I'm excited to be hosting special guests for the next several Wednesdays! Please join me in welcoming Davalynn Spencer!
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Do you ever wish you could banish the blitz of Christmas? The
gotta-have-it, get-it-here marketing onslaught is enough to make a Scrooge of
nearly anyone. What happened to the Christmas KISS?
Keep It Sincerely Simple
Families today have come so far from more humble times when
Christmas giving might have meant an orange and peppermint candy in a
youngster’s stocking, a special dinner with roasted game, or songs led by a
brave soul with a fiddle and the Christmas story read by candle light.
Sometimes I think I’d like to pool all our money earmarked
for presents and spend it on a mountain hide-away in the luxury of simplicity.
Another option could be giving it all to a local charity—as I was privileged to
witness one year at our church. A family with four grown children brought in bulging
envelopes stuffed with money they’d saved and gave it to the church’s
water-well project. Their faces reflected a wealth of return from their giving.
Over the last several years, our eight-member family (not
counting kiddos) has put a price limit on gifts and exchanged names. Rather
than buying gifts for everyone, we each buy one. It has become quite a
tradition, and as the official name exchanger, I receive phone calls and texts
from family members starting in November asking whose name they have! Guess you
know what I’m busy doing while stuffing turkey and baking pumpkin pies for Thanksgiving
dinner.
When I recall my best Christmas memories, they never involve
the gifts I received, though I garnered just as many as most children. The
treasures I hold in my heart include the year my mother nailed our tree to the
floor because she couldn’t get it to stand up straight. Or the year our Jack
Russell terrier “anointed” the tree before we brought it inside. The smell of
clove-studded oranges and the way cloud-like divinity candy melted on my
tongue. My husband reading the second chapter of Luke to our children, and the
year I gave a secret gift to a needy family.
As an author who loves Christmas stories, I took literary
license and dispensed with all but the essentials of the season in my upcoming
Christmas novella.
My heroine faces the holiday with no money to buy presents
for the very important people in her life. No malls, internet, or last minute
shopping in 1885 on a snowbound ranch in Colorado’s Rocky Mountains. But oh,
how I loved the feel of a home-made Christmas that wrapped around me while I
wrote the story.
Options for Christmas giving are endless, and more
meaningful, I believe, if we can avoid modern commercialism. After all, God
nestled His gift in a feed trough, not a palace garden or courtyard.
This year as you give, open your heart to hear from the
Giver of every good and perfect gift. Maybe He has a surprise in store, a
lovely Christmas kiss He’d like you to help Him deliver.
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What a beautiful post, Davalynn! I grew up reading the Little House books and The Bobbsey Twins. Both series featured homespun Christmases, and they had a big effect on my attitude. Simpler Christmases are special! Thank you so much for sharing the joy of Christmas with us today!
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About Davalyn ~
Davalynn Spencer writes cowboy romance, a skill she’s honed
since marrying a professional rodeo bullfighter and raising another. Her most
recent title is “The Snowbound Bride,” one of twelve historical novellas in
Barbour’s collection, The 12 Brides of
Christmas. She is represented by Linda S. Glaz of Hartline Literary Agency
and makes her home on Colorado’s Front Range with her handsome cowboy and their
Queensland heeler named Blue. Connect with Davalynn on her website, Facebook
page, Goodreads, and Twitter.
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The Snowbound Bride ~
On the run from a heartless uncle, Arabella Taube hides in
Nate Horne’s buckboard just as a blizzard sweeps into Colorado. Can she find
her way out of the storm—physically and emotionally—or will the handsome
mountain horseman steal her heart?
Do you keep Christmas simple? What is your favorite tradition?
Have a wonderful day!!
