As a history writer, every year I try to find a new story to write for the holidays. One year I retold the tale of when The Enquirer sponsored an expedition to the North Pole to find Santa Claus. Another time I wrote a Christmas poem.

This year, I sought to explore nostalgia and answer why we feel nostalgic at Christmas.

During my research, I found the British podcast "The Naked Scientists" that asked that very question of neuroscientist Dean Burnett, author of "The Idiot Brain," and nostalgia psychologist Jacob Juhl from the University of Southampton.

"When people are nostalgic, they tend to reflect fondly on aspects of the past," said Juhl. "They tend to reflect on certain time periods ... but almost always, they're surrounded by close friends or close family. Nostalgia is largely a positive emotional experience, but sometimes it does contain ... a tinge of sadness."

During the holidays, we strive to recapture some of the heartwarming memories from long ago, particularly of the time we were children, or when our kids were young and we viewed the holiday through young eyes.

"Our strongest memories will come from our childhood. That's when we are developing," Burnett said. "Our childhood experiences tend to be the most formative. And when you're a child, what is more emotionally stimulating than Christmas?"

"As you grow up, you hear this particular piece of music, and you associate that with all these good times. You hear it again, and those memories will come flooding back. It's triggering the connections."

So, we surround ourselves with the familiar lights and sounds of Christmas, which stir up those sentimental feelings. Year after year we listen to the same songs, watch the same movies, do the same holiday activities, which we call traditions.

"Traditions are important to us largely because they give us a sense of meaning in life," said Juhl, "and that, along with kind of all the sentiment, all of the social connectedness, really helps heighten the accessibility of the memories, making it a good thing to be nostalgic about."

So, I had the answer to why we are nostalgic at Christmas. But how could I recapture that feeling for readers?

I decided to do a bit of mental time travel, not back to a past Cincinnati Christmas, but to all the Cincinnati Christmases of the past, an amalgam of festive memories over the years. The Cincinnati Christmas that we feel nostalgic about.

Tales of the glories of Christmases long, long ago, you might say.