Have you ever themed a book or a story around a holiday or a specific time of year? What do you think about writing something aimed at a certain holiday or event? Are you limiting your audience or taking advantage of the season like a singer releasing a Christmas album or a TV show doing a Halloween themed episode?
Nope, but I would love to. I love Christmas movies: I am here
for the faux-nostalgia, the magic and hope, the love and redemption, romance and beautiful decorations, the
transparent pretence of the idea of a perfect family Christmas. Plots often
include a storyline about someone trying to get home for Christmas, and it shamelessly
tugs at my heart strings.
I have a big pile of Christmas picture books we bring out
in December. I like reading them as much as my kids do. Many of these are books
I was given as a child. For Australian children, Christmas is a wonderful fantasy
of white wonderland. All the books I was given as a child featured children living
in the northern hemisphere, hanging woolly stockings on the ends of their beds,
blazing fires, falling snow, mistletoe and holly, and Santa’s sleigh landing on
snowcapped roofs.
In reality, December in Australia is mosquito nets and ceiling
fans, balmy evenings and sun-kissed days, and Christmas trees that die of heatstroke
days before 25 December. My grandmother would serve a hot roast lunch followed
by plum pudding, which we’d eat in the heat of midday, before heading to the
beach. These days, we favour a cold seafood oriented lunch. But we love a Christmas-in-July party!
One of my favourite new picture books is Julia
Donaldson's Stick Man. It’s about a stick who lives happily with his wife
and three children. Right before Christmas, he gets separated and goes on a
perilous journey, facing dangers like being a dog's fetch toy, thrown in a
river, and being used to make a swan's nest. Eventually, he helps Santa Claus who
brings him home for Christmas. It’s heart-wrenching and heart-warming.
I especially like the stories about Santa and his toy
making workshop, and his summertime commitments of training the reindeer. As a
child, I was obsessed with the logistics of Santa’s gift-giving operation. Like visions of sugarplums, these images dance in my head!
Once day I will write my Christmas novel. And it might be sooner
than later. I think that now more than ever, this world needs stories about hope, magic and
kindness.
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