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
snow at Christmas
by Cathe Swanson, author of “Christmas Camp”
Destination Christmas is the 7th 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!
After 40 years of wandering (but always in lovely places and not in a desert), Cathe Swanson has recently returned to her childhood home and family in Minnesota.
In the summer, she and her husband enjoy spending time with their grandchildren and being outdoors, gardening, hiking, birdwatching, and kayaking. The long winters are perfect for playing games, reading, and indoor hobbies. Cathe’s been a quilter and teacher of quiltmaking for over 25 years and enjoys just about any kind of creative work, especially those involving fiber or paper.
Cathe writes books with creative plots and engaging characters of all ages, to glorify God and entertain and bless readers. Her heartwarming stories will make you laugh and make you cry—and then make you laugh again. Visit her at her website.
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.
What about you? What makes you want to read Destination Christmas by Cathe Swanson, Sarah Monzon, Jaycee Weaver & Chautona Havig?
I would like to read Destination Christmas by Cathe Swanson & the other 3 authors because it sounds like great wintery reading!
Sounds really great
Thank you so much for sharing. God bless you.
Nothing like a Christmas collection. Thank you for sharing.
I like to read Christmas books.
I absolutely love the cover of this book.
I look forward to these collections every year. Thanks for the chance to win!
I love the cover! It’s the perfect book to read over the holidays.
Isn’t it cute? Chautona Havig designed it!
Nice book
Captivating and lovely.
Sounds wonderful!
cute cover
I can’t get enough of Christmas time themed stories, especially these.
This sounds like a fun collection
You had me at New Mexico.
These stories would be great Christmastime reads, I am always looking for these kind of stories at this time of the year.
Christmas romance stories always seem more appealing.
I love reading Christmas stories!