My Favourite Christmas... by Ali Harris

Welcome back to my Christmas 2011 feature! As you know, I've asked lots of authors to write something about their favourite Christmas, and I've been lucky to have a great response. Today, I have the pleasure of welcoming the winner of my Chick Lit Book of the Year Award, Ali Harris!

Until recently, my favourite Christmases were all about the past, not just my childhood but the romantic past, the ‘olden days’, if you will. Just like Evie, my main character in Miracle on Regent Street, I’m a sucker for old-fashioned values and I’m such a romantic that I desperately want Christmas to feel like it does in the great old American movies, or even better, when I was a child.

But ever since I discovered that Father Christmas didn’t actually exist (I KNOW, it really ruined my festivities last year!) I’ve enjoyed the anticipation of the day much more than the day itself.  But whilst I adore the breathless preparations, watching magical Christmas films like It’s a Wonderful Life and walking through the frosty, fairy-lit streets doing my late night shopping and then wrapping the presents in front of a roaring fire, I can’t help but hanker after those bygone days when Christmas was truly magical.

But then I remind myself that even for those of us who doubt that an overweight old man in a red suit delivers our presents, this time of year can still be magical because it makes you feel like anything is possible. For us, Christmas is about believing in ourselves, in our family, our friends, in our dreams and life decisions. It’s about reminiscing without regret and looking ahead with anticipation. And that’s what I’ve been doing…until now.

Because this year with two children of my own – a 9 month baby girl and a nearly-3-year-old boy who understands Christmas for the first time – I’m blessed with the honour of being Santa Claus myself. I’m giving the magic, not receiving it. I can’t wait to put my little boy to bed on Christmas Eve, to tiptoe into his room when he’s asleep and fill his stocking with presents, then watching him wake on Christmas morning when he discovers with all the joy, innocence and wonder that only a child who believes can have that Santa Claus has been.

And I can tell you that this year, there’ll be no more hankering after Christmases past, or wondering what the future will bring. Instead, I’ll be concentrating on putting this Christmas in a little box for me to hold on to forever. And for that reason, this Christmas – the Christmas present – is my favourite of all.

You can read my review of Ali's brilliant book Miracle on Regent Street here. You can also buy the book in paperback or as an eBook!

Merry Christmas Eve!

My Favourite Christmas... by Sasha Wagstaff

Welcome back to my Christmas 2011 feature! As you know, I've asked lots of authors to write something about their favourite Christmas, and I've been lucky to have a great response. Today, I have the pleasure of welcoming the fab Sasha Wagstaff!

I LOVE Christmas and everything about it, so this is going to be an absolute pleasure for me to write about!

On the 1^st of December (or as close to it as possible), I like to get the Christmas decorations down from the loft and set about transforming the house into a glittery, twinkly wonderland. (When I say ‘I’ here, I do, of course mean that my husband climbs up into the loft and does much of the pinning up of tinsel and lights). We carry this out whilst drinking homemade mulled wine (a la Nigella – hers is the best recipe I have found to date – very boozy with the addition of dark rum) and bowls of nuts and crisps.

I always watch Christmas films whilst wrapping presents – Love Actually, The Holiday, It’s a Wonderful Life are an absolute must (and for my husband ‘White Christmas as it reminds him of his youth). Again, present-wrapping should be accompanied by mulled wine, Baileys or champagne, ideally. I’m quite anally-retentive about present-buying – I have a spreadsheet (eek, I can’t help it – I’m a Virgo!) but I have a lot of people to buy for and otherwise, I’d be ditzy and buy the same things again. People often refuse to give me lists, saying ‘just buy whatever you think I’d like – you buy such lovely things’ – little do they realise that I stress and agonise about this level of pressure! (I love it really). Christmas Day is always spent with my parents and until all the children arrived, we would sit in the same place to open our presents and insist that my mother put up the same decorations year in, year out but these days, new decorations have replaced the old and we sit wherever we can find a pew these days as the children jostle to open all their gifts!

Christmas Day dinner must be eaten with the Top of the Pops Christmas special on in the background (or at very least, Christmassy music) and it’s a long affair, taking place over several hours, with cheese courses, liqueurs and chocolates, coffee and anything else we can cram in. Traditionally, we do a brisk walk around the block after the meal, to work off some of the calories and get some fresh air. It’s also fun nosing into people’s house as it gets dark and seeing them enjoying their Christmas Day afternoon or watching children trying out their new bikes in the street. We then have a picnic tea of cold meats, pickles and bread – delicious!

As much as I love doing the same things every year, I also like the idea of starting up some new traditions, especially since my eldest daughter is almost three. So, it’s new winter pyjamas for everyone to open / wear on Christmas Eve and the Christmas morning muffins I usually bake will have chocolate chunks added to them. I may even replace the champagne with hot chocolate – for the girls, anyway! I also love the sound of Jill Mansell’s glittery roast potatoes, so I might just have to try that one out and Veronica Henry’s mince pies with orange pastry and brandy butter sound divine….see, I love this whole Christmas lark!

All that’s left to say is: have a wonderful Christmas everyone…and enjoy your traditions, new and old x

You can read my review of Sasha's book Wicked Games here. You can buy the book as a paperback and an eBook now. 

My Favourite Christmas... by Scarlett Bailey

Welcome back to my Christmas 2011 feature! As you know, I've asked lots of authors to write something about their favourite Christmas, and I've been lucky to have a great response. Today, I have the pleasure of welcoming the lovely Scarlett Bailey!

My favourite Christmas was when I was a little girl, I must have been about six because my mum and dad were still married. I had a very seventies and eighties childhood, never really saw much of my dad because he got in from work after I went to bed and always seemed to be locked up in his shed every spare minute. And to make matters worse he wouldn't let me see what he was doing! I remember feeling very dejected and let down. And then that Christmas, as I crept downstairs early that morning to see what Santa had left me, I found out what Dad had been up to. My dad had been building me a dolls house in secret for all of these months! It was beautiful, a perfect Georgian mansion, almost as tall as me and decorated with wallpaper, carpet and lights that worked, as well as furniture that he had made himself. It was a gift full of love and care, and even at that young age, I think I sensed that, which made me treasure it all the more.  I have never been so delighted and surprised by a gift since, and remembering lying on the floor playing with that dolls house is still my fondest memory of Christmas.

