Christmas is the taste of our family.
In this Q&A (I thank St.Martin's Press for this material) we will discover much more about the writers of Christmas in Kilts published by St.Martin's Press. So, enjoy their answers!
Terri Brisbin
When do the holidays official start for you?
Thanksgiving!
What's your favorite thing about the holidays?
Family! And now watching the grandkids celebrating!
Are there any holiday traditions you do every year without fail?
Our traditions have changed a bit as my sons married and grandkids began arriving. The one thing we still do is gather to decorate the Christmas tree at our house.
What's your favorite holiday movie?
Christmas Vacation and Elf
Do you have a favorite holiday book?
I just love reading holiday romance anthologies!
What's your all-time favorite holiday song?
A Christmas Wrapping by the Waitresses
What's your favorite activity during fall or winter?
I love walking in my neighborhood after a new snow.
What's your favorite gift you've ever received or given?
My favorite gift was when I arranged a surprise family trip to Disney World for Christmas! It was hard but I succeed!
Do you have any items on your wish list this year?
None yet but there will be!
Any resolutions or goals for next year?
It's been a really difficult 2017 so my resolution for 2018 is to make sure my loved ones know they are...loved.
Lecia Cornwall
When do the holidays official start for you?
We officially call it Christmas the day of the Toronto Santa Claus Parade, which is in late November. We watch the parade on TV, have our first toast of eggnog, and enjoy the season's first batch of Very Special Christmas Chocolate Chip Cookies. Then on the closest Saturday to December 13--that's my husband's birthday--we go out as a family to get our Christmas tree (we still have a real tree) and put it up.
What's your favorite thing about the holidays?
Family and food.
Are there any holiday traditions you do every year without fail?
Christmas baking is a huge tradition for us. I make Very Special Christmas Chocolate Chip cookies, Quiche for Christmas breakfast, and Kulach (Ukrainian Christmas bread).
What's your favorite holiday movie?
Hard Question! The Bishop's Wife, perhaps, though Love Actually, White Christmas, and Polar Express are very close seconds (or thirds and fourths).
Do you have a favorite holiday book?
I have a small collection of Christmas books that my mother used to put out as decorations every year. When I was little, I loved the one about old fashioned Victorian Christmases, and I adored the gorgeous illustrations in a children's book called Once In Royal David's City. My mother also had a book of poetry and stories called 1000 Beautiful Things, which includes a story called The Other Wise Man by Henry Van Dyke. I'm not sure if it's the memory of my mother reading that story to me or the story itself I loved, but I still have the battered book, and treasure it.
What's your all-time favorite holiday song?
Another tough question! "Merry Christmas, Darling" by The Carpenters,
"J-I-N-G-L-E Bells" by Frank Sinatra, and anything from Loreena McKennitt's album To Drive The Cold Winter Away.
What's your favorite activity during fall or winter?
I love planning for the holidays, and being outdoors, that includes walking with my dog through the fall colours along the Bow River, baking and cooking for Thanksgiving (in mid-October in Canada), decorating the front porch for Halloween, raking leaves and putting the garden to bed for the winter, and stringing up the outdoor Christmas lights on one of the last nice fall weekends before it gets too cold (we don't turn them on until December 1, which was one of my father's rules). My now-grown kids still make ice luminaria for Christmas and New Year's Eve whenever it's cold enough outside to freeze a bucket of water (Try this, readers, they're gorgeous, and a little bit of Christmas magic in the dark. Fill a bucket with water. It freezes overnight, but the centre of the ice block stays liquid. Take the ice block out of the bucket, chip a hole in the top, pour out the water, and set the luminaria outside with a tea light candle inside).
What's your favorite gift you've ever received or given?
When I was first married, my in-laws gave us airline tickets so we could fly to Calgary to spend Christmas together as a family. Christmas with my own family growing up was usually very stressful, but my in-laws filled Christmas with love, laughter, warmth, and fun. Although my children are grown (aged 23 and 26), I've been fortunate enough to have them home for Christmas every year, and to me that's the best Christmas gift of all.
