Saturday 16 October 2021

 

Season’s Readings

You must’ve noticed it. We’ve not even had Halloween yet, and already the supermarkets are full of Christmas food - family size tins of Quality Street and mince pies. 


But it’s not just the supermarkets that are getting in the festive spirit months in advance. Readers (and writers) are too. October is a massive month for Christmas books, although I have seen some cover reveals and releases as early as September. There’s been a veritable avalanche of snowy book covers, wintery (but far from bleak) landscapes full of quaint cottages, all smoky chimneys and fairy light covered fir trees in the garden. My own Christmas cosy crime (because nothing says ‘Ho ho ho’ like a good old fashioned murder) isn’t out until the end of November, but it’s already on Amazon, where preorders are flying off the virtual shelves.


I have to confess that until I became a writer, I wasn’t even really aware that ‘holiday’ books were a thing. It wasn’t until my writer friends started releasing their own seasonal stories, and I started hanging around in online book clubs, that I saw how popular they are. So what’s the appeal?

I suppose for me, it’s a way to regain the excitement and magic of Christmas that I used to feel as a child. I no longer believe in the big guy at the North Pole, so stories about elves and red nosed reindeers aren’t going to cut it for me. But stories about finding true love under the mistletoe; about spending the holiday in a snowy village, warming hands on mugs of steaming hot chocolate and hearts on steaming hot men… Count me in! Christmas and New Year are all about new beginnings, and these books are, too. New lives, and new loves.


Christmas - in the Northern hemisphere, anyway - is all about getting cosy. It’s about curling up in front of the fire, a mince pie and a glass of mulled wine close to hand, and whiling away the long winter nights with a good book. It’s about holding back the darkness of midwinter, not just with fairy lights and candles, but with the warm glow that you only get from a good story. Some might call that a guilty pleasure, but I firmly believe that no one should ever feel guilty about something they enjoy, especially not at Christmas. Christmas IS pleasure (or should be).


It’s not just Christmas, of course. There’s always a slew of Halloween books every October, but I’d argue that they’re really more just supernatural/paranormal/horror stories, rather than specifically about the haunted holiday; unlike Christmas stories, which could ONLY take place at Christmas, a lot of Halloween books could probably be transposed to other, less traditionally spooky times of the year, without the story suffering.

What do you think? Are you a fan of Christmas books? If so, when do you start reading them - and just as important, when do you stop? Can you still have Christmas in February or March? Or are you more ‘bah humbug!’ when it comes to festive reading?




7 comments:

  1. Hello Fiona! Congratulations on the future release of A Cornish Christmas Murder. I love delving into Christmas novels around mid-November, being swept away by the excitement of the season, but by the end of December I'm ready to leave the tinsel and mince-pies behind... until next year. : )

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  2. Great post! I've noticed loads of Christmas books too but they mostly tend to be romcoms which is not my favourite genre so I have only read a few of them. I love the sound of yours and am off to preorder it now. We have spent many Christmases away skiing with friends, one in New Zealand, and are hoping to spend this one in Spain in our motorhome, so our Christmases aren't the traditional ones.

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  3. Coincidentaly, out little Sainsburys Local had a whole PALLET full of mince pies on sale yesterday! M&S have had their Christmas glittery clementine gin and their Christmas cider on sale for a couple of weeks now.
    So concensus may well be that its time to start reading them.
    Personally, I would stop reading them by the 12th day of Christmas. Besides which we want spring and summer books to get us through winter then!
    So "Read Festive!"

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  4. I didn't really discover Christmas books until I started writing, and now I love them, especially murder mysteries! Must confess to being a little miffed at Christmas decorations in October. You new book sounds lovely and I'm off to order. Cheers. (Christmas or otherwise.)

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  5. This debuts at 3 with a bullet...

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  6. Confession time. I'd never read a Christmas book until I was asked to write one. And I had a bit of shock when the edit came around that I had to have snow in it. I'd set it where I live - balmy South Devon - and we rarely get snow, and especially not on Christmas Day. But snow I had to have. This is a super, buzzy, full of Christmas spirit post, Fiona. I just love, love, love that bottom image.

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  7. I'd never read a Christmas book until I was asked to write one. Now, I can see the appeal of reading Christmas books, particularly novellas, leading up to Christmas. They also have the added bonus of giving me an excuse to put my feet up during the hectic preparations ;)

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