Nowadays I still love to recreate that particular retro Seventies Christmas vibe! No fashionable or tasteful decorations for me, unlike Katy in The Night Before Christmas, who is fond of gingham and wicker, I love tinsel, sparkles, lots of lights, and all the colours all at once. I even still have some of the decorations that went on the tree when I was a child.

I adore Christmas carols, and Christmas songs, so I will have Bing on the i-pod crooning 'White Christmas' in the morning, while I'm preparing Christmas lunch, and then, after eating as much Christmas food as I can (without bursting) I will settle down on the sofa with my friends and loved ones, a very large glass of Bailey's and get ready for a movie. You can't go wrong with The Sound of Music, Miracle on 34th Street or It's a Wonderful Life, but my very most favourite film to watch on Christmas day is Gone With the Wind. Three hours of a girl called Scarlett kicking butt and snogging Rhett Butler. What better to round off a perfect day?

This year I'll be with the people I love, mostly burning or undercooking stuff, while my mum tells me where I'm going wrong, and I'm looking forward to having a house full of all my best people, after all, that's what Christmas is really all about, isn't it? Being with the people you love. Oh and lots and lots of lovely presents, too. Obviously.

You can read my review of Scarlett's debut novel The Night Before Christmas here. You can buy the book as a paperback or as an eBook now!

My Favourite Christmas... by Ali McNamara

Welcome back to my Christmas 2011 feature! As you know, I've asked lots of authors to write something about their favourite Christmas, and I've been lucky to have a great response. Today, I have the pleasure of welcoming the fabulously festive Ali McNamara!

My favourite Christmas…

Movie: I’ve always loved Miracle on 34th Street – who hasn’t wanted to prove Santa is real! And my new favourite would be Serendipity, (a lovely movie I only discovered this year!) because of events in my own life throughout 2011...

Food: Cold left overs on Boxing Day. I much prefer this to the actual Christmas day lunch, so much more relaxed… Or my homemade Mince pies – which are pretty special I have to say ;-)

TV: The TV in recent years has been pretty rubbish in my opinion. But it always used to be a comedy special like Only Fools & Horses.

Present: As a child I can still remember the wonder of trying to figure out just how Santa got all the way around the world in one night…. As an adult it was my first computer. And look where that led…

Decoration: The glitter covered pinecones my children decorated and brought home from playgroup. They still come out and adorn our tree even now they’re both teenagers.

Tradition: Making my children wait until after breakfast to open their presents. I always had to, so now they do too! But they have a stocking of little gifts they’re allowed beforehand just to keep them going…

Song: This year I’m really enjoying Michael Buble’s Christmas album. He has the perfect voice for Christmas songs.

But my all time favourite would have to be Fairytale of New York by The Pogues and Kirsty MacColl.

Ever: I’m hoping might be this year… We’re going to New York just before Christmas. I’ve always wanted to go and stand under the big Rockefeller Christmas tree and make a wish!  & this year I’m going to do just that .

Merry Christmas & a healthy happy 2012 to all!

Ali :)

You can read my review of Ali's latest book Breakfast at Darcy's here. You can buy the book in paperback and as an eBook now!

My Favourite Christmas... by Talli Roland

Welcome back to my Christmas 2011 feature! As you know, I've asked lots of authors to write something about their favourite Christmas, and I've been lucky to have a great response. Today, I have the pleasure of welcoming the fab Talli Roland!

Christmas. Well, what’s not to like? You’ve got food, you’ve got wine, you’ve got live greenery indoors . . . it’s all good, as far as I’m concerned.

Growing up in Canada, one of my favourite parts of the festive season was going into the forest to cut down the Christmas tree. Wrapped up so tightly we could hardly move, my family would tramp through knee-deep snow in an effort to find the perfect one. However, I quickly learned that Nova Scotia woods usually produce lopsided, scraggly specimens that are so packed together, they must fight for light. Needless to say, our trees were never ideal, but that was all part of the fun. After loading it with tinsel and decorations, it was just about passable.

It’s never a real Canadian Christmas without snow. Although I’m a firm snow-hater, I can’t deny its magical impact at Christmastime. One Christmas Eve, the snow started drifting down from the sky in those big, fat flakes that look like they’ve been sculpted. Soon, everything was covered in a white blanket. It was a wonderful prelude to Christmas.

My favourite Christmas Day activity is curling up in front of the fire with a brand new book to read. As the scent of roasting turkey drifts through the air, there’s really nothing better than that cozy, warm feeling.  Ahhhh . . . I can’t wait.

And, of course, it wouldn’t be Christmas without mulled wine. Spicy, steamy and oh-so-easy to drink. It just adds to the warm glow inside!

Talli Roland has three loves in her life: chick lit, coffee and wine. Born and raised in Canada, Talli now lives in London, where she savours the great cultural life (coffee and wine). Her debut novel, The Hating Game, was an Amazon Top 100 bestseller and shortlisted for Best Romantic Read at the UK’s Festival of Romance, and her second, Watching Willow Watts, was selected as a 2011 Amazon Customer Favourite. Build A Man is her latest release. Talli blogs here and can be found on Twitter here.

My Favourite Christmas... by Lindsey Kelk

Welcome back to my Christmas 2011 feature! As you know, I've asked lots of authors to write something about their favourite Christmas, and I've been lucky to have a great response. Today, I have the pleasure of welcoming one of my fave authors, Lindsey Kelk!!

Hi.

My name is Lindsey and I’m a Christmas-a-holic.

I suppose I first realised I had a problem with the season of goodwill when I took custody of my nana’s two foot silver glitter Christmas tree to go in my bedroom when I was nine. Then, when I was twelve, I  had to buy three Sweet Valley High books to read overnight since I knew I wouldn’t be able to sleep. At nineteen, I risked the wrath of my make uni roommates by waiting up until midnight on November 30th to put up the decorations. After that, it only got worse. Now, at the age of thirty-one, things are more dangerous than they’ve ever been because I’ve found the most terrifying enabler on the planet – New York City.

