The kids are on vacation. The relatives are coming to visit. And you’re not really feeling yourself–between the wrapping and the baking and toilet-scrubbing, you’re not writing enough. Take heart, my beleaguered writer friends! Remember that the life you are living right now is fodder for the stories you will soon tell. Meanwhile, take heart in these writerly observations about this festive season.
“It snowed last year too: I made a snowman and my brother knocked it down and I knocked my brother down and then we had tea.” ― Dylan Thomas, A Child’s Christmas in Wales
“It was the beginning of the greatest Christmas ever. Little food. No presents. But there was a snowman in their basement.” –Markus Zusak, The Book Thief“
“As we struggle with shopping lists and invitations, compounded by December’s bad weather, it is good to be reminded that there are people in our lives who are worth this aggravation, and people to whom we are worth the same.” – Donald E. Westlake
“Our hearts grow tender with childhood memories and love of kindred, and we are better throughout the year for having, in spirit, become a child again at Christmas-time.” – Laura Ingalls Wilder“It struck him that how you spent Christmas was a message to the world about where you were in life, some indication of how deep a hole you had managed to burrow for yourself” ― Nick Hornby, About a Boy
“’Santa Claus has nothing to do with it,’ the latke said. ‘Christmas and Hanukah are completely different things’…’But different things can often blend together,’ said the pine tree. ‘Let me tell you a funny story about pagan rituals.'” ― Lemony Snicket, The Latke Who Couldn’t Stop Screaming: A Christmas Story
“The rooms were very still while the pages were softly turned and the winter sunshine crept in to touch the bright heads and serious faces with a Christmas greeting.” –Louisa May Alcott, Little Women
“One can never have enough socks,” said Dumbledore. “Another Christmas has come and gone and I didn’t get a single pair. People will insist on giving me books.” ― J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone
