Donna Alward
When do the holidays official start for you?
December 1 - or the weekend just preceding it. That's when we get out the decorations and go crazy.
What's your favorite thing about the holidays?
THE MOVIES. I love sitting with my kids (who are of the nearly-adult variety) and watching holiday movies with a glass of wine or hot cocoa.
Are there any holiday traditions you do every year without fail?
Tons! There are certain things we bake. We have a whole bunch of Christmas Eve traditions, including a barbecue (steak!), putting presents under the tree, going for a drive to see the lights, and watching The Polar Express. And even at their age, they still ask me to read 'Twas the Night Before Christmas.
What's your favorite holiday movie?
I have too many - my fave depends on my mood. Top contenders: Christmas Vacation, Christmas with the Kranks, White Christmas, Love Actually, The Polar Express.
Do you have a favorite holiday book?
Hmmm. I don't tend to re-read holiday themed books, but I'll confess that I have a soft spot for any (all) of the Christmas books in the Chesapeake Shores series. Those O'Briens... :)
What's your all-time favorite holiday song?
Nat King Cole's version of The Christmas Song. Simplicity and nostalgia all rolled into one smooth voice.
What's your favorite activity during fall or winter?
Cozy nights with a glass of wine and a book. LOL! Seriously though, I miss living near the Rockies, because the skiing there spoiled me for anywhere else.
What's your favorite gift you've ever received or given?
One year my sister put together a recipe book with our mom's fave recipes over the years. She added some of her own, too, but if I want something that Mom used to make back in the eighties? It's in that book!
Do you have any items on your wish list this year?
Yes! Yoga socks, books, and a kindle.
Any resolutions or goals for next year?
Do better. :)
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.
Donna Grant
When do the holidays official start for you?
I'd say October 1st, because I get ready for Halloween. Then November 1st to get ready for Thanksgiving, but it day after Thanksgiving, it's all Christmas!
What's your favorite thing about the holidays?
The decorations. I love to see it all!
Are there any holiday traditions you do every year without fail?
We spend Christmas Eve at my parents where there is a bunch of finger foods. Then Christmas Day everyone comes to my house where we have gumbo (Cajun tradition). Then we head to the movies about about 2.
What's your favorite holiday movie?
It's a toss up between White Christmas and Love Actually and Christmas Vacation. We watch them every year.
Do you have a favorite holiday book?
No. I'm an equal opportunist for holiday books. :)
What's your all-time favorite holiday song?
White Christmas
What's your favorite activity during fall or winter?
Around me we have the Texas Renaissance Festival, which is the largest in the US. It always begins at the end of September and runs until Thanksgiving weekend. It always signals the begin of fall for us.
What's your favorite gift you've ever received or given?
I received my long-haired Chihuahua for Christmas. She was unexpected, but so amazing!
Do you have any items on your wish list this year?
Walls. The flood from Hurricane Harvey took everything, but I'd like walls and doors for privacy again. lol
Any resolutions or goals for next year?
I try to make some improvement each year. For 2017 it was balance. I'm not sure what 2018 will be yet. I might still need to work on balancing everything.
Emma Douglas
When do the holidays official start for you?
After my mom's birthday which is early December!
What's your favorite thing about the holidays?
Getting together with my family and friends and just having a good time with the people I love.
Are there any holiday traditions you do every year without fail?
Making the plum pudding with my mum and watching Carols by Candlelight which is broadcast on TV here in Oz on Christmas Eve.
What's your favorite holiday movie?
Die Hard
Do you have a favorite holiday book?
The Father Christmas Letters by J.R.R Tolkien. Gorgeous illustrations and funny! They're letters he wrote to his kids (as Father Christmas) each year, telling the stories of what had been happening at the North Pole that year.
What's your all-time favorite holiday song?
O Holy Night because I love the melody.
What's your favorite activity during fall or winter?
I do Christmas in summer here in Oz so that makes it swimming or otherwise avoiding the heat. But in winter I have a weird liking for walking in the cold, as long as I can thaw out with a good book afterward.
What's your favorite gift you've ever received or given?
Both my current cats I gave myself for Christmas but that probably doesn't count. I got a membership to the local zoo which was fun as I like to wander around there. Other than that, like a true bookworm, every year I love getting books.
Do you have any items on your wish list this year?
Nothing big but I'm sure I'll come up with a list of books and art supplies that would be great to get.
Any resolutions or goals for next year?
Both to write more and to have more time for non-writing things. Maybe I need a clone for Christmas?
Kieran Kramer
When do the holidays official start for you?
Thanksgiving Day, as soon as I turn on the TV to the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade! Can't miss the Rockettes segment, ever!
What's your favorite thing about the holidays?
Inhaling the delicious scent of the Christmas tree, seeing the twinkling lights, hanging out with the family and our friends.
Are there any holiday traditions you do every year without fail?
I always make frosted sugar cookies, and I always try to watch as many Christmas movies as I can. I also try to go to the Holiday Boat Parade in Charleston harbor!
What's your favorite holiday movie?
It's a Wonderful Life; I never get tired of it!
Do you have a favorite holiday book?
Definitely How the Grinch Stole Christmas....
What's your all-time favorite holiday song?
Away in the Manger sung by Julie Andrews--the UK version of the melody
What's your favorite activity during fall or winter?
baking bread, using my crockpot, reading cozy books, buying myself winter clothes, going to parties, eating holiday cookies
What's your favorite gift you've ever received or given?
My favorite gift is having my family all together in one place. Nothing matters more. Sometimes we can't all be together, so I cherish the Christmases that we can celebrate under one roof.
Do you have any items on your wish list this year?
Yes, having my own little family together again--the last two years some of us have been overseas. But if I have to mention something from the store, I'd love to have some canvases and paint and painting lessons!
Any resolutions or goals for next year?
Yes, to slow down and get centered, to really look around each day and marvel at this beautiful world filled with people who all want to love and be loved. I refuse to let the haters in. Oh, and I have to keep dancing to my Alexa, haha!!
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?
