In the Spirit of Christmas,
These Are A Few of My Favorite Things….
By Kiki Howell
My favorite movie, and the inspiration for my short story Spirit, Yet To Come is the George C Scott version of A Christmas Carol. My wonderful husband watches it with me a few days before Christmas each year, and last year was the first time both of my boys watched it with us as well. I also watch each year Borrowed Hearts, A Season for Miracles, and The Muppets Christmas!
Songs are going to be much harder for me to narrow down. We celebrate both Hanukkah and Christmas in my house as my husband is Jewish, so I like the Bare Naked Ladies CD, Barenaked for the Holidays due to its mix of both types of songs. Plus, since I collect snowmen and leave them up in my writing room all year long, it has a great snowman song about not fitting in that is just so heartbreakingly cute! Other songs would be, and you will begin to see my eclectic tastes here, “One Christmas Eve” by Wayne Watson, “Carol of the Bells” just about any version including some great heavy metal ones, “Grown Up Christmas List” by Barbara Streisand, etc.
I love to read, of course, so there is Father Christmas by Barbara Metzger which is a regency romance, Gabriel’s Angel by Nora Roberts which is a short romance, and All I Want For Christmas is a Vampire by Kerrelyn Sparks which is a paranormal romance, and The Grinch by Dr. Seuss which needs no explanation,to name a few!
It is hard to fit it all in even here! From finding room for all of my decorations, my favorites being my Santa which is praying over the Baby Jesus because my mother always used to tell us that Santa was real, as he would always live in us as the spirit of the first gift. To baking, we have an old butter cookie recipe from a newspaper sometime in the fifties that has been made for cut-out cookies by three generations of my family now. The actual recipe is framed and hangs each year in my mother’s kitchen. To parties, we have a Hanukkah party each year too. I make homemade Sufganiyot, the donuts, from a sourdough recipe which I have to start making 15 days early! All of these things lead to great memories like seeing the menorah lit each night by the window with the Christmas Tree. It is really great when these traditions follow you no matter how old you are! My mom buys each of us special ornaments to represent what we like that year to hang on one special tree which I decorate all funky with the old fashioned lights. I brought mine with me when I got married, and my boys will take theirs when they move out. It is a great way to start that first tree. Also, on Christmas Eve my mom gives each of us our first gift which is new pajamas to wear, and we each pick out a Christmas story to read out loud. I always pick “The Legend of the Spiders,” which is about how we got tinsel.
So many great things to do if you make time to do them, and I have been doing better each year!
So, comment about something that is a holiday favorite of yours to enter to win a copy of my story, Spirit, Yet To Come, which is now out in the Four Seasons:Winter 2009, eXcessica Special Anthology, edited by Selena Kitt. 
I will give away up to 12 copies of Spirit Yet to Come in the spirit of the 12 Days of Christmas song I can never get through!
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