It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas (Reads) GIVEAWAY: The Firefighter’s Christmas Promise (+ guest post)

The Firefighter’s Christmas Promise

Welcome back to our annual blog series spotlighting (over 60 again this year) new and recently-released Christmas reads!

Christmas is only 20 days away, according to Google, but of course it’s never too early for Christmas stories, and ’tis the season when I really start craving them (even more than I do the rest of the year lol), so now is the perfect time to jump right into these posts!

Continuing through just after Christmas, I’m going to spotlight several Christmasy releases from 2022. Most days will have more than one post, just FYI. So… snuggle in, grab your fave hot beverage and comfiest blanket, turn on some Christmas tunes and start your bookish Christmas list! Oh… and did I mention there are GIVEAWAYS with EACH POST in this series??!! (Because authors are awesome!)

THE FIREFIGHTER’S CHRISTMAS PROMISE by Tanya Agler
SERIES: Smoky Mountain First Responders #4
GENRE: Sweet Contemporary Romance (clean & wholesome)
PUBLISHER: Harlequin Heartwarming
RELEASE DATE: October 22, 2022
PAGES: 384

A Christmas bargain…

Becomes a promise of more

Former pro soccer player and single mom Becks Porter finally owns her own soccer complex. But her Christmas dream becomes a blazing nightmare when the building literally goes up in flames—injuring her ex, firefighter Carlos Ramirez. Now Becks and Carlos must choose between old grudges and helping each other out. Sparks have a way of rekindling…but can two people start over without getting burned?

From Harlequin Heartwarming: Wholesome stories of love, compassion and belonging.

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You’re Now in Bedford Falls

by Tanya Agler, author of The Firefighter’s Christmas Promise

Merry Christmas! My sincere thanks to Carrie for inviting me to be here today.

What’s your favorite city to “visit” during the Christmas season? Bedford Falls? Who-ville? Pine Tree, Vermont? I love fictional Christmas settings, and I remember the first Christmas movie to hold me spellbound. Many years ago, my mother called me in to dinner. I asked her if I could finish watching something I found on television. I’d never seen it before and I simply had to know how it ended (although, at the time, the movie was played almost 24/7 on different channels). I sat entranced as Clarence showed George Bailey what life would be like without him. Would George have to live in Potterville forever? Or would he return to Bedford Falls and face the district attorney who had a warrant for his arrest? And, best of all, George was deaf in his left ear, just like me, and he wanted to travel the world, just like me.

Little did I know that the viewing would lead to my lifelong love of Christmas movies and specials. There’s something about characters waking up to the wonders of the world around them. These stories always lead to a moment of contemplation, reflection, and action. Sometimes it’s through another character’s poignant question (like Cindy Lou Who asking the Grinch – “why, why Santy Claus, why?”). Sometime another character’s reminder of what matters most in life (Jefferson Jones riding in the sleigh with Elizabeth Lane and reflecting on the positive in Christmas in Connecticut). It can even be as smile as a challenge  to see the world through different eyes (Klara Novak’s letters to Alfred in The Shop Around the Corner). Every year, I share my favorite Christmas specials and movies with my children (because I’ll let you in on a little secret – I have about fifteen favorites!) and try to see the movies through their eyes. By now, we can all recite Linus’s speech at the end of A Charlie Brown Christmas by heart, but I still get chills when Lucy and Linus and Pigpen and more decorate that little tree. Same with the courtroom scene in Miracle on 34^th Street (if you haven’t seen the original with Maureen O’Hara, John Payne, Edmund Gwenn, and Natalie Wood, stop reading and go watch it!). And who can forget Cary Grant ice skating in The Bishop’s Wife or Bing Crosby and Rosemary Clooney sharing sandwiches and milk in White Christmas or John McClane stepping on glass in Die Hard (yes, I consider it a Christmas movie)?

And every year, I wear my “George Lassoes the Moon” T-shirt at least once a week while enjoying a mug of hot chocolate in my Grinch and Max mug with the lights of the It’s a Wonderful Life village creating a soft ambient glow in my living room. I love Christmas movies, and I love hearing my kids laugh when Max jumps on the sled or Elizabeth Lane closes her eyes as she flips the skillet, waiting to find out if the flapjack lands in it or not. For me, the emotion of these specials reflect innocence and joy. They remind me of the goodness in the world.

My family begins watching Christmas movies on Thanksgiving night, always adding at least one new movie or special to the mix (this year, we watched the Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special, and I already know I’ll watch it again!) while watching old favorites. All of the stories that spread Christmas cheer help prepare me for the real Christmas story. On Christmas Eve, my family and I bundle up and head to church where the ultimate and best Christmas story is relayed in carols and Bible stories. Then comes  my favorite moment of the season – the moment when the lights go out, the candles are lit, and the churchgoers sing Silent Night.

But until Christmas Eve, on as many evenings as my schedule permits, I’ll be in Pine Tree, Vermont or Who-Ville or Bedford Falls. What’s your favorite Christmas movie?

Tanya Agler is offering a $10 Amazon gift card in a Christmas mug (not as pictured) to one of my readers! (US only. Void where prohibited by law or logistics.) This giveaway is subject to Reading Is My SuperPower’s giveaway policies which can be found here. Enter via the Rafflecopter form below.

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What about you? What makes you want to read The Firefighter’s Christmas Promise by Tanya Agler? What’s your favorite Christmas movie?