It’s time for Christmas, people. Behold my (Canadian) logic ~ Jenny Holiday

There are many awesome things about being Canadian: one year maternity leaves, a pretty flag, universal health care. But it’s possible that this time of year, the best thing about being Canadian is that we have our Thanksgiving in October. (We have no pilgrims and Indians and whatnot, in case you’re interested. It’s just a general harvest festival type thing. But we do eat turkey.)

Getting Thanksgiving over with in mid-October means IT’S TIME FOR CHRISTMAS, PEOPLE.

I am an unabashed lover of Christmas, and I will take on the scrooges. What’s not to like? Cookies and sparkly decorations and people being nice to each other? Sign me up.

Which is why I was delighted, after living in the U.S. for the first 24 years of my life and observing the whole “wait until after Thanksgiving to break out the Christmas carols” rule, to learn that our enlightened northern neighbors had no such late-November obstacle. I mean, you can wait until after Halloween up here if you want to, but that still gives you almost two months of Christmas goodness.

What’s playing in my earbuds this morning? (In the name of household harmony, I do try to wait until November for full on amplified Christmas music.) Annie Lennox’s Christmas Cornucopia, aka The Best Christmas Album Of All Time. As you might imagine, I have very specific criteria about what makes a good Christmas carol (I’ll spare you), and Ms. Lennox delivers better than anyone.

This is also the time of year I start reading Christmas romance novels. Am I allowed to recommend a non-Entangled one here? Kind of like in Miracle on 34^th Street when the Macy’s Santa causes a kerfuffle by sending shoppers to other stores to buy things Macy’s doesn’t stock? Because I think my favourite Christmas romance is Grace Burrowe’s Lady Sophie’s Christmas Wish. It’s a sweet, charming story in which our hero and heroine are snowed in with an abandoned baby. It’s also funny—there’s something universal about a tiny baby bringing the adults around her to their knees.

So of course, it was probably a CHRISTMAS MIRCLE that things worked out so that my first published novel is a holiday book, too. I’d actually sold another set of books first, but the timing worked out such that Christmas in October is happening first. (You don’t have to be a Christmas nutbar like me to enjoy this book though. It’s probably hard for you to believe, but in it, I take a light hand with the holiday stuff.)

Having your first book out is pretty nerve wracking. So you’ll just find me fretting over here in the corner, eating Halloween candy and drinking eggnog. Tra la la la, la la la la.