May we not spend Christmas or observe Christmas but rather keep it. ~ Peter Marshall
Christmas Day has come and gone. Seems each year it comes quicker and is overtaken by a New Year just as fast. Since we had our family Christmas gathering early this year, Christmas seemed to come and go faster than ever. But that’s just the traditions and busyness of Christmas.
Christmas can dwell in our hearts year around with maybe getting a little extra charge as December rolls along. The Christmas music you hear at every turn and all the Christmas lights you see as you travel along the roads and the way people smile at each other more even when they are stressed out with shopping for gifts and special grocery items for the meals they want to cook for their families – maybe all those things and more fire up our Christmas spirits. And as Peter Marshall advises in his quote, may we keep that feeling of Christmas joy in our hearts.
So now that my family celebrations are over, I want to take a moment to remember how a few of my characters celebrated Christmas. I love getting to write a Christmas scene in my stories. I like stepping back in time with my characters when Christmas expectations did seem simpler. Back in the 19th century, many families had a much different celebration. Perhaps families decorated a tree. Perhaps they didn’t. They may have gone to church and I have no difficulty imagining my characters gathering as families to read the Christmas story from the Bible.
Families surely gathered to visit when they lived near one another. Stockings were hung by the fireplaces and filled with fruit and candy that were a special treat. Now, most of us can buy fruit and candy every week of the year if we choose instead of only buying it at Christmastime. Even in the 1930’s and 40’s Christmas was often a simpler celebration for many families.
I have celebrated Christmas with my characters in several of my books. I shared these a couple of years ago, but some stories can be retold.
In Summer of Joy, a story set in the 1960’s, my young heroine, Jocie, gets a new pen and notebook for Christmas. Of course, she’s ready to start writing down words and feelings right away. She, the same as I was at her age, is a journal writer at heart.
In the post I wrote a couple of years ago, I say she got a bike for Christmas, but when I looked back at the book to find the Christmas scene, I remembered that the bike was a birthday present – I think. I got to have a lot of fun writing about Christmas in that book. It might have summer in the title, but most of the story is set in the wintertime with snow and Christmas plays at church and special Christmas surprises and romantic scenes in spite of Leigh having a terrible cold.
Here’s the last paragraph of what Jocie wrote as she felt the love of her family surrounding her on that Christmas Day.
I’m glad some things change. I’m glad we have more people around our Christmas tree. I’m glad Dad and Leigh look so happy. I’m glad Wes is still telling me Jupiter stories. I’m glad Tabitha and Stephen Lee are here. I’m glad Aunt Love’s smiling more. I’m glad Zeb curls up on my feet to keep me warm when I sleep out on the back porch.
But I’m glad some things don’t change. Like the Lord. Like people loving other people a little extra at Christmastime. Like Dad and Wes loving me a little extra all the time. Like the Lord blessing people even when they don’t know what blessings they need.
Happy birthday, Jesus!
Then head back a few more years with me to 1945 and my story Love Comes Home. With Christmas only days away, Kate welcomes Jay home from World War II. You can be sure I loved writing a romantic first Christmas for them since they married right before he went overseas in 1942. Here’s a bit of that Christmas scene.
“What is it you want to find under the tree on Christmas morning?” Jay asked. He kept the ring he’d bought in Virginia secret in his pocket, glad he’d gotten something for her then, because now he couldn’t bear to let Kate out of his sight long enough to shop.
“You,” Kate whispered. “Only you.”
“But you’ve already got me.”
“Sometimes Christmas comes early.”
In These Healing Hills, it’s still 1945 with my midwife nurse, Fran, looking forward to a peaceful, joyful Appalachian Mountain Christmas.
When she thought about how her mother back in the city would be frantically decorating and planning for Christmas, Fran was glad to be in a cabin sitting by a warm fire with her dog at her feet. She had mailed her mother a pair of mittens Jeralene’s mother knitted and sent Harold a jar of sorghum molasses. Christmas shopping done.
She might go to Wendover on Christmas Day if Becca wasn’t having her baby. Or maybe she’d make cookies and stay right here at the Center to hand out treats to anybody who came by. She could even wrap up some to take to Granny Em. That way she could stop in at the Locke house. Just thinking about that made her smile. She’d bought a little cloth sack of thumb-sized handkerchief dolls from one of the mountain women. Mrs. Jessup said they were church babies. Fran couldn’t wait to give those to Sadie.
