Hi, I'm Pippa Jay, author of scifi and supernatural stories with a romantic soul. And this Christmas finally sees the official publication of my second holiday story ever! Honestly, I've really struggled with writing holiday themed stories, being as most of mine take place far removed in time and space from our present and our planet. The idea of Christmas in Space seemed to be particularly tough.
But a couple of years back I found myself wondering exactly what Christmas meant to
me, and it sparked an idea. I've never been religious (nor were my parents and not my husband either) so we've never celebrated it as such. Obviously it's a set public holiday here in the UK, as in the US and other parts of the world, so in some respects at least taking the day off work is somewhat compulsory. My kids would say it's all about the presents. Hubs would say it's the dinner, since he cooks it every year and it occupies most of his attention for the day. For me, it's the one day of the year we always spend together no matter what, one of the rare times we might actually see our two boys out of their games room for a while. Even though our eldest is now 17 and youngest 11, we know they'll still wake early and hover outside our bedroom door with their stockings, hoping for us to call them in. Hubs and I will have a flask of ready made coffee to drink while the kids perch on the bed and go through their stockings before breakfast, with main presents later in the morning and a late dinner. New Year's Eve will see us at the in-laws house for a belated second Christmas where they'll get their presents from Granny and younger brother in law and watching the fireworks on the drive home. Eldest is especially excited about it as she got herself a part time job in the summer so has been able to do her own Christmas shopping with her own hard earned cash.
So that was the final inspiration for my little Christmas in Space story featuring my main couple from my
Redemption series, which is currently in the process of publication on various platforms, and which you can hopefully find on at least some of them by clicking
HERE.
As winter deepens
on the tropical isle of Kasha-Asor, Keir and Quin find themselves in a somber
mood, adrift in nostalgia. So begins a quest to recapture past happiness as
each takes a different path to find new ways to celebrate their good fortune. But
can distant memories really be revived on an alien world far removed from all
they knew?
And may I wish you all a Merry Christmas or Happy Holiday of your own!
6 comments:
For some reason, I'm positive Keir and Quin will be able to revive distant memories and create new ones. The whole Christmas stockings before breakfast with presents later was how we started our Christmas Day growing up and when I had my own son and then granddaughters. Good memories ...
Fun to hear your inspiration on how to tell this story from a different perspective. I have to say I do miss the stockings in the morning routine. Now that I have grandchildren and they do their own thing at home, that is the part I miss the most. Of course, we still feast, no matter who and how many are around to join in.
As I told Lynsee yesterday, I'm stacking up Holiday stories on my phone to read while on our trip over the Holidays. Picked yours up today. I enjoyed your first holiday story a few years back. Looking forward to this one. Happy Holidays!
Thanks Judith. It's still strange to think of my kids growing up and not doing the stockings any more even though eldest is off to university next year.
Thank you Deb.
Aww, thank you Sarah, really hope you enjoy it. Happy Holidays to all!
As children, my brother and I were allowed to open one gift before bed on Christmas Eve. These were the gifts from family (not the exciting stuff from Santa) and more often than not I'd discover a new hat knitted by Grammy, or socks. We did our stockings first thing in the morning, and then we were FORCED to eat our breakfast before we could open the gifts under the tree - torture, I tell you. But Mum was wise and knew we'd be too excited to even think about food once the gifts were opened, and we'd probably end up hangry, hehe.
In our house we followed suit with our two boys though I did relax the rule about eating breakfast.
Thank you for sharing your approach to doing an SF Christmas story. I thought about that VERY briefly this year and decided I didn't want to tackle it. So, now I'll have to read yours and see what happened.
Like others have said, I too grew up doing Christmas stockings before breakfast. They usually contained things like candy, bubble gum, and maybe a small puzzle. Our family exchanges were always hand made things. My mother knitted and crocheted. Some of us kids did too as we got older. Most of us made each other things like drawings, books with stapled pages or hole punched with yard as the binding. Santa would bring one gift each of something one might purchase in the store.
To this day, it is the handmade gifts I remember and my nieces and nephews still make handmade gifts in their family. So, the tradition continues.
Merry Christmas!
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