(courtesy Harper Collins Publishers Australia) Ever since 1993’s Groundhog Day made time loops a popular mainstream storytelling device, busting it out of the realm of sci-fi where it had been happily resident for some time, they have become a great way of someone being forced to confront the stagnant state Continue Reading
Christmas in July 2026
I decorated my 2026 Christmas in July tree with the Tenth Doctor Who, Bluey, Home Alone, Scooby-Doo and Snagglepuss … and more!
(via Shutterstock) When you love Christmas, it’s hard having it pop just once a year. Rather happily, some inventive soul somewhere decided that Christmas in July would work quite nicely, especially in the Southern Hemisphere where it’s cold and wintery and just right for a traditional festive celebration (though we Continue Reading
Christmas in July book review: Merrily Ever After by Cathy Bramley
(courtesy Hachette Australia) If you are a faithful reader of the warm and cosy romcoms written by Cathy Bramley, you will likely have read 2022’s The Christmas Project a whole year before you got anywhere near the festive joy of Merrily Ever After. But should you have dropped your Cathy Continue Reading
Christmas in July book review: Christmas at Lobster Bay by Annie Robertson
Like many readers, I buy more far more books than I will likely ever be able to read in a lifetime (and that’s even taking into account impending retirement in the next couple of years when all the time in the world will be a glorious default). I buy them Continue Reading
Christmas in July book review: The Secret Mistletoe Promise (The Secret Bookshop #2) by Cressida McLaughlin
I am always in two minds about sequels for novels (and honestly, all sorts of storytelling but given this is a book review, let’s stick with books for now). When I love a story and the characters in it, and that’s happens a lot given the ridiculously empathetic soul that Continue Reading
Christmas in July music review redux: Put Up Your Lights by The Bird and the Bee
If anyone can make something beautiful out of something chaotic and terrible, it is the mesmerisingly good duo that is The Bird and the Bee, made up of singer Inara George and producer Greg Kurstin. Their latest collaboration, Put Your Lights Up was put together during a year when a Continue Reading
Christmas in July book review: A Country Christmas by Veronica Henry
(courtesy Hachette Australia) Christmas is, we are constantly assured, supposed to be the most wonderful time of the year. But sometimes that feeling of perfect wonder doesn’t arrive at all, or it’s so late in making an appearance that you can begin to wonder if it’s ever going to turn Continue Reading
Christmas in July movie review redux: A Boy Called Christmas
As origin stories go, the one that belongs to Santa Claus is a doozy. Drawn from a host of different European traditions, embellished by one Charles Dickens in the nineteenth century and prettied up with fetching red and a convivial air courtesy of a soda maker in the 20th, Santa Continue Reading
Christmas in July redux: Music review: Snow Waltz by Lindsey Stirling
This review was first published 9 December 2022. Christmas is supposed to be a thousand good and wonderfully light-as-air, joyously uplifting things. And while it often is – all that tree trimming, laughing with friends and brightness of decoration can only make you feel like a million festive bucks – Continue Reading
Christmas in July book review: Christmas on the Isle of Skye by Kirsty Ferry
Zac Fallon and Ivy McFarlane have a problem. They haven’t declared their undying love for each other to each other, what with suppressing how they really feel and not wanting to risk looking like a fool or deciding that a onetime dream of a goal trumps present bliss and happiness, Continue Reading