Do you have any items on your wish list this year?
New books are always welcome or maybe just an extra shelf for my massive (and ever growing) to-be-read pile! There's also the traditional Miss America answer to this question--a wish for world peace--but doesn't it just seem more important than ever this year?
Any resolutions or goals for next year?
I always set goals in categories: personal, career, home/family, and new things I want to try. I'm usually good about achieving the career and family goals, but not so good at the personal or new ones. I already know that next year will be full of huge new challenges and opportunities for me, so at the moment my goal is to find my way through whatever comes with as much grace and balance as possible.
Bronwen Evans
When do the holidays official start for you?
Mid December
What's your favorite thing about the holidays?
Guilt free reading and being with my family. Even an author needs down time.
Are there any holiday traditions you do every year without fail?
Besides putting up my Christmas tree? I always make a pavlova with kiwi fruit for our Christmas day dessert. Remember it's summer in New Zealand.
What's your favorite holiday movie?
I have three - Love Actually (one of my favourite movies of all time) and Die Hard and Lethal Weapon. I love action movies.
Do you have a favorite holiday book?
No, but I will say one Christmas a friend kept telling me to read JR Ward's Black Dagger Brotherhood as I had never read it. So I decided to read book 1. Well, over the Christmas break I read all 12 in a row!
What's your all-time favorite holiday song?
Mary's Boy Child by Boney M
What's your favorite activity during fall or winter?
Well, it's summer in New Zealand at Christmas, and I love simply getting out my Kindle, pulling up my lounger, and lying by my pool reading a great romance book.
What's your favorite gift you've ever received or given?
I love giving, who doesn't. So I usually give anonymous gifts to my friends children. I knew one child was saving for a present but would be short, so I sent him a card with money in it from Santa. Seeing his joy was priceless. My most memorable gift was when I was 7 and I got my first puppy. I'll never forget seeing his little nose poking over the edge of the box and hearing his little barks.
Do you have any items on your wish list this year?
Not really. I have a book wish list and at least everyone knows I'm easy to buy for.
Any resolutions or goals for next year?
I haven't thought about it yet, but I usually just wish for my family to be happy and healthy.
May McGoldrick
When do the holidays official start for you?
The holiday season has no start or end in our house. We are a multi-cultural and multi-denominational family. One holiday hands off the fun to the next...and the next...and the next...And then we start again! Our full name is 'May Your Holidays be Endless McGoldrick'! (You can call us 'Festive' for short.)
What's your favorite thing about the holidays?
Family get-togethers
Are there any holiday traditions you do every year without fail?
Before Christmas, we have a 'Gingerbread House Night.' I always think simple...graham crackers, candies, some frosting for the roof of a quaint little cottage. My competitive and mildly cutthroat family members, however, build the Golden Gate Bridge, the Taj Mahal, the Eiffel Tower, the White House...
What's your favorite holiday movie?
Love, Actually
Do you have a favorite holiday book?
The Night Before Christmas
What's your all-time favorite holiday song?
Christmas is All Around You (Bill Nighy via The Troggs)
What's your favorite activity during fall or winter?
Pick your own peaches. Pick your own apples. Pick your own pumpkin. Cut your own Christmas tree. And reading.
What's your favorite gift you've ever received or given?
For all the years our sons were young, we hid Christmas gifts all over the house. Assembly and wrapping took place after the boys were asleep on Christmas Eve. I remember the year when I used the last bit of wrapping paper while congratulating myself on my precision and planning. What I didn't know was that Jim had yet to wrap my gifts.
The next day, we all lined up on the stairs and then raced down to see what Santa left for everyone. The most charming gift was sitting under the tree. A large black trash bag containing Nikoo's gifts...tied up with a bow.
Do you have any items on your wish list this year?
A cottage on the beach in Southern California. Jim says, "Keep writing."
Any resolutions or goals for next year?
Smile every day.
Write every day.
Make others happy.
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