Three Stories for Christmas

It’s not Christmas without some stories about the season and the holiday. And here are three that (almost) represent the diverse spectrum of Christmas – faith, memories, and romance. 

In The Miracle of Mistletoe by Emily Dana Botrous, Marcy and Colt Delaney live in a small town in southwestern Virginia. They’ve been married for four years, and they’re now growing apart. Colt travels a lot; he works in information technology for his foster father’s business in Boston. He says little about his past; Marcy knows that his back was physically broken in an accident when he was 12, and he lives with pain. And being of mixed race, he feels completely out of place in their town and Marcy’s family. What he holds on to is his faith in God.

 

For her part, Marcy thinks she’s dumb. She endured four years of an abusive relationship with a boyfriend who seemed to spend most of his time ridiculing her. What she’s never told anyone is that that she’s dyslexic. Before they married, she and Colt agreed they would never have children. But now Marcy finds herself pregnant.

 

The Miracle of Mistletoe is the story of two broken people, one still dealing with the effects of child abuse and the other with the often-paralyzing effects of a learning disability. The power of the novel is how the writer makes us care about these two people, groping toward each other and toward God.

 

The Three Christmases of William Spencer by Derek Blount tells the story of Christmas through three ages of a man. Billy Spencer shares his birthday with Christmas, and he’s seven years old on Christmas Day of 1930. What is wants more than anything is the sleek and fast red sled in the window of Mr. Mercer’s store. But it’s 1930, the Depression has started, and his father has lost his job. Billy gets a sled, but it’s not the one he wanted. And his grandfather has some advice.

 

The second story is Christmas, 1963. Bill has turned 40. His in-laws are visiting, and everything that could go wrong does. Bill is not Catholic, but he does what he’s done each year since the end of World War II – and lights a candle in the local Catholic church, remembering his grandfather’s advice.

 

Fast forward to 2010 for the third story. Bill is now 87, a widower, and his only son died of a heart attack 10 years before. His meals are delivered by Meals of Wheels. He has four presents underneath his tree that he wrapped for himself, remembering his grandfather’s advice. His praying that this Christmas will be his last. And then he hears a noise outside.

 

The Three Christmases of William Spencer is heartwarming, sentimental, and tear-evoking – and a wonderful story to read for Christmas.

 

Wildwood Lodge by Jennifer Griffith is what a Christian might call a clean secular romance. Jayne Renwick and Ben Bellamy are TV hosts at an Albany television station. Jayne hosts a lifestyle program, while Ben does a sports show – a sports show so popular that he’s constantly being recruited for a national program. 

 

Jayne has the possibility of an advancement in her career. She has two producers from a show in Boston coming to see what she’s planned for Wildwood Lodge, a vacation home she’s rented and five strangers she’s invited to share Christmas. One of the five turns out to be Ben, who’s carrying some psychological baggage form the past that’s all about Christmas and his grandparents. Jayne has a program in mind, but she’s planned nothing, and it’s Ben (and her guests) who come to her rescue. A Christmas romance begins to develop, and then the producers show up from Boston. And one of them is Ben’s former love interest.

 

Wildwood Lodge is a light, sometimes frothy story of Christmas that is still a fun read. 

Top photograph by S&B Vonlanthen via Unsplash. Used with permission.

Christmas, Romance, and Food

Christmas celebrations are known for all kinds of foods – main courses, baked goods like pies and cakes, cookies (especially cookies), and more. It’s no surprise that food will often play a role in Christmas romance stories.

It may be food at big family gatherings. It may the food at Christmas dinners and lunches with work colleagues. It may the food featured at holiday time in cafes and restaurants. It may also be date meals for the hero and heroine.

In food romances and Christmas food romances, authors will also often include a recipe or two at the end, suggesting a real-world connection to a romance novel. Occasionally, the reader might be forgiven for suspecting that the story actually was inspired by the recipe. 

Here are two examples of Christmas romance novels that use food in very different ways (but both have a recipe at the end). 

The Christmas Cookie House by Jennifer Griffith

In The Christmas Cookie House by Jennifer Griffith, Leela Miller is a 20-somethig determined to keep her mother’s Christmas legacy alive. That legacy was largely based on work each Christmas on a fundraising event for the local ladies’ auxiliary – the Christmas Cookie House where thousands of homemade cookies are sold. The event is always held at the home of the auxiliary chairwoman, Una Mae Coldicott. Except this year, Una Mae plans to deep-six the event; she won’t have it at her home any longer and no one is stepping up to take charge. Leela does, even though she’s only a provisional member.

The ideal place to have the event would be the old Layton mansion, now owned by Jay Wilson, a newly minted veterinarian who is interested only in selling the mansion as fast as possible to get the funds needed to buy a veterinary partnership. Things between Jay and Leela seem to start off on a bad footing, when he discovers her trying to look into a back window of the house and instead falling into a bed of roses. Jay has to achieve one condition for the house in his uncle’s will – to sort through everything in the attic. It’s a lot to sort, and to speed access to the house for the cookie fundraiser, Leela volunteers to help.

We know where this is likely headed. But can the growing romance endure Jay’s desire to sell the house and move to another town? We’re not sure how this story will end, but Leela’s gingersnap cookies certainly won’t hurt (recipe at the end).

Keep Me at Christmas by Lucinda Whitney

Keep Me at Christmas is one of Lucinda Whitney’s novel series about the Romano family. Luciana Romano, partially to escape wedding activities for her cousins and comments about her own wed-less condition, agrees to be a last-minute substitute for a museum curation project in Hudson Springs, New York. She flies from her native Portugal to New York, to help the museum prepare for an exhibit of local 19^th century textiles, and historical textiles in Luciana’s specialty. Arriving too early for her room to be ready at the local inn, she’s dropped off by the taxi driver at the Italian café and bakery operated by Jack DiLorenzo, his mother, and his grandmother. 

Two years after his fiancé broke off their engagement, on Christmas Day, no less, Jack is determined to date no one; the hurt was too great. And then Luciana walks into the café. Food becomes the initial bond; readers may gain weight simply by reading about all of the mouth-watering foods served by the café – paninis, traditional Italian dishes, desserts, and more, not to mention the hot chocolate drinks with real chocolate. (The recipe featured at the end, however, is one Jack makes for Luciana, and it’s the Portuguese dish of sweet rice, a kind of risotto pudding.)

Jack has to overcome his reluctance to take a risk on love; Luciana, no matter how strongly she’s attracted to Jack, knows that a long-distance relationship won’t likely work. She’s has only two weeks in Hudson Springs, until a snowstorm delays her return to Portugal.

Top photograph by Brooke Lark via Unsplash. Used with permission.