I mean, let’s face it, Christmas is pretty brilliant anywhere but for me, New York just takes it up to the next level. I want to see the Rockettes Christmas Spectacular at Radio City Musical Hall, I want to skate in Central Park, see the tree at the Rockefeller Centre and generally walk around listening to Christmas Wrapping on my iPod and gurning like a mental at everyone who walks by. Something wonderful happens in NYC as soon as Thanksgiving hits. I do my bit by wearing nothing but sequins and glitter from Thanksgiving to New Years Eve and my friends do their bit by not drawing attention to it. I occasionally burst out into ‘All I Want for Christmas’ at happy hour and my apartment looks like Santa got wasted, had a house party and then threw up tinsel everywhere. But it isn’t just me, it’s everyone. From Central Park to Coney Island, people have a hint of a smile, you can feel spirits lifting and chestnuts really are roasting on an open fire, on every street corner. It’s a miracle not just on 34th Street but all over the city.

Of course, there are some home comforts that are sadly missing. Cadbury advent calendars, After Eights and Terry’s Chocolate Oranges (we’re a classy bunch, my family) amongst other things. Last year, I hosted a Boxing Day get together at my apartment and had to pay through the nose for a tin of Quality Street and a pork pie. It was painful. But when it skies opened at five pm and New York gave me the Christmas gift of a foot of snow, I knew it was worth it. It’s been said before but I really do heart New York and never more than at Christmas time.

You can read my review of Lindsey's fab new book I Heart Vegas here. You can buy the book in paperback or as an eBook now!

My Favourite Christmas... by Clodagh Murphy

Welcome back to my Christmas 2011 feature! As you know, I've asked lots of authors to write something about their favourite Christmas, and I've been lucky to have a great response. Today, I have the pleasure of welcoming the delightful Clodagh Murphy!

I love Christmas – what's not to love about a long, lazy holiday dedicated to eating, drinking and making merry with your friends and family, with no need to pack and nothing more demanding expected of you than lazing around watching TV and eating chocolates?  Plus – presents!

Here are some of my favourite Christmas things.

Favourite Christmas song: Sleigh Ride by The Ronettes.  It's got bells jingling, it's got a horse whinnying, and best of all it's got Ronnie Spector's gorgeous voice.  What more could you wish for?

Favourite Christmas movie:  There are so many that I love, but it's got to be It's A Wonderful Life.  What would Christmas be like if George Bailey had never existed?  Okay, it would still be great – but maybe not quite as great.

Favourite Christmas TV: Miss Marple with Joan Hickson.  Because nothing says 'Christmas' like murder ... strange, but true.  My idea of a perfect Christmas afternoon involves a roaring fire, Miss Marple on the TV, a glass of hot port (see below) and a big slice of Christmas cake.

Midnight Mass – I'm not religious, but sometimes for nostalgia's sake I'm tempted back to midnight mass on Christmas Eve, and nothing else can evoke childhood Christmases quite like the smell of frankincense and candle wax, and the choir singing 'Adeste Fideles'.

Favourite Christmas food:  All of it – mince pies, turkey with all the trimmings, leftover sandwiches (I love them almost more than the dinner itself), smoked salmon, plum pudding (even better the next day, fried in butter) ... I can feel the weight piling on just thinking about it.

Favourite Christmas drink: Hot port – stud a slice of lemon with cloves and put it in a glass, followed by a teaspoon of sugar and a generous measure of port.  I microwave the port a little at this stage so it's not too cold.  Top up with boiling water and stir.  Slurp and enjoy.  Yum!

Happy Christmas!

You can buy Clodagh's latest book Girl In A Spin as both paperback and on eBook now!

My Favourite Christmas... by Shari Low

Welcome back to my Christmas 2011 feature! As you know, I've asked lots of authors to write something about their favourite Christmas, and I've been lucky to have a great response. Today, I have the pleasure of welcoming the great Shari Low!

It’s impossible for me to choose a favourite Christmas day because they’ve all been spectacular. Every one has been filled with love, laughter and … erm, more laughter. But our yuletide celebration is about as far away from picture-perfect as it can possibly be.

Researchers claim that the most common time for a Christmas Day family dispute is 4.17pm. They’re pulling my cracker – my family has never made it past lunchtime.

I have two brothers that I love dearly, but break out the Monopoly and they immediately go from being my flesh and blood to enemies number one and two.

We can’t help ourselves. Normal people hear the phrase, “Want to play a game?” But for our brood the message somehow translates to “Come ahead and prepare to meet thy doom.”

Honestly, we don’t need the spirit of Christmas; we need a referee and someone to hold the coats.

When we were children my parents had to stop us playing together because a game of Snap required pre-emptive body search for blunt objects. 

Now? Forget rampant consumerism and society’s shift away from true meaning of the festive season.

The real scourge of Christmas comes in a box of pure evil called Pictionary.

It should be banned. Outlawed.

Describing a dodgy movie that a pre-sofa Tom Cruise made in 1984 results in strops, huffs and more fixing allegations than a week in a dodgy betting shop.  And in the case of my younger brother, it once also resulted in a scud across the back of the head delivered by a furious team-mate who overheard him calling her a liability. Our granny is fierce when provoked.

And much as I’ll only admit under extreme torture - After Eight depravation, Coldplay CDs – I’m the worst out of the three of us. If I say it’s Professor Plum in the library with the lead pipe then his mug shot better be on Crimewatch or I’ll sulk until Hogmaney.  Yes, I know it should be spelt Hogmanay but in 1992 I bet my brother ten pounds that it was spelt with an ‘e’ and I’m still refusing to concede defeat.

Sadly, however, the competition doesn’t extend to the kitchen. It would be fabulous if we were all in there chopping up a storm to see who could whip up the most delicious gastronomic treat.

