You will have to excuse me for taking a short-cut and talking more of the season than writing today. I’ve been up to my ears busy and travelling - my car was stolen two days ago so I’ve had to hitch a ride with an aunt to get to my mom’s house for the holidays. (And a few days earlier than originally intended - since obviously I had to fit into their schedule).

Christmas is my favourite time of the year. It’s a shame it wasn’t as big a holiday in the Regency as it is now - or I think I definitely would have wanted to have a seasonal scene at some point in some story. Heck, I still might - simply because it’s the greatest season of the year.

Being from Sweden our Christmas celebrations are slightly different from those in the US. First of all, we celebrate on Christmas Eve rather than Christmas Day. We have the tree - just like everyone else - but I don’t think you’d ever find a turkey on a Swedish Christmas dinner. We have the traditional Christmas Ham instead. Other things you would find; meatballs, prince sausages (about half the size of a regular sausage), a potatoe/anchovis gratin and many many more things. In the morning of Christmas Eve the entire family gathers for breakfast - which is a special pourage made of rice. According to old tradition an almond should be put in it - and the person who gets it on their plate is destined to find love within a year. It’s also old tradition to put the left-over pourage out in the evening for Santa Claus (which quite honestly is a deviation of the original tradition for the housegnome - if he didn’t get his pourage on Christmas Evening he would wreak havoc in the stables).

How do you celebrate Christmas? What traditions do you have in your family? If you’re a writer - are you giving yourself a vacation for the holidays or are you still going to find the time in between food, family and gifts to write? For readers - do you have any Christmas-set stories to recommend?