Once Upon a Winter Wonderland
Welcome back to our annual blog series spotlighting (over 60 again this year) new and recently-released Christmas reads!
Christmas is only twelve days away, according to Google. Time to double check those lists!
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!)
ONCE UPON A WINTER WONDERLAND
AUTHORS: Susan May Warren, Rachel D. Russell, Michelle Sass Aleckson & Andrea Christenson
GENRE: Inspirational Christmas Romance Collection
PUBLISHER: Sunrise Publishing
RELEASE DATE: October 9, 2022
PAGES: 394
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Christmas Traditions
by each of the authors of “Once Upon a Winter Wonderland”
Susan May Warren
One of my favorite Christmas traditions happens on Christmas Eve. As a child, we would go to our Christmas Eve service, then have our traditional clam chowder soup and after my father read the Christmas story, we always gathered around the table to do a puzzle. When we were small, the puzzles were small. As we got older the puzzles increased to 300, 500, and then 1000 pieces. At that point we started doing the puzzles a few days earlier. The key was to finish it on Christmas Eve and leave the last piece for Santa. I love this tradition and we carried it into our family when I had children. Of course we never do anything small, so we went from 1000 pieces to 1500, to one year a 5000 piece puzzle. I am ashamed to say that that one skunked us and we had to pull out a 50 piece Batman puzzle in a desperate attempt for Santa to put in the final piece of a completed puzzle. We still do this every year! WWe start the puzzle at Thanksgiving, so that everyone can choose it and we can get it started, and then we continue it throughout the holiday season ending on Christmas Eve. Miraculously, Santa always finds the missing piece and puts it in. And all is well with the world.
Rachel D. Russell
One of my favorite family Christmas traditions is centered around our tree ornaments. Many years ago, we started adding ornaments each year that represented different family milestones, memories, or experiences from the year. There’s an adorable tent from the year we were camping on the coast and a storm rolled in…and flooded our tent. Our air mattress was our raft that night. Then there are the hiking boots for a trip to Smith Rock State Park. We’ve got kayaks and kittens, an Eiffel Tower, and an origami miniature shirt folded from a map of Colorado. Complete with little buttons and a hanger. Too many to count now, the entire tree is a beautiful collection, symbolic of our lives together. Our laughter, our tears. I love unpacking and hanging the old ornaments each year as well as discovering the perfect new ones to add.
Michelle Sass Aleckson
To prepare our hearts for Christmas we started doing Lego Advent calendars and reading a devotional with the kids when they were little. Somehow we started doing it by candlelight and it added such a depth and intimacy to the moment that now, even though the kids are growing up and aren’t into Legos anymore we’ll still turn off all the lights, light every candle we have and read our Advent devotional remembering how Jesus came down to our dark world to be with us.
Andrea Christenson
When I was a little girl we would spend Christmas Eve at my grandparent’s house with my mom’s siblings and their kids. Aunts, uncles, cousins, food, gifts, and merriment spilled everywhere. Sometime in the evening, after dinner but before bedtime, someone would suggest we sing Jingle Bells. This sent the younger generation into a tizzy. Jingle Bells meant Santa! Sure enough, after a round or two of the song, a knock would come at the door, and standing on the front step was Jolly St. Nick with a bag full of gifts! It was YEARS before I realized the man under the beard was one of my favorite uncles. Now that my grandparents have passed away, our holidays look a little different. However, my brothers continue to carry on this tradition, donning the suit to delight the kiddos.
With over 1.5 million books sold, critically acclaimed USA Today best-selling novelist Susan May Warren is the Christy, RITA and Carol award-winning author of over ninety novels with Revell, Tyndale, Barbour, Steeple Hill and Summerside Press. Known for her compelling plots and unforgettable characters, Susan has written contemporary and historical romances, romantic-suspense, thrillers, rom-com and Christmas novellas. Visit her at susanmaywarren.com.
Rachel D. Russell is a member of American Christian Fiction Writers, Oregon Christian Writers, My Book Therapy’s Novel Academy, and is a regular contributor to the Learn How to Write a Novel blog. When Rachel’s not cheering on one of her two teens at sporting events, she’s often interrogating her husband on his own military and law enforcement experience to craft believable heroes in uniform. The rest of her time is spent cantering her horse down the Oregon trails and redirecting her three keyboard-hogging cats. Visit Rachel’s website at www.racheldrussell.com.
Sunrise Publishing is offering an ebook copy of the Once Upon a Winter Wonderland collection to TWO 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 Once Upon a Winter Wonderland by Susan May Warren, Rachel D. Russell, Michelle Sass Aleckson & Andrea Christenson? What’s one of your fave Christmas traditions?
The cover caught my eye and I love Christmas stories.
I would love to read this book, thank you for the giveaway.
fun traditions
I would love to wander off to Deep Haven again!
When I was growing up, my fave tradition was
Ringing in of Christmas at my church at the end of the service,
The church is dark – this was right after “Silent Night” and all of the candles are out.
Each corner of the church has a set of ringers.
The big, low bells start, with whole notes, in the choir loft.
Then the really high bells start with 16th notes.
The next tier down down starts with 8th notes.
That’s followed by the next tier down with quarter notes.
The last corner chimes in with half notes.
The bells never stop ringing until the end…..
All of the sudden, all of the lights are thrown on and “Joy to the World” is played on the organ.
(Sadly, we don’t have enough people anymore. But still a fave memory.)
I love this series of books! Thank you for the chance to win, and Merry Christmas to all!
I love the cute little snowmen on the cover! 🙂
I loved this story!!!
I love anthologies. During this busy time of the year I usually have just enough time to read through a novella in an anthology, not a full length book. This sounds like a nice collection of Christmas stories. Just what I need to read while taking a break.