I give you last year’s Christmas day debacle. We started well with a jolly festive Bucks Fizz over breakfast. Did that conjure up a Marks & Spencers advert-type image of a posh yuletide morning?

Em, not quite.

Shove over Twiggy ‘cause mine is the true face of Christmas: a tinsel headband, Pat Butcher’s flashing earrings, singing Westlife songs while sipping on the cultured delight of Lambrusco topped up with Sunny D.

Anyway, I then got distracted caught up in a battle to the death - I believe the official name is Ker Plunk – and two hours later realised that I’d forgotten to put the turkey in the oven.

Christmas lunch became Christmas dinner. By which time, the soup had gone off, you could grout tiles with the gravy and a game of Operation had resulted in the removal of two kidneys, a spleen and my oldest brother who’d been sent to another room for disorderly conduct.

But those turkey sandwiches were delicious and we worked them off with a game of Twister that ended with a pulled hamstring and tears of laughter.

As I said, we’ll never be picture perfect…. but we wouldn’t have it any other way.

Merry Christmas!

Love, Shari xx 

You can buy Shari's latest book The Friday Night Girls as a paperback or on eBook now!

My Favourite Christmas... by Claire Allan

Welcome back to my Christmas 2011 feature! As you know, I've asked lots of authors to write something about their favourite Christmas, and I've been lucky to have a great response. Today, I have the pleasure of welcoming the lovely Claire Allan!

Christmas is simple pleasures. Each year as a child there would be much anticipation of the putting up of the Christmas tree. There were no fancy themed decorated, no colour schemes, no twinkling multi function lights. The collection of baubles my mother had - and still has - were a mish mash of pieces collected over the years. Bright coloured glass trinkets, wooden figures, home made angels with wool for hair, Santas who looked more than a little camp. The one string of coloured, flower lights was draped over the tree. And our highlight was the ceremonial placing of our Christmas fair, a plastic figure wearing a tutu on top who we christened Matilda. (Indeed in my second novel Feels Like Maybe, the angel in 'Instant Karma' was named in her honour.)

All this would be done to the soundtrack of John Denver and the Muppets 'A Christmas Together' and we would go from singing sweeting along with Silent Night to jumping up and down in our new pyjamas to 'Little Saint Nick' - fighting to do the Animal solo.

Ceiling decorations were hung. Paper chains were made from sticky paper. Balloons were blown up and tacked to the ceiling. One or more of us (me having two sisters and a brother) would have no doubt made a crib in school from a shoe box, with a tin foil covered star and some plaster moulded figures. The fire was lit, the lights always seemed dimmed, and we would smell the soup cooking in the kitchen and the aroma of mammy's home made apple pies baking in the oven.

Christmas was perfect. It was simple. There was no rush and no fuss. There was a quiet anticipation to all and if I close my eyes I can still hear the late great John Denver singing Silent Night.

You can read my review of Claire's latest book If Only You Knew right here. You can buy the book in paperback at Amazon too!

My Favourite Christmas... by Milly Johnson

Welcome back to my Christmas 2011 feature! As you know, I've asked lots of authors to write something about their favourite Christmas, and I've been lucky to have a great response. Today, I have the pleasure of welcoming the brilliant Milly Johnson!

"I’m a ridiculous traditionalist at Christmas.   I like that it varies little from year to year.  It’s relatively quiet, the same people come for dinner, we eat more or less the same food, the day follows the same pattern, but to me it’s that dear familiarity that makes Christmas so special.  Once, I decided to rebel against the routine and we booked a 3 week cruise in the Caribbean.  No cooking, no Christmas shopping, no standing in queues at supermarkets beckoned.  We cancelled it because the kids didn’t want to spend Christmas away from their grandparents –and neither did I really.  So once again, I was there in Morrisons with my trolley full of pickled onions, booze and veg and when the big day came, I was so glad that I was there, pinney on, peeling spuds, roasting the turkey.

There are so many things I love about Christmas Day.  I love the look on the kids’ faces when they get something they’ve wanted (after I’ve told them there is ABSOLUTELY no chance they’re going to get it).  I love the fact there are magically no calories so a Baileys and Thorntons breakfast isn’t going to make a blind bit of difference to my figure.  I love to see my parents relaxing on my sofa and doing absolutely nothing all day that taxes them.  I love the dog falling asleep on my dad’s foot whilst we’re watching Morecambe and Wise (The Andre Previn sketch – Christmas is not the same without it).  I love that last year the snow was so bad that my mum and dad – who only live across the road – stayed over.  I love that for a few days we are in a big warm messy cocoon with sleepy cats playing with tinsel and family and lovely things to eat and drink and new slippers and dressing gowns.

It’s the simple things I used to enjoy most myself about Christmas when I was little.  I remember when we got our first house with central heating in it and just for Christmas Eve dad used to keep the heating on all night.  I remember the Post Office set I wanted (and got) every year.  A new Enid Blyton book, turkey (we only ever had it at Christmas), my Nana’s home made Christmas cake and mince pies, lying in bed on Christmas Eve with my hot water bottle willing myself to get to sleep and then finding a huge pillowcase full of parcels at the bottom of my bed in the morning.  I loved watching the Sooty and Sweep Christmas special on the black and white TV whilst having a special breakfast of Ritz crackers and ‘squirty cheese’ (we still do this).  Every Christmas I’ve had has been 90% the same, 10% ring in the changes – some wanted, some unavoidable.  Alas ‘big school’ doesn’t have a carol service so this is the first year I won’t be sobbing in church with the other mums at ‘Little Donkey’ and watching a teacher trying to stop Joseph from picking his nose. 

It’s a time for making memories and I just hope that my boys take some lovely ones through to adulthood of Christmas with their grandparents lit up like the Christmas tree on brandy, the dog with a reindeer headdress on, the cats scoffing turkey and their mam enjoying every minute of it."

You can read my review of Milly's latest book An Autumn Crush here. It's available to buy in paperback or as an eBook now!