Don’t you just love the picture at the top of my post of the church babies I bought at a craft fair a few years ago? I loved working them into my Appalachian story.
So I’ve been able to celebrate Christmas with several different families. True, they are made-up families, but in my mind they became real as I wrote their stories. That made it extra fun to write them a blessed and merry Christmas. I pray that you all experienced the special joys of Christmas as you remembered the shepherds hearing angels sing, a baby born in a stable, and Mary pondering the wonder of it all in her heart. (Luke 2:19)
May you also keep the wonder and joy of Christmas in your hearts as you welcome in a New Year in a few days.
Do you like to read stories where the characters celebrate Christmas? Have you read these Christmas scenes in my stories?
Remember, if you leave a comment, you will be entered in the drawing for the last of my Christmas book giveaway here on One Writer’s Journal. I’ve already picked two winners, Deborah who chose my book, River to Redemption. I sent the book out to her before Christmas. Then Janette was my 2nd winner. I haven’t heard from her yet, but it’s been a busy week for most people. I’ll email her again. I’ll pick the last winner in this giveaway on Sunday. But not to worry if you aren’t one of my winners this time. I’ll be giving away more books in 2024.
Comments 46
Love your books! And your Friday Smiles! I always read them to my husband!
Author
Thanks, Janet. I’m so glad you’ve read and enjoyed my stories. And it’s fun that you share my Friday smiles with your husband. I hope some of them make him smile too and maybe groan a little when I share those groaner jokes. 🙂
Author
Sarah, Dana, and Lucy, so glad you all love seeing Christmas joy show up in stories and enjoy those Christmas novellas too.
The church babies are very cute, aren’t they, Sarah? I was so pleased when I came across them at a craft fair.
I recently read Christmas at Harmony Hills and loved it. Now, I’m on to The Gifted. I hate when I go backwards, but I love your books. I was blessed to find a few in my library that got me started. Now, I want to read everything you write! Health and happiness in the new year!
Author
That’s wonderful, Evelyn, and don’t worry about going backwards with the Shaker books. They are all individual stories with different characters. I did carry Sister Sophrena over from The Gifted to tell her story in Christmas at Harmony Hill along with Heather’s story, but reading her part with Jessamine in The Gifted didn’t really influence anything about the Christmas story. I just loved her name so much, I wanted to write more about her. I do also have a Sister Edna I’ve mentioned in several stories and she plays a bigger part in The Innocent. A few other characters I mention now and again in following stories but just for fun. Sort of a dropping names to see if readers notice. Don’t know if they do or not.
These Healing Hills is one of my favorite books that you’ve written. It helps remind me of simpler times & being thankful for the gifts that are truly from the heart. And sitting by a warm fire with a dog as company is just wonderful, just as you wrote in your book, or even if it’s today.
Author
I agree, Kayla, that the image of sitting by a fire with a loyal dog at your feet and maybe a book in your hands is a perfect image.
I’m so glad you enjoyed These Healing Hills. I had a great time researching the Frontier Nursing Midwives and dropping my characters down into that area and time.
Yes, I do love reading about Christmas and have read a couple of yours.
It is hard for me to gather in my mind not being able to get an apple or orange anytime I wish. I could hop in my car and go get as many as I wanted at any time. My mama talked about the fruit and nuts for Christmas. I wish I had asked more questions.
Author
My mom talked about the orange she got in her stocking and what a treat it was, Loretta. She didn’t eat it all at once, but ate a few sections at a time to make it last.
While we didn’t always have bought at the grocery store fruit, we did have fruit out on the farm with apple trees and pear trees and all sorts of berries. And we did generally get more fresh fruit in the house around Christmastime. But like you, now if I want to have fruit, I just go buy some. Our country is so blessed to have plentiful food.
I believe we all just might have a special Christmas story to tell. Each one would be impacted in our mind, or found in a Christmas photo. My husband, myself, and our 4 children would always sing “Over the River and Through the Woods” as we traveled to our parents homes on Christmas Day for the Christmas dinner. We did live in a very wooded area and did have to cross the big Mississippi River, so it seemed very fitting to sing this song. I loved those days and think of them often.
Author
That’s fun, Eileen, that you all were able to sing that old familiar song and it was so true about your trip to your parents’ house.
We do all have many stories to share even when we don’t take the time to share them or when we think that no one will care to hear them. I’m glad for those of you readers who share you stories with me.
