Friends, we are still celebrating Liz Mugavero’s Purring Around The Christmas Tree release. A reminder about what the book is about:
To the townspeople’s delight, the annual lighting of the tree is a spectacular success. Unfortunately, Santa pulled up in his sleigh, DOA. At first Stan is sure it’s Seamus, her boyfriend’s uncle, inside the red suit. But the victim turns out to be an employee from the town’s Christmas tree farm. Rumor has it the deceased was a mean drunk with a soft spot for feral cats. Stan has no idea why he was dressed as St. Nick—or why he’s dead.
Meanwhile, Seamus, a jolly Irishman who comes to America every December to visit his pub-owner nephew, is nowhere to be found. Could he just be off on a Boston bar crawl? Or is something more sinister under the tree? Seamus was supposed to be dressing up and posing for pet pictures with Santa at the shop, but the dogs and cats might have to find another lap to curl up in if Stan doesn’t solve two mysteries soon. Or murder might be the only thing under the mistletoe this holiday . . .
The question this week–Wickeds, do you have a Santa Claus story you want to share?
Jessie: Huzzah, Liz! When I was a small child my mother would read me the story The Jolly Christmas at the Patterprints every year on Christmas Eve. It was the story of a family of mice who end up with Santa dropping into their cauldron of soup hanging over the fire. Quite the kerfuffle ensues. I now read it to my own children every Christmas Eve.
Edith: Congratulations, Liz! I can’t wait to read this new installment. When I was growing up we always read the old standard “Night Before Christmas” on Christmas Eve, and I continued that tradition with my sons. The poem has so many perplexing words and concepts for a child. “Threw up the sash” always made me feel a little queasy, as if Santa had eaten the sash to a dress and then vomited. And for years I thought he put a finger INside his nose – not a foreign concept at all to kids. Here are my sons (at 11 and 14) getting almost too old for the tradition.
Sherry: Yay, Liz another new book! When my daughter was in second grade we were stationed in Florida and my husband traveled a lot. There was a movie on the Disney Channel that Elizabeth and I had watched about the tooth fairy. One night after I put her to bed, I sat in the family room reading. Elizabeth came out, put her hands on her hips, and said, “Tell me the truth is there a tooth fairy?” I told her no there wasn’t. She lectured me about lying and stomped back off to bed. A few minutes later she repeats the process, but this time asks about the Easter Bunny. Another lecture, more stomping. I sat there dreading what might come next, wondering why Bob was never home for these things. Sure enough Elizabeth comes back out, places her hands on her hips, and glares at me. “I don’t even want to know about Santa Claus,” she announced. Then she twirled around and went back to bed.
Barb: Congratulations, Liz. I LOVE your cover and can’t wait to read this new addition to the Pawsitively Organic Pet Food Mysteries. I love Christmas, and pretty much everything around it. My husband’s father’s family has a party every year on the Sunday closest to the Feast of the Immaculate Conception. Santa comes and gives each kid a small gift to tide them over to the big day. I loved this tradition when my kids were small, and my granddaughter has participated the last few years. (With, I admit, mixed results.)
Julie: First off, HUGE congratulations Liz!! So happy for you!! When I was growing up, my father always took us shopping and out to lunch one day around Christmas, likely to give my mother some time to catch up with the holiday. One year, when we were really little we went to meet Santa. This Santa was tiny, thin, and had horn rimmed glasses. We would have nothing to do with him, insisted that this was NOT Sand, and my sister started weeping. So my father, who was always quick with a story, told us that we were right. It wasn’t Santa. It was too close to Christmas, so he sent two elves down to stand in for him. There were actually two elves in the suit. WHEW. Childhood memories were saved.
Liz: I love these stories! Thanks so much for sharing them, guys! And for celebrating my release with me! xo
How about you, dear readers? Any Santa stories you want to share?
A certain Santa who arrived by firetruck will be Kris Kringle in Miracle on 34th Street locally (but it has not been officially announced yet).
Very cool!
For several years my younger sister and I had adjoining rooms, separated by double doors that opened. My parents would let us have a small Christmas tree in that space, complete with lights and decorations. One year I caught my parents sneaking in during the night to lay some presents under that tree, but my sister didn’t know, and I didn’t tell her it wasn’t Santa Claus (didn’t tell my folks that I knew, either). Probably one of the kinder things I did for her when we were children!
Aww, what a good big sister 🙂
Congratulations, Liz.
The Girl took the news that there really wasn’t a man in a red suit who came down the chimney (yes, we have one) pretty stoically and was very protective of her brother’s belief for many years. The Boy admitted prolonging that “belief” – he thought that if he admitted he knew the truth about Santa, he’d stop getting presents.
For the past few years, The Girl and I have faithfully watched “Love, Actually” as part of our Christmas tradition. But it’s leaving Netflix (!), so we’ll have to rent it from Amazon if we want to keep that up.
Too funny about not admitting he knew! I hope he still got presents…
When is Love, Actually leaving Netflix? I need to watch it again so hopefully I can get to it before it goes!
If I remember correctly, sometime in early October. Maybe as early as October 1. 🙁
My brother did the same thing. As the younger child in the family, he pretended to believe for years, believing we’d get fewer presents if he let on. My parents finally had to tell him to cut it out!
My daughter, also the younger child, was like Sherry’s. Very protective of her belief. Whenever it looked like a TV show or movie was working up to or even joking about the truth, she’d leave the room. We knew she knew, but it was fun for us all to be able to keep up the pretense.
I’m not coming up with any good Santa stories, however I am loving reading all of yours.
My Dad used to tell two stories every Christmas that we always loved hearing until he passed away 10 years ago. One was Rudolph the Red Nosed Rocket, which was funny, and another one was about an elementary school Nativity play where a handicapped child played the innkeeper, and when Joseph and Mary asked for a room, the little boy said with great compassion, “Joseph, you and Mary can have my room — I will sleep in the barn.” My Dad could never finish it without a catch in his voice and tears in his eyes, and of course my Mom and 4 sisters and myself would always end up weeping (but in a good way!). Congratulations, Liz, on the release of PURRING AROUND THE CHRISTMAS TREE! I can’t wait to read it ~
Congrats, Liz! Looking forward to a good read.
Edith, there is no such thing as outgrowing reading Night Before Christmas. We have read the story to our daughter on Christmas Eve for 44 years. It doesn’t make any difference where any of us are. Most often she is visiting here and we read it to her in bed. But one year we were part way across the country in a train sleeper coach, one year stuck in a motel because of a blizzard, and a couple of times by telephone. As she got older we started tucking it up a bit (a lot!) and it’s a tradition we all love. We’ve never figured out what a courser is and now refuse to look it up. It would spoil the fun.
That’s yucking it up. Darned autocorrect.
Great stories! Sherry, I especially relate to yours. And most of all, congratulations, Liz!