There will be no hot seat talk or criticism today. After all, it’s Christmas.

Christmas is about being with loved ones and celebrating what we have. Whether we realize it or not, we all have a lot.

The same is true for the SEC, which enjoyed a Christmas with not one, but two teams in the College Football Playoff this year.

Some argued that by earning that final spot, Alabama got the gift of all gifts. For once, it felt like the Tide waited patiently under the tree instead of going out and buying its own present. Saban could sip his Christmas morning mimosa knowing that someone (Oklahoma and Wisconsin) went out and bought him exactly what he wanted.

But Alabama is hardly the only SEC team that got the perfect gift for Christmas. There were perhaps more gifts than usual given to SEC teams. Some came in the form of the perfect new head coach, and some came in the form of a healed injury to a star player.

However those gifts came, they came in bunches.

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Let’s start off with the kid who got EVERYTHING on his wish list. Georgia got a Red Ryder BB Gun, a new iPhone and a new house. The Dawgs got the season they’ve been waiting decades for. They got a premier non-conference win on the road, a dominant run through the SEC East, a redemption-filled SEC Championship victory and a Playoff berth.

And just in case that wasn’t enough, Georgia was gifted the No. 1 recruiting class in America. For a team with a 42-year-old head coach and a true freshman quarterback, that almost seemed like overkill. There wasn’t a Christmas tree in America that could hold all the Dawgs’ gifts. They were basically the McCallisters at the end of Home Alone 2.

Tennessee, on the other hand, had plenty of room under its tree. But make no mistake, there was still a present for the Vols.

Like Georgia 2 years ago, Tennessee’s holiday gift came in the form of a former Nick Saban disciple. Considering the disastrous holiday mess that the Vols created for themselves — protesting Greg Schiano’s hire, sabotaging John Currie, firing John Currie, etc. — they’re lucky they at least didn’t spend Christmas out in the cold.

That was the case for a lot of the programs in the SEC who made new coaching hires. With the new early signing period, coaches flew off the shelves quicker than ever. Elbows were thrown in the mad dash in the coaching candidate department store. Some missed out on their Cabbage Patch Kid. I mean, their first coaching choice.

Tennessee, Florida and Arkansas all whiffed on their first choices. Still, they hardly got a lump of coal.

Jeremy Pruitt, Dan Mullen and Chad Morris were all presents that were more of the “functional gift” variety. None were the type of gifts you stick on the front lawn to show off to your neighbors, but they could all wind up being extremely useful long-term. There’s still plenty of value in that vacuum you got 6 years ago.

Others, like Auburn and Texas A&M, went out and bought that yacht they’ve always wanted. It provided brag-to-your-neighbors spending that will last well through the holiday season. Only time will tell if the investment was worth the splash.

Then there was Mississippi State, which finally ran out of use for that functional gift it received decades earlier. Fortunately for the Bulldogs, they knew they would eventually have to go to the store and pick out a replacement. The hope is that their new gift will make their lives easier in the exact same way that the old one did.

Credit: C. Morgan Engel-USA TODAY Sports

But there were more things for SEC teams to be thankful for this Christmas than their head coaches.

Ole Miss had to prepare for a harsh winter storm from NCAA. Fortunately for the Rebels, the storm didn’t completely wipe out their house, which was a gift in itself. A lack of big-time transfers — with the exception of Shea Patterson — and the addition of 4-star quarterback recruit Matt Corral prevented Ole Miss from having an empty Christmas after earning a spot on the naughty list.

For others, the holiday season was about appreciating the blessings that weren’t under the tree.

For LSU, that gift was holding on to two of the most-coveted coordinators for at least one more season. For Vanderbilt, that gift was having its junior quarterback provide some offensive hope for the post-Ralph Webb era. For Missouri, that gift was a perfect second half of 2017 that made fans forget about the horrific start to the season. For Kentucky and South Carolina, the gift of the SEC East was perhaps the greatest gift of all.

Christmas is about not taking the little things for granted. True student-athletes like Kentucky’s Courtney Love, Georgia’s Aaron Davis and Auburn’s Daniel Carlson have done nothing but give back throughout their careers. It’s people like them who will have truly left their mark when their time in the spotlight is done.

As we celebrate the holiday with family and friends, it seems like a perfect time to remind everyone to be grateful for what you do have and not what you don’t. For at least one day, don’t demand that your offense come shipped overnight in a box, Florida fans. And you, Auburn fan, go re-watch the Iron Bowl instead of criticizing your team’s disappointing SEC Championship performance.

Blessed we all are for the year that was. We all have reasons for holiday cheer, whether we realize it or not.

That should mean more than anything.