Blog Post 11/15

I love Christmas. It’s easily my favorite holiday, though I would consider autumn to be my favorite season. As much as I love decorating for Christmas and listening to carols, I can’t get into it until after Halloween. I don’t like skipping over Thanksgiving, either, so I tend to decorate on Black Friday and leave everything up through January.

Growing up, we had a rule in my house about all things Christmas. My older sister’s birthday is December 6, so we couldn’t do anything Christmas-related until after her birthday. Most years, December 7 would find us shopping for a live tree and putting up decorations, but sometimes we had to wait for the first weekend after her birthday. We had all the handmade, school-activity style ornaments plus the ones my grandmother gave us through the years. I have hung onto those from Grandma because they’re a good reminder of her. She liked the heavy porcelain snowmen that wore real knit scarves and hats. They made the tree limbs sag so they had to be hung closer to the trunk, which meant they couldn’t be seen as well. The other Christmas thing I hang onto from my grandma is her love of cardinals. Redbirds were her favorite, and they could be found all over her house at wintertime. From sweatshirts to calendars to ornaments and everything else, she collected it all. There’s never a lack of things to remind me of her at this time of year.

My aunt and uncle went all-out in decorating their house. They had a snoring Santa laying in his bed, complete with a moving belly under his Christmas quilt. There was a Mrs. Claus that held a candle and played Christmas tunes. They had several wire reindeer on their front lawn that lit up. We would hunt for the new thing they’d bought that year when we visited; sometimes it was a train car, sometimes a house for the ceramic village, sometimes a new wreath made of plastic holly. They rivaled every house on their street for the number of lights stringing their eaves and running along the fence. Everyone on my mom’s side of the family lived near each other, so we spent every Sunday and all of our holidays together. As some have moved and others have passed on, I find myself missing the family get-togethers more and more.

That’s what I’ve always considered Christmas to be about, and that’s what makes it my favorite. It could be the only time you get to see your great-uncle or third cousin. It’s a time of everyone being in a joyful mood, of spending more time together and slowing down a little bit in our busy lives. And whether you celebrate Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Bodhi Day, Pancha Ganapati, Yule, Festivus, or anything I haven’t mentioned, my hope is that your December is full of hope, togetherness, love, and peace.

I am happy to announce that I’m publishing a new book on November 30. If you’ve subscribed to my newsletter, then you’ve read the first few chapters of Christmas Overnighted.

Christmas will be canceled if he can’t pull off a miracle in a snowstorm.

Warren Kline thought getting a second job at the holidays would be easy, and it mostly was. As the new office delivery guy, he sees uptight, Christmas-hating Cora LeGrand every day. She’s brusque and efficient, and something about her makes Warren want to crack her tough shell by December twenty-fifth. His persistence and easy-going nature are close to winning her over, especially when he tells her he’s donating his salary to charity. At the last minute, a Nor’easter and Cora’s busy schedule threaten to ruin his plans. Will Warren be able to overnight Christmas to his new crush, or will the storm wreck their future happiness?

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