor any “Humbug!” when the last leg of your commute is through a store bedecked in tinsel, evergreen boughs, and our beloved vintage Santa statue. If you feel your spirits flagging amid the hustle and bustle of this holiday season, just thumb through the pages of this issue and come down to The Local Store for a yuletide boost!