My Favourite Christmas... by Lucy-Anne Holmes

Welcome back to my Christmas 2011 feature! As you know, I've asked lots of authors to write something about their favourite Christmas, and I've been lucky to have a great response. Today, I have the pleasure of welcoming the lovely Lucy-Anne Holmes!

One of my favourite bits of Christmas, happens every year and never fails to make me giggle. It’s after Christmas dinner when the family is all sitting around the table. We’ve devoured the meal. We’ve fought over the crispiest roast potatoes, the crispiest turkey skin, the crispiest bacon wrapped sausage and we’re all talking again now. We’ve sat in the dark, throwing matches on a brandy soaked Christmas pudding and procured one tiny, fleeting flame.

We’re stuffed. Belts and top buttons are undone and the oceanic whir of the dishwasher is punctuated by the odd belch. We’re currently working our way though the cheeseboard. And one member of my family will always, always say something along the lines of.

            ‘Do you know what I’m going to do next year? I’m going to take up running. Can you push the Lurpack down this end, I’m too full to lean. I might do a half marathon.’

            ‘Oh, yes,’ My father who’s in his 70s with a dodgy leg, will say, looking up from his book about The Dukan Diet. ‘I’ll join you.’

            ‘Let’s all do it!’

            ‘Why not a full marathon?’

            ‘Or what about a triathlon!’

Thus we chatter about the ambitious diet and fitness regimes we plan to implement in the new year, and polish off an entire brie.

------------------

My all time, favourite, the number 1, the champagne, the 5 Star, the multiple orgasm, the ‘YES! YES! AND AGAIN PLEASE!’ of festive films has to be Love Actually. Ooo, I adore Love Actually. It’s a perfect festive rom com.

            Billy Mack, Bill Nighy’s hilarious jaded rock star, reworks the lyrics to the song Love is All Around to Christmas Is All Around. And in this film both love and Christmas are indeed all around, by the tinsel adorned bucketlaod.

            All the Christmas staples are here. The school nativity play.

            ‘They gave out the parts for the nativity play today.’

            ‘Oh, and what are you?’

            ‘The lobster.’

            ‘There was a lobster at the birth of Jesus?’

            ‘Yeah. Der.’

A battle for Christmas number one, where straight talking ex heroin addict, Billy Mack, goes head to head with squeaky clean boyband Blue.

            ‘Ask me anything,’ he says, to the DJ at Radio Watford.

            ‘Who’s the best shag you’ve ever had?’

            ‘Brittany Spears.’

            ‘Wow.’

            ‘Not really, I was joking….She was rubbish.’

There’s an office party, Christmas shopping, card writing, Christmas lights and snow flurries. And, of course, beautiful love stories, capable of making grown men weep, even my 6 foot 4 friend who’s built like a bungalow and known as Big Dong, blubbed like a baby.

You just can’t beat a man wiping away a tear whilst watching a good rom com. Go on, watch Love Actually, this Christmas.

           
You can read my review of Lucy-Anne's latest book (Un)Like A Virgin here. You can also buy the book in paperback and in eBook now!

My Favourite Christmas... by Jill Mansell

Welcome back to my Christmas 2011 feature! As you know, I've asked lots of authors to write something about their favourite Christmas, and I've been lucky to have a great response. Today, I have the pleasure of welcoming the fab Jill Mansell!

I will actually take a bet that I watch more Christmas films than any other author. As lots of people now know, I always have the TV on while I'm working. As soon as the Christmas cable channels start plying their wares, I'm there. I know all the movies and can watch them again and again. Go on, test me, I have most of them permanently imprinted in my brain!

I adore decorating the outside of our house ready for Christmas. In our road hardly anyone else does it. We don't go completely wild but I do love the icicle lights and plenty of glitter. And inside, we have a couple of trees, lots of candles and fairy-lights galore. My best new buy is a long-handled lighter that means I can light dozens of candles-in-jars and tea-lights without endlessly burning my fingers. Life-changing! We also enjoy decorating my bear. His name is Bear and there's a photo of him below - isn't he a fine figure of a bear?

We'll be here at home, as usual, for Christmas, with the rest of the family coming to us. We'll cook all the traditional food and have a wonderful day, and in the evening will crash out in front of the TV amid a sea of new stuff that doesn't yet have a proper home. On Boxing Day we'll go to our local pub with friends for a raucous afternoon of Christmas Karaoke. Food will be traditional Boxing Day things - hams and pickles and absolutely anything left over from the day before. The more cold roast potatoes there are, the better. Last year I sprinkled iridescent glitter over them for added pizazz. This year I've bought edible gold spray...

The other fabulous thing about Christmas is not doing any writing for a few days, which I probably shouldn't admit. Well, it's nice to have a break from all that hard work! But I'll always be secretly gathering ideas for future books, so it still manages to count as research.

Have a wonderful Christmas and New Year, everyone. And look, here's Bear!

You can read my review of Jill's latest book To The Moon and Back here. Jill's next boko A Walk In The Park is due out on 16th February 2012, and you can pre-order it in paperback or eBook now.

My Favourite Christmas... by Tamar Cohen

Welcome back to my Christmas 2011 feature! As you know, I've asked lots of authors to write something about their favourite Christmas, and I've been lucky to have a great response. Today, I have the pleasure of welcoming the brilliant The Mistresses Revenge author, Tamar Cohen!

"Favourite Christmas? They’re all favourites!

I have to say I’m not a natural Christmas person. To be honest, each November brings with it a sense of unease that builds until, by December, it has blossomed into full-blown panic. As a mother-of-three, the expectations of me seem so impossibly high. And being a rubbish-present-buying, non-cooking type of person makes me feel even more of a miserable under-achiever in the festive stakes. But here’s a funny thing: in spite of my inherent Scrouginess, I invariably end up loving Christmas.  I can’t pick out a single favourite as all are pretty much spent the same way - with my partner and kids, plus mum, sister, her family and sometimes my brother too. There’s something so reassuring about family traditions – even if those traditions mostly revolve around eating your bodyweight in Quality Streets and spending the day failing to coax recalcitrant kids into a Nice Bracing Walk. For four years between 2004 and 2008, we lived in Southern Spain and had a few Christmases there, which broke the usual festive mould. Breakfast on the terrace overlooking the Mediterranean, Turkey cooked in the outside bread oven, and a nice walk down to the beach rounded off with, for the more hardy of us (of which I’m certainly not one) a quick dip in the sea. Idyllic, but somehow not the same. Not Christmas As We Know It. One year my oldest son performed an ill-judged back flip off a rock, smashed his head as he came down and we ended up spending the rest of Christmas Day in the local A&E, while the in-laws waited at home wearing wilting paper hats and the turkey burnt to a crisp. Give me a traditional British eat-and-drink-all-day-in-front-of-the-telly Christmas any day – so much safer!