I’ve read the ones in These Healing Hills. There is always special feelings around Christmas time, and I think you capture them very well in your stories.
Author
Thank you, Connie. I appreciate you telling me that. I do like feeling the Christmas spirit and joy in those Christmas scenes in my stories.
Wishing you that same kind of spirit and joy all through the coming year.
Love your simple Christmas scenes. Love Comes Home is my favorite of your books. I’ve never seen church babies before. So sweet!
Those “church babies” sure brought back memories! My Daddy was a preacher and back then (late 40’s), country churches didn’t have nurseries. To keep me quiet during the preaching, Mama would take her handkerchief, which no real lady would be without, and fold them into little babies. Some looked wrapped in blankets and some were in a little hammock. I loved playing with them and still remember being fascinated with what my Mama could do with a “hanky”. Thank you for reviving that sweet memory, Ann!
I love to read books about Christmas. I do like your style of writing books and have read as many. Those “church babies” are really cute; never have seen any quite like them before. My mom made that babies in blankets that Judi talked about and I also made them for my little girls. Good memories.
Author
I’m so glad you enjoy my style of sharing stories, Joan. That has me smiling. Thank you for reading my books.
Babies in blankets, that had to be a fun think for kids to play with in church. Always good to have sweet memories come to mind.
Author
Thanks for sharing your memory about those handkerchief babies, Judi. You are right saying that no lady went without a handkerchief in those days. Nobody had tissue boxes sitting everywhere or their pockets stuffed with them. My aunt had a whole drawer of hankies that I loved to sort through and admire when I was a kid. I still have a few of them.
My sister remembers my aunt making those handkerchief babies for her, but I don’t.
Yes! I love the inspiration that oozes from Christmas stories!
Yes, I like reading about Christmas in books.
Christmas books are the best!
I’ve read about Fran’s Christmas in “These Healing Hills” . Loved this book.
Yes, I’ve read about Christmas in your books. I loved remembering some of them in your blog. I’m reading a Christmas-y book right now by a new author to me; I usually read a few books about Christmas each year. Then it’s back to my TBR pile.
This Christmas my husband and I are in our retirement apartment. Unfortunately, I had to donate most of my books since I don’t have room for them here. I donated all my large print books to this over-55 apartment complex’s library and all the regular print ones to another library. I’m busy reading the books I have kept and then sharing them with friends.
Author
How kind of you to donate your books for others to enjoy, Suzanne. I’m sure the 55 and over apartment complex library especially appreciated thos larg print books. So many people struggle to read the regular print when they get older.
I’m glad you liked remembering my characters’ Christmas scenes again as you read my post. I hope you are enjoying the Christmas novel you are reading now. I usually get in some extra reading time during the Christmas holidays. My daughter always finds an interesting book or two for me.
I’ve read those Christmas scenes and others as well and loved them all. The simple times are the best ones! Those dolls are cute! We made hanky dolls at our local founder’s day event one year…lots of fun!
Happy New Year everyone!
Author
I’m so glad you’ve read and enjoyed my stories, Lavon. It’s been fun meeting you at a few book events through the years.
The hankie babies are a little different, I’m guessing, but with the same purpose, perhaps, of something quiet for a child to play with during church.
Who can resist characters experiencing Christmas especially when it is faith based. Blessings
I love reading about Christmas in books.
Love the church babies they are adorable! I Love to read about Christmas in books! Happy New Year!
I love those church babies.
I have read all the Christmases in your books and enjoyed every one .
My daughter-in-law bought herself a kitchen towel before Christmas and she said before she got home she realized that the towel should go to me as an extra in my gift.
It says ” Christmas isn’t a season, it’s a feeling”
That’s how I feel about Christmas.
That towel is special to me, because she gave it from the heart .
I hope you have a very Happy New Year!
Author
It’s such a blessing to have loving daughters-in-law, Lisa. Sounds as if she knows you and your heart well. You have that Christmas feeling year round.
Happy New Year to you too.
Yes, I love to read about Christmas in books. The Church Babies are adorable. Might be something to add to our busy bags at our Church.
Have a Happy New Year!
Author
They would be a cute project for your church friends, Paula, and fun to make. In the little bag I have there is a variety of hair colors and styles which make them more fun.
Christmas books are very popular. I’ve only done one actual Christmas book, Christmas at Harmony Hill, but I’ve enjoyed celebrating with my characters in several of my books.