A New Christmas Tradition You Can Start Right Now
Moving away from your childhood home and establishing your own Christmas traditions can leave much to be wanted. Maybe you considered throwing out your matching pajamas set that your parents gave you and your siblings but kept Uncle Jerry’s Christmas Eve Eggnog recipe?
When I got my first place, I faced this very issue. No one prepared me for the strong desire to make Christmas at my house different and memorable for every guest who stopped by during the holidays. I struggled with wanting more than frosted cookies and blinking lights around the yard and piles of board games for after dinner cheer. Eventually I turned to the long list of things typically left out of the Christmas season and found a happy surprise in murder, suspicion, and robbery. The Grinch truly is everyone’s favorite Christmas hero so I found myself in good company.
My favorite seasonal traditional, all started when I found a perfect collection of Christmas time Whodunits curated by the talented and knowledgeable, Otto Penzler. Seriously, if you have never checked out one of his anthologies, put any one of them on your Christmas wish list. The Big Book of Christmas Mysteries remains my favorite, year after year.
Each December, I pull out my hefty volume of Kris Kringle themed crimes and read the stories late into the snowy, winter nights. Some of the tales I have read so many times I have the punch line memorized. Others, the twists in the plots are so brilliant every reread is a surprise when the detective gets his guy.
This month instead of putting out a short story of my own creation, I wanted to share with you all one source of my creative inspiration. Penzler’s collection made me fall in love with short stories. This Christmas collection includes the greats, Agatha Christie, Ellery Queen, John D. MacDonald, and the quieter voices, Doug Allyn and Sara Paretsky.
This year, I would be thrilled if you would join me in my Yuletide tradition. After reading some of the stories share a comment with me about which one was your favorite. Did a story make you laugh? Have nightmares? Become suspicious of Santa Claus?
Merry Christmas you guys! And cheers to a new year of discovering great stories together.