Favourite Christmas movie

There’s something about Christmas isn’t there, that allows you to set aside your critical faculties and wallow in schmaltz without feeling the least bit embarrassed? I can’t watch Love Actually at any other time of year without a cynical voice in my head reminding me I’m being emotionally manipulated, but at Christmas I become a total romantic. Andrew Lincoln standing outside in the cold with carols playing on a boombox and his declaration of unrequited love scrawled in black felt pen on giant cue cards. ‘To me you are perfect’. Come on, who wouldn’t melt just a little bit?

Favourite Christmas food

As a long-time vegetarian, I can take or leave Christmas dinner itself. But Christmas Day brunch? Now that’s a completely different kettle of smoked salmon. In our house, it’s the whole traditional hog – champagne and orange juice (in my mum’s case, just the champers – ‘what’s the point in spoiling perfectly good bubbly?’ she says), bagels and blinis, cream cheese, smoked salmon, twists of lemon, plenty of ground black pepper. Pre-brunch, the house is full of grumpy teenagers who’ve been woken up approximately a million hours before their habitual holiday wake-up time, and hyperactive younger children who’ve already consumed their entire chocolate selection box by 6.30am, but as soon as that first cork pops, smiles appear as if by magic and Christmas officially starts.

Favouite Christmas photo

This one of my dog Toffee last year after the kids dressed her up as a reindeer."

You can read my review of Tamar's debut novel 'The Mistresses Revenge' here. You can also buy the book in paperback and as an eBook!

My Favourite Christmas... by Molly Hopkins

Welcome back to my Christmas 2011 feature! As you know, I've asked lots of authors to write something about their favourite Christmas, and I've been lucky to have a great response. Today, I have the pleasure of welcoming the lovely Molly Hopkins!

"I love Christmas, who doesn’t? For me Christmas begins mid November, when my daughter starts dragging me around Top Shop and River Island dropping enormous hints. She’s exceptionally good at hinting, and I’m brilliant at spotting the clues, it’s uncanny really, it’s like we have a telepathic chord pulling our trails of thought together.

Dressing Room River Island, a good starting point for any dedicated Christmas shopper.
    ‘Mum it’s freezing now!’ She complains forcefully, and gives a little shiver to prove her point. ‘You may as well buy me the hat early so that I can get the full benefit of it.’
    She’s not wrong it is freezing.
    ‘Mmmmmm.’ I ponder, peering in the mirror at said hat that she’s jamming on my head. 
    ‘The hat suits you mum! Why don’t you buy one?  Buy it in a different color from me . . . and we can share,’ she suggests thoughtfully and in a rush, and then scooters out of the dressing room.
    I have to admit, I like the hat.  And she’s right, I decide assertively and in a business-like-way, what is the point of buying winter clothes right at the end of winter? The sooner I buy the hat, the better value it will be. It can be a Christmas present to myself, everyone buys themselves presents at Christmas. 
    She’s back!  And panting, staggering under the weight of a pyramid of coat hangers in her arms and a couple of handbags over her shoulder.
    She dumps the whole lot on the floor and smiles broadly.
    ‘Mum, they’re got a scarf, gloves, jacket and handbag to match the hat;’ she tells me informatively, wiping a bead of sweat from her forehead. ‘Shall we try it all on?’
    ‘We might as well,’ I agree, ‘because I don’t have anything to go with this lilac hat,’ I tell her truthfully, patting the hat which I’ve grown quite fond of.
    ‘And I don’t have anything to go with the orange hat,’ she says, sounding hard done by.
She picks the orange hat up from the floor and tweaks it on her head, and splays her 18 inch clip-on hair extension over her shoulder.
 ‘Mum, d’you know what is missing here that would go really well with this hat?’
    ‘No. What?’ I ask, a little bewildered, because judging by the state of the dressing room we have absolutely everything to go with the hat.
    ‘Nars Chelsea Girl lip gloss,’ she tells me, looking a bit wounded.
    ‘We’ll get some,’ I say, thinking she’s absolutely right now that she mentions it.

On the pavement priming our new hats and scarves awkwardly, weighted down with five River Island bags between us.
    ‘OK, where’s our shopping list? What are we buying for Auntie Pauline and cousin Bex?’ She asks.
    I bite my glove off and fumble for my shopping list in my coat pocket.
    ‘I was thinking of buying Auntie Pauline a dress to wear on New Year’s Eve, and Bex wants a dressy blazer,’ I tell her.
    She gives a happy shopper sigh. 
    ‘OK, well that’s easy enough, we’ll go to Top Shop,’ she says, pointing a gloved finger Topshopwards.
    ‘Right, let’s go,’ I say, keen to get cracking.
Read more »

My Favourite Christmas... by Veronica Henry

Welcome back to my Christmas 2011 feature! As you know, I've asked lots of authors to write something about their favourite Christmas, and I've been lucky to have a great response. Today, I have the pleasure of welcoming Veronice Henry!

