It’s been a crazy, busy, pandemic-y year once again but even amongst all the stress and strain and plague, my hope, as it is every year, is that this Christmas … You will not find snowy monsters with big teeth pursuing you … but if you do, you’ll have good Continue Reading
Christmas 2022
Book review: Tinsel – The Girl Who Invented Christmas by Sibéal Pounder
You would think by now that’s there not a lot of imaginative newness that can be brought to bear on the story of Santa; after all, his story is well documented, to the point of exhaustive detail, and you could rightly assume that’s all the festive mythmakers wrote. But, as Continue Reading
Book review: Christmas Island (A Very Hygge Holiday, Book 2) by Natalia Normann
If you’ve ever taken an extended overseas holiday, chances are you’ve experienced the interesting existential remove that happens when you are plucked from your everyday life and find yourself looking back at your life and into your soul in ways you simply don’t do when the priorities of the day Continue Reading
On 12th day of Christmas … I watched The Claus Family 2
As the years progress, writers are becoming ever more creative about who Santa is, what he does and yes, importantly how he does it, and what happens when he decides that he’s had enough of the toy giving game and it’s time to hand over to someone younger, more agile Continue Reading
On 11th day of Christmas … I watched A Flintstone Christmas
Santa is in peril again! For someone who can go around the world distributing presents to all the girls and boys in a single magical night, with all of the logistical mastery, tenacity and physical endurance that implies, Santa Claus sure has a way of coming a cropper at the Continue Reading
Kids’ festive book review: Jim’s Spectacular Christmas by Emma Thompson & Axel Scheffler + Marvin and Marigold: A Christmas Surprise by Mark Carthew & Simon Prescott and Christmas Lights by Ruth Symons & Carolina Rabei
While I am huge fan of novels aimed at adult Christmas tragics such as yours truly, there’s something innately pure and escapist about losing yourself in books aimed at children. They draw me back to a simpler time when Christmas meant, quite apart from freedom from school bullies, the chance Continue Reading
On 10th day of Christmas … I read Once Upon a December by Amy E. Reichert
Christmas is often described as a magical time of year but the word is more commonly used to suggest atmosphere and sensibility than actual supernatural influencing of time and events. But in Once Upon a December by Amy E. Reichert, Yule time is literally magical, a place where an alleyway Continue Reading
Find your 30-ton piece of granite! Santa is coming to a snowy landscape near you in Ice Age: A Mammoth Christmas Special
The origins of Christmas, at least when it comes to the English versions of Santa and the reindeers and such – to be fair, the Bible has a pretty good lock on the religious side of proceedings – are as many and varied as those who choose to tell the Continue Reading
Book review: A Merry Little Meet Cute by Julie Murphy and Sierra Simone
If romantic comedies were your only yardstick, it would be all too easy to believe that true love, the kind made of meet-cutes, playful flirting and sweet connections, is as chaste and celibate as they come. But the fact is we fall in love with our minds and bodies, often Continue Reading
On 9th day of Christmas … I listened to Debbie Gibson’s album Winterlicious
Put your own festive shine onto Christmas standards, honestly even new tracks you pen, is an often thankless task. Go too far towards what’s known and loved, and while you’ll likely end up with a perfectly pleasant collection of festive tracks, you’ll quickly get lost among the crush of retro Continue Reading