Christmas is widely considered the most wonderful time of the year, at least according to all the Christmas songs on repeat you hear throughout the holiday season. But for football fans, NFL playoff season may actually be the most wonderful time of the year.

And it starts this weekend.

The advent of fantasy football never really lended itself well to postseason action in the past. But now there are a multitude of different playoff fantasy football leagues for owners to try with various, interesting scoring formats. I think I play more fantasy playoff leagues now than I did 10 years ago.

For those of you in such fantasy playoff leagues, here are some stories to get you ready for the first big weekend of the NFL playoffs. Hope you have a comfy spot on your couch picked out for what should be a fantastic weekend.

Here are today’s great reads:

• Bad injury news for the defending champs: The Saints lost both Chris Ivory and Pierre Thomas to injured reserve this week. Ivory had a terrific rookie season as a power runner while Thomas had just returned from a lengthy ankle injury. One thing these injuries do is open the door for Reggie Bush, who will have an opportunity to continue earning all that money the Saints continue to pay him. [FanHouse]
• A quick and dirty — but highly useful — cheat sheet for the fantasy playoffs. I figure a lot of people will be loading up on New England players this postseason. Expect to see lots of Tom Brady on rosters. [Roto Arcade]
• If you are looking forward to next season already, some consider Arian Foster as the consensus No. 1 on draft boards after his monster 2010 campaign. One good thing for Foster’s value? The Texans retained head coach Gary Kubiak. [SI.com]

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