Guest Blog - Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas

Sally Goldenbaum, author of the magical Seaside Knitters Mysteries shares her holiday with us.  Please give a warm welcome!!

When my publisher first suggested a holiday-themed mystery for the seaside knitters to tackle, I was hesitant. I guess because I love this time of year, and tying it to a murder didn’t seem quite right, somehow. But then I said to myself, “it’s a cozy mystery, not a gritty one, and it can have a lovely, feel-good ending--filled with the joy of the season.” And with that I freed myself to explore the things that I love about this time of year, whether in celebrating Hanukkah, or Christmas, or Kwanzaa--or simply a personal celebration of family. 

I know you each have your memories, too--the things that fill your homes and lives with something special that isn’t there the rest of the year. Or maybe memories of what your childhood holiday was like. Here are a few of mine--some memories in the past--and some memories that are still happening in my life. But all memories that I shared with the Seaside Knitters as they welcomed me (and you) to Sea Harbor at holiday time in A Holiday Yarn.

1.  The smell of the fraser fir tree as we carry it home from the corner lot (we still have a corner tree lot--isn’t that wonderful? With a fire at the edge of the lot to keep the scouts’ hands warm and chile waiting for them in the Church basement). 

2.  The decorating of our outside tree--one my children and I planted for their dad for father’s day one year a long, long time ago. The tree is enormous now, shadowing our house, and each year I climb a ladder with a bamboo pole and hook duct-taped to the end that my husband put together, nudging the lights up as far as I can reach. Sometimes I leave them on all year, a canopy of lights that we walk beneath before coming in the door. It’s comforting, somehow. And in Sea Harbor, the knitters walk beneath trees just like this, all along their neighborhood streets and up the long drive to the Ravenswood Bed & Breakfast.

3.  The skating rink my father and the neighborhood dads flooded each year in the empty lot next to our home. The Seaside Knitters have a rink in Sea  Harbor, too, with a warming hut on the side and hot chocolate waiting on the hot plate.

4.  Santa coming to our house, all dressed up, on Christmas Eve. In Sea Harbor he makes his joyful entrance with Mrs. Santa and all the elves on a lobster boat that chugs into the harbor,  cheered by throngs of snow-suited children with rosy cheeks and eyes as bright as the stars.

5.  The sleigh my mother and father put up on our mantle every holiday season. Ben and Nell have one exactly like it, and it sits atop their own mantle, surrounded by boughs of holly.

6.  I love holiday music--I could listen to it all day long. One of my favorites (onethat always leaves me a bit teary) is “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.”  

      The song is featured a couple times in A Holiday Yarn as Pete Halloran and his Fractured Fish band work up their own rendition. They’re singing it to all of you right now. Can you hear them? 

And I join them in sending these wishes to you:

                 

“Have yourself a merry little Christmas,

Let your heart be light

From now on,

our troubles will be out of sight.

...

Through the years

We all will be together,

If the Fates allow

Hang a shining star upon the highest bough.

And have yourself A merry little Christmas now.”

Peace to all of you.

Sally

Thank you Sally for sharing the season with us!!