I have to admit that I’m not the biggest fan of Christmas stories.
That’s mostly because I live in the Southern Hemisphere, which means our Christmas celebration marks the beginning of our summer holidays. Christmas is different Down Under.
I know a lot of people enjoy reading Christmas novels, perhaps because it gets them into the spirit of the Christmas season.
We don’t have snow. We have sand. At the beach.
We don’t have roaring log fires. Instead, we have the air con going full blast.
We don’t drink mulled wine (whether the alcoholic or non-alcoholic version). Who wants hot spiced wine in the middle of summer? Instead, we drink iced soft drinks—although it’s more likely to be Coca-cola or L&P than iced tea.
We might have the traditional Christmas dinner: roast turkey, ham, potatoes, kumera (the Maori name for sweet potatoes). And fresh asparagus—it’s in season. But we might also have a barbecue at home or on the beach. After all, it’s summer. Who wants to spend the day in a hot, steamy kitchen?
So I hope you can see why the traditional Christmas story doesn’t really appeal to me.
The one Christmas collection I did enjoy was the Aussie Summer Christmas novella collection. It’s no longer available as a collection, but the individual novellas are for sale on Kindle. They are:
Seaside Christmas by Narelle Atkins
A Christmas Resolution by Rose Dee
All is Bright by Andrea Grigg
Falling for Maddie Grace by Meredith Resce (I’m not a sports fan, but this was one of my favourites)
Melbourne Memories by Marion Ueckermann
Santa Next Door by Lacy Williams