"Ever since my eldest son Jake was born, over 21 years ago, we have followed the same traditions year in and year out and not much changes. These are a few of my favourite things:

Helping little fingers prise open the first glitter-encrusted advent calendar door ** New Christmas party clothes - velvet, lace, sequins and glitter **  Late night Christmas shopping at the farmers' market, to buy cheese (Vacherin!), chocolates and mistletoe, then meeting friends in the pub for brandy and ginger ** Wrapping the presents with my husband once all the children have gone to bed, and sharing a bottle of champagne **  The feeling of big, fat, velvet stockings bulging with presents **  Opening our presents to the soundtrack of "The Snowman' read by Bernard Cribbins **  Blinis and smoked salmon  - and more champagne! - while I prepare the lunch **  Fighting over the last pig-in-blanket  - everyone's favourite ** Mince pies made with orange pastry, a big dollop of brandy butter stuffed under the lid ** A head-clearing walk on the beach as dusk falls while someone else tackles the washing up  **  Falling asleep in front of the telly with a Terry's chocolate orange, snuggled up with my boys"

My Favourite Christmas... by Pippa Wright

Welcome back to my Christmas 2011 feature! As you know, I've asked lots of authors to write something about their favourite Christmas, and I've been lucky to have a great response. Today, I have the pleasure of welcoming the brilliant Pippa Wright!

Here are a few of my favourite Christmassy things.

Film:

By the Light of the Silvery Moon.  Ah, Doris Day.  And Westley’s battle to save the turkey (although thinking about it, this may be a Thanksgiving reference – whatevs). I love a Doris Day musical at any time of year, but By the Light of the Silvery Moon has skating and snow scenes and I think it is best watched in the depths of winter with a tin of Quality Street within easy reach.  Christmas Eve, ideally. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m0tn8BmWEPk&feature=related

Song:

All I Want for Christmas is You by Mariah Carey.  I start singing this (to myself) in late October, am shamelessly playing it out loud from November and come December you can usually find me shrieking at to anyone who can be forced to share a karaoke booth with me.  Original version only - no Justin Bieber duet permitted.  Also the video is a work of trashy genius – the sexy Santa outfit! The dog dressed as a reindeer! The silky negligee!  The DOVE.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXQViqx6GMY&ob=av3n

Album:

The McGarrigle Christmas Hour by Kate & Anna McGarrigle.  It’s a bit of a leap from Mariah Carey to the folky McGarrigles, but I invite you to make it with me.  This is a beautiful album of traditional and not-so-traditional Christmas songs, and I listen to it endlessly in December.  Who am I kidding? In November, too.   http://www.amazon.co.uk/Mcgarrigle-Christmas-Hour-Kate-McGarrigle/dp/B000B9EYD4/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1322666191&sr=8-1

Book:

Olivia Helps With Christmas by Ian Falconer.  The best book about Christmas for smalls and not-so-smalls.  All of the Olivia books are fabulous, but this one is my favourite, and it’s one of those rare children’s books that adults don’t mind reading again and again. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Olivia-Helps-Christmas-Ian-Falconer/dp/184738272X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1322667409&sr=1-1

Mulled cider

Not only is mulled cider way less alcoholic than mulled wine (vital if you are a lightweight like me) but it doesn’t give you those awful mulled wine black teeth & lips which do no-one any Christmas party favours under the mistletoe.  So for the sake of festive romance, stick to this:  Heat up a litre of dry cider (I use that cloudy Breton stuff) with a 250ml of apple juice, a tablespoon of caster sugar (more if you like it very sweet), one cinnamon stick, 6 cardamom pods, 4 cloves, 1 star anise and the peeled zest of an orange.  You can add a splash of brandy if you like but that would make me fall over so I leave it out.

Merry Christmas!

Pippa's debut novel Lizzy Harrison Loses Control is still available in paperback and eBook, and you can pre-order her new book Unsuitable Men (due 15th March 2012) in paperback now.

My Favourite Christmas... by Lucy Dillon

Welcome back to my Christmas 2011 feature! As you know, I've asked lots of authors to write something about their favourite Christmas, and I've been lucky to have a great response. Today, I have the pleasure of welcoming the delightful Lucy Dillon!

Right. Here's my recipe for a cosy pre-Christmas evening in, straight from my cosy, if somewhat spooky corner of the Welsh borders...
You will need: The Secret of Happy Ever After, a pot of tea, a roaring fire, and some Welshcakes. (Dog is optional, but adds an extra boost of warmth to the proceedings, if fire not available.)

Welshcakes

225g/8oz self raising flour
85g/3oz caster sugar
1/2 tsp mixed spice
110g/4oz butter
1 egg
some sultanas or mixed peel (what ever you have left over from the Christmas cake!)
milk, if needed

Butter for greasing the griddle & granulated sugar for dusting the cakes.

1. Stir the flour, spice and sugar together, then rub the butter into the flour until you have breadcrumbs.
2. add the dried fruit
3. beat the egg lightly and add, squishing together until the mixture forms a ball. Add a little milk if needed, but don't make the dough sloppy.
4. dust a flat surface with flour, then roll out the dough to a thickness of your finger (technical term there, obv) then cut into rounds with a pastry cutter. If you don't have a cutter, then either use a small glass or just cut into squares with a knife.
5. melt a little butter in a heavy-based frying pan or griddle and heat - it needs to be quite hot to cook the welshcakes, but don't let the butter burn. Some recipes don't grease the griddle, but only you know how non-stick your frying pan is! The butter isn't for frying the cakes, just stopping them from sticking. Cook for 2-3 mins each side, until they turn a deep caramel colour.
6. Dust with sugar, and eat warm from the pan (yum) or with jam and more butter (double yum).

Take a large plate of Welshcakes, make pot of tea, settle yourself in a big chair with book, and apply to face.

What with the spices and the dried fruit, these also make great last-minute Christmassy gifts for work colleagues or friends - Lakeland and Waitrose both sell pretty biscuit gift bags that you can fill  up, and then tie with ribbon. But don't give them to your dog as raisins/sultanas are poisonous for them!

You can buy Lucy's wonderful new book The Secret of Happy Ever After at Amazon in paperback or on eBook now. You can also read my review of it here! 

My Favourite Christmas... by Nina Bell

Welcome back to my Christmas 2011 feature! As you know, I've asked lots of authors to write something about their favourite Christmas, and I've been lucky to have a great response. Today, I have the pleasure of welcoming the fabulous Nina Bell!

