First, to all my lovely and faithful readers: Merry Christmas! Some of you have been with me since way back in 2009, long before I signed my first book contract. Thanks for standing beside and behind me! I’m soaking up every drop of your support. 🙂 And I’m so very thankful for you!
I hope you will be spending time with people you care about, and I hope you’ll have lots of lazy, coffee-saturated mornings. I plan to!
Last week, I talked about the hard that, for many, can come with Christmas. Today I want to talk about the nostalgic. About the beautiful and heartwarming. I love snow. I love carols. I love the smells and sounds of Christmas, and the chance to celebrate what God did for us through His Son, Jesus Christ.
Today’s guest, a sweet woman who diligently serves Christ from within her nursing home bedroom, manages to capture the wonderful and nostalgic of this holy time in every one of her Christmas novellas.
A Nostalgic Christmas by Darlene Franklin
When I wrote my first Christmas novella in 2008, I wondered how people could come up with new ideas for the hundreds that flood the stores. That story, Dressed in Scarlet from the collection Snowbound Colorado Christmas, took place during the worst-ever blizzard in Denver’s history, and I used a verse from the Bible that included snow: “She is not afraid of the snow for her household: for all her household are clothed in scarlet.” I had a vision of a lady making hats and mittens from red long johns, and the story was born. I couldn’t imagine another snow story.
Seven Christmas novellas later, I can’t wait to write another one. I already know the theme for my 2016 entry and I even have a crazy idea to write a Christian fantasy where Santa Claus is real. Not sure how I’d make it work.
Multiply that excitement by the hundreds of other books and movies, and we get a sense of the season inspires us.
The Bible says God has created everything I can see or imagine.
Even here at the nursing home, Christmas comes calling. A group of carolers stood outside our room, singing in four-part harmony. Christmas greens cover the nursing home. Lights twinkle up and down the halls. Christmas cards sit on my desk, and I’m reading a novella collection with eight Christmas stories. My son has already given me my first gift. My granddaughter showed off her lovely colored picture of Santa’s face, which was chosen as prettiest in the class.
Even my on-going study of Isaiah shouts of Christmas, with his many references to the coming Savior.
What do I feel? Love, joy, peace—even hope, my middle name.
Those are some of the things I can hear, see, touch, smell, and taste.
But God is also the creator of what I can imagine—a rich heiress and a poor Italian mechanic; a single mom and a vet; a retired Marine and a post office employee; a preacher’s daughter and a miner’s store owner; an apple orchard farmer and a scientist. The stories I write are also God’s creation—stemming from the imagination He gave me. I pray that people who read my stories also discover love, joy, peace, and hope.
Even our gift-giving, our imagination of what our loved ones want, comes from God—who of course gave us the greatest gift of all.
Thank God for all you can see and imagine at this Christmas season
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Let’s talk about this! What are some of your favorite Christmasy things or events? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below and get entered into the drawing to win a free book! Darlene is doing a giveaway of Christmas Mail Order Brides, which includes her novella Jacob’s Christmas Dream. *Give-away open to those in the continental US and is contingent upon a minimum of five comments left on today’s post.Â
Christmas Mail Order Brides: A dying town populated by miners eager to settle down. . .but not a single marriageable woman lives in Angel Vale, Wyoming. The women of Merville, Maine, have lost too many men to the Civil War and to the sea. When the Ladies Aid Society receives the request for mail order brides, eleven matches are made. Enjoy the first six novellas in the collection by Darlene Franklin, Susan Page Davis, Cynthia Hickey, Brandi Boddie, Jennifer AlLee, and Teresa Ives Lilly.
Best-selling author Darlene Franklin’s greatest claim to 
fame is that she writes full-time from a nursing home. She lives in Oklahoma, near her son and his family, and continues her interests in playing the piano and singing, books, good fellowship, and reality TV in addition to writing. She is an active member of Oklahoma City Christian Fiction Writers, American Christian Fiction Writers, and the Christian Authors Network. She has written over fifty books and more than 250 devotionals. Her historical fiction ranges from the Revolutionary War to World War II, from Texas to Vermont.
I enjoy finding a quiet peaceful place to sit and read a good Christmas story. I also like going for a drive, listening to Christmas music, and enjoying the light displays.
Hi, Edward,
I love all those things as well. When we lived in Southern California, there was an area, maybe three neighborhoods wide, that was known for its spectacular lights, and they were spectacular. Every house was decorated fully, many times to music. We’d drive each street with Christmas music playing from our car radio. Such great memories! 🙂
Hi!
My favorite Holiday memory comes in a Stable at Richard and Catherine Baisley’s house. My parents have a proud Catholic upbringing. They would take 7 children to Midnight Mass at Mount Saint Alphonsus
In Espous New York. We would attend the Mass and have a gathering afterwards with some of Our Priest Friends. We would come in the door tired and excited for Christmas Day. Whoever remembered to ask Mommy for Baby Jesus got to lay Him in His Stable Announcing He Was Born. Me being the baby it never happened for me until almost all moved out.That was the Best for me and a Memory I still Cherish to this dsy. I tried it with my own family but it never took, was saddened by that but then the memory is tucked away for me to recall anytime.
What a sweet Christmas memory, Justina! I’m sorry it didn’t work with your family, but you are so right–that precious memory will be tucked within. Such a treasure! I hope you had a great Christmas.