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

Destination Christmas

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

Christmas is only TWO WEEKS away, according to Google. Eek!!

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!)

DESTINATION CHRISTMAS: The 2022 Christmas Lights Collection
AUTHORS: Cathe Swanson, Sarah Monzon, Jaycee Weaver, Chautona Havig
GENRE: Inspirational Contemporary Romance Collection
PUBLISHER: Havilah Press Publications
RELEASE DATE: October 18, 2022
PAGES: 555

♥ This Christmas, pack your bags for a holiday away from home. ♥

Join the Christmas Lights Collection authors as we travel to Colorado, New Mexico, Wisconsin, and New Cheltenham for warm and wonderful stories of love and Christmas cheer.

Kiss Me on Christmas by Sarah Monzon

Single mom Kaitlyn Stafford has never considered Christmas a balancing act, but when her sister calls with the news that she’s getting married in less than two weeks—on Christmas Day—that’s exactly what the holiday looks like becoming. Helping with the out-of-state wedding will be fun. The challenge will be doing so while accommodating her neurodivergent son’s need to keep every single one of their Christmas traditions while they’re away from home. It’ll be tricky, but she can do it.

At least, that’s what she thinks before her son’s favorite YouTuber, Beckett Walsh, shows up on the scene, knocking her world off-kilter with his speaking glances and knowing smiles. How on earth is she supposed to pull off her balancing act when her world’s just tilted on its axis?

Christmas Camp by Cathe Swanson

Julia is eager to prove herself in her first job as project manager for the family’s charitable foundation, but she expected it to be something more meaningful than creating a winter wonderland Christmas vacation for snow-deprived southerners. Why is this project so important to her grandmother?

Tom doesn’t understand why anyone would want to renovate his uncle’s broken-down Wisconsin deer camp, either, but if it will save the old man’s home and business, he’ll help the ambitious city girl put together the most cliché-filled Christmas ever.

Not Another Christmas by Jaycee Weaver

The palm trees and beaches of Florida are far from her chaotic family as Cindy Sinclair can get. Her anticipated promotion is the perfect excuse not to come home for the holidays… until she’s passed over and the job is given to none other than her childhood nemesis.

This far from New Mexico, Nick Hoover never imagined he’d beat Cindy out for a job. Again. He’s messed up her plans since the day they met, but this time, Nick is determined to prove he never wanted to be her enemy. If only she’ll let him.

When their reignited adolescent rivalry gets out of hand, their boss insists they both go home, face the hurts of their pasts, and bury the hatchet once and for all. With help from her meddling family, this could be the Christmas they quit clashing and give love a fighting chance.

The Hearts of New Cheltenham by Chautona Havig

The only way not to break her best friend’s heart is to get someone else to steal it.

Jarod doesn’t need a month off and certainly not halfway across the country. His best friend doesn’t agree. She’s been researching places for him to go and has found him a perfect match on a dating website who just happens to live in New Cheltenham. It’s a match made online until she begins to wonder if she’s made a mistake trying to offload him on someone else.

A novella of love and friendship that defies a love triangle to interfere.

Destination Christmas offers a stress-free travel experience without traffic, delayed flights, or forgotten toothpaste. Instead, you’ll enjoy wonderful destinations, delightful new friends, and a heartwarming experience!

affiliate links used

snow at Christmas

by Cathe Swanson, author of “Christmas Camp”

Destination Christmas is the 7^th annual Christmas Lights Collection! This year, we have four contemporary Christian romances from Chautona Havig, Jaycee Weaver, Sarah Monzon, and me—Cathe Swanson. They’re all sweet, heartwarming stories to brighten your day and lift your holiday spirits.

In the past, I’ve connected my Christmas Lights Collection stories to existing series, but last year, I wrote about Christmas in Arizona and this year, I wrote about Christmas in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan! If not quite polar opposites, those settings are about as different as you can get here in the United States. They had one thing in common: a focus on the role of snow at Christmas.

What’s so special about snow at Christmas, anyhow?

It’s unlikely that Joseph and Mary encountered any blizzards on their way to Bethlehem. In fact, while the Bible does talk about snow and ice a few times, it’s not usually in a positive light. A large part of the world’s population doesn’t have snow at Christmas. In some areas, they never see snow at all. And yet, many of us still make a connection between snow and Christmas.

It’s nostalgic. When Bing Crosby croons that he’s dreaming of a white Christmas, we get a little choked up. Admit it. You know you do.

It’s romantic. Hallmark movies, anyone?? Do they even make Hallmark movies without snow?

It’s been entertaining us our whole lives. Generations of children have watched Frosty the Snowman, Santa Claus is Coming to Town, Rudolf the Red-nosed Reindeer, the Grinch Who Stole Christmas, and other snowy Christmas movies. We have a plethora of Christmas movies for grownups, too, that feature snow. (And Hallmark, of course.) As for music… very few modern Christmas songs DON’T refer to snow!

It’s beautiful. (Says the Minnesota girl!)

Baby, it’s cold outside!

Interestingly, the roots of our idealized white Christmas might be found in “The Little Ice Age,” a period of unusual cold weather in the Northern Hemisphere. It lasted until the mid-1800’s, shaping the Christmas traditions we have today. Dickens’s “A Christmas Carol” reflected the Christmases of his youth. Clement Clarke Moore wrote “A Visit From St. Nicholas” in 1822. In America in that same time period, Currier and Ives painted and printed winter Christmas scenes. Songwriters, authors, poets, and artists from that “Little Ice Age” created works that have influenced our culture ever since.

The weather got better, eventually, but the imagery lasted. Even if we don’t usually like snow and ice, we want it on Christmas Day!

Christmas Camp

Julia expected her first job for the family’s charitable foundation to be something more meaningful—and less expensive—than creating a winter wonderland Christmas vacation for snow-deprived southerners. Still, the project would be fun and rewarding if only her grandmother didn’t keep interfering.

Tom doesn’t understand why anyone would want to renovate his uncle’s broken-down Wisconsin deer camp, either, but if it will save the old man’s home and business, he’ll help the ambitious city girl put together the most cliché-filled Christmas ever.

Visit Snowy Falls, Wisconsin for a sweet Christmas romance from Cathe Swanson!

Read Christmas Camp in the 2023 Christmas Lights Collection: Destination Christmas!

Cathe Swanson is offering an ebook copy of Destination Christmas plus a $5 Amazon gift card to one of my readers! (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 Destination Christmas by Cathe Swanson, Sarah Monzon, Jaycee Weaver & Chautona Havig?