My favourite things about Christmas:
 
1)    The decorations. We got married in December and bought Christmas decorations on our honeymoon in Malaysia (which was surprisingly full of Christmas shops!) Each year we’ve added to our collection. I also cut lots of greenery from the garden, or gather wild rose hips or teasel heads from local fields and hedgerows. We couldn’t afford to re-decorate our house when we first bought it, so covering it in Christmas decorations was a way of making it ours. This year I’ve bought six large silver balls to hang in our tall, thin hall window.
 
2)    Everybody getting together. We used to go back to my family home in Surrey when my mother was alive. Various combinations of friends, brothers and in-laws came too - about ten or twelve of us in all. The car was always packed to the gunnels with us, our twins, and our stuff, but we always left something behind. Once it was the cat, another time it was the presents. My brother, Graham, lived nearby and always left later, so he’d get the key off a neighbour and retrieve the missing item. She used to say ‘see you next Christmas, Graham.’ My sister-in-law forgot to buy the turkey one Christmas, though.
 
3)    Treating myself to a stack of new books and reading them straight through. Reading during the day feels rather wicked, like drinking during the day. But there’s something about Christmas that makes you feel that you can eat, drink or read anything anywhere at any time. I’m on a thriller binge at the moment: Perfect People by Peter James, The Litigators by John Grisham and, for a change of pace, Horse Heaven by Jane Smiley are on my list at the moment. I’ve also got Sarah’s Key, but I’ve been told that the film is really good so I’d rather see that. I prefer not to see films if I’ve read the book.
 
4)    The tensions. My novels are family dramas, and Christmas is such fertile ground: when and how to give presents, competitive present-giving, games or no games, how long to cook the turkey, how to deal with vegetarians, hyped-up children, who spends Christmas where…but no-one is actively trying to be difficult. It’s just that customs, expectations, assumptions and misunderstandings clash in a glorious fanfare of booze, tiredness and good intentions. One Christmas I had three successive conversations with three different friends, all of whom had had problems with their sisters-in-law over Christmas arrangements. My editor, Jo Dickinson, and I immediately agreed that it would be a fab basis for a novel, so that was the inspiration for Sisters-in-Law. Lots of my friends gave it to their sisters-in-law for Christmas once it was published – luckily it’s quite a positive portrayal of the relationship.

You can buy Nina's latest book The Empty Nesters from Amazon in paperback on on eBook/Kindle now. You can check out my review of her book here too!

My Favourite Christmas... by Sheila O'Flanagan

Welcome back to my Christmas 2011 feature! As you know, I've asked lots of authors to write something about their favourite Christmas, and I've been lucky to have a great response. Today, I have the pleasure of welcoming the lovely Sheila O'Flanagan

When I was younger my parents owned a small grocery store. One year my dad bought a discounted consignment of stocking fillers (mainly small puzzles, like Rubik cubes). His plan was to make up Christmas crackers with the stocking fillers and sell them to our customers.

So for weeks before Christmas my two sisters and I had to spend our evenings making up the Christmas crackers! It took forever and the pay was derisory (actually I don’t think we got paid at all) but it always felt like Christmas when we started making them.

Every year I used to ask for the same things – a book, a Selection Box and a surprise. As my parents used to buy the surprise from the wholesaler sometime in September, they would go crazy every time I’d change my mind about what I’d like the surprise to be. However I always ended up happy with what I got. On Christmas day I would be found tucked into a chair beside the fire with my nose in the book and eating the chocolate. Or Lemons sweets – my dad would bring home a big box of those from the shop on Christmas Eve.

Those Christmases are like fairy tales now – I get very nostalgic when I think about them because they really were wonderful family times.

My favourite thing about Christmas is the carols. I’m not a religious person at all, but I love the music and the words of the best known ones. The carol I like best is Adeste Fideles, I always well up when I hear that. I also love Once In Royal David’s City and Silent Night. On another note entirely, though, I’ve been known to sing Santa Baby a la Kylie when I’ve had a mulled wine too many….

The last couple of Christmases, with all the snow, were magical (even if we were sick of snow by then). To me Christmas is about memories and feelings rather than actual things. I’m still happy once I find a book and some chocolate under the tree!

I've reviewed Sheila's latest book All For You, and also her seasonal short story collection A Season To Remember on the website. You can buy All For You in paperback and as an eBook, and also A Season To Remember in paperback and eBook also.

My Favourite Christmas... by Trisha Ashley

My new 2011 Christmas feature kicks off today with the lovely Trisha Ashley, author of new festive novel 'The Magic of Christmas'. I've asked lots of authors to write something about their favourite Christmas, and I've been lucky to have a great response. So I kick off today with Trisha, I hope you enjoy the feature!

I often seem to be writing Christmas books in summer time, but it doesn’t stop me enjoying the whole run up to the actual event.  I love Christmas!  I’ve already made two Christmas cakes and have the dried fruit soaking in dark rum at this very moment for two more.  Soon I will be baking and freezing mincepies too and making mincemeat flapjacks (recipe in the back of The Magic of Christmas – dead easy!)

There’s always a magical moment on Christmas Eve when the house is clean, decorated and scented with pine, spices and anticipation.  You have enough food and drink to withstand a small siege, an excitingly-wrapped heap of presents (and giving is so much more fun than receiving, isn’t it?), and your loved ones have arrived safely home.

Bliss.

Then it’s time to chill out with a glass off whatever takes your fancy and watch Love Actually – that’s a must.

This year I have just moved house and still have the edits of the new book, Chocolate Shoes and Wedding Blues, to finish before I can unpack – so my Christmas wish is to excavate the dining table from under the boxes and have at least one room totally sorted out.  I do know where the tree and decorations are, though!

I wish you all a happy and peaceful Christmas, with lots of good reading!

You can find me on Twitter @trishaashley and I also have a Facebook fanpage.  If you visit my website at www.trishaashley.com, you can write in my guestbook, join the newsletter group or email me – and you will also find me on Youtube, talking about writing!


You can buy Trisha's latest Christmas novel The Magic of Christmas in paperback and on eBook/Kindle now.