Happy Christmas To You

 Peanut Butter. Jelly. Socks. Shoes. Batman. Robin. Tom. Jerry. What do all these things have in common? They are all part of a famous pair.

Famous pairs surround us at every turn, and no doubt you could add some great ones of your own to the list, but none is as exciting to a Christmas enthusiast as Christmas and July. An unlikely twosome you say? Perhaps you don't realize how much the celebration of Christmas in July has growing in popularity.

Although it likely began at different times and for different reasons in various parts of the world, in the U.S., it is thought to have been started by Fannie Holt, the director of a summer camp for girls in Brevard, North Carolina in the 1930's. 

To offer the campers some unique summertime fun, Fannie had the girls sing Christmas carols, exchange gifts, and even host a visit from Santa himself. It makes sense that the duplication of this wonderful holiday was the brainchild of someone who worked with kids.

In the 1940's a comedy starring Dick Powell and Ellen Drew bore the name, and if you fast forward to current day, society has given us everything from songs about the subject, to summer cocktails with names like Mistletoe Kiss, to an entire month of Christmas themed movies from the Hallmark Channel.

Why on earth do humans have such an obsessive fascination with Christmas that we have to celebrate it twice in the year?

Perhaps it's the fun that comes with a change of pace.

For those of us in the Northern Hemisphere, celebrating Christmas at the midpoint of the year allows us to combine what is usually a winter holiday with the fun and sun of summer. This opens the door to all sorts of wacky and wonderful events like getting Santa to a luau on the beach.

 For the citizens of the world who dwell in the Southern Hemisphere, the opposite is true, and they take every advantage of the snow/rain to decorate their gardens with festive decor and set up European-style Christmas markets.

Alternatively, it could be the green stuff. Cha-ching.

Marketers, of course, have a field day with yet one more opportunity to lure us in with sales and specials. As if we needed an excuse to shop.

Maybe people want to take their matching pajama picture early so it will be ready for the postcards in time for real Christmas.

Or maybe, if we set cynicism aside, it's as simple as the fact that Christmas, with all its trappings and traditions, makes people happy. And why not infuse more happiness in the world? We might as well have two Thanksgivings, three birthdays, and a month of Valentine's, complete with Brach's candy hearts available in small boxes at all times. Plus Cadbury eggs. Don't forget the eggs.

Is it necessary? No. But is it fun? Absolutely. A quick internet search turned up the following festivities just within a sixty-mile radius of my house.

A murder mystery dinner called The Most Wonderful Crime of the Year

A free ornament-making workshop

A concert of Christmas-themed music put on by the Chamber of Commerce

A Christmas Toy Drive benefitting Shriners Children's

And $200 credit for anyone who books three nights at a nearby resort

With these options and more, how can you be a Grinch? Just jump on the celebratory bandwagon and put Feliz Navidad on repeat for the next 174 days. 

I would be remiss as an author if I didn't at least mention the way that I am celebrating Christmas in July. Although I have three chapters left to write, I will be releasing Book Two in my Home for Christmas Series during the last week of the month. 

The Long Way Home began as a novella and has blossomed into a full-length novel. Book one, Finding Home is the fifth novella in the 5-author anthology entitled Christmas In The Cascades.

Being from Southern California, it is definitely strange writing about wreaths and snowstorms as I blast my AC, but stirring up themes of family and community as well as joy and hope seem fitting for any time of year.

Check out Christmas In the Cascades on Amazon and KU and keep your eyes peeled for The Long Way Home. Until then, stay warm or cool, whatever your case may be, and munch on a candy cane from last year's stocking. 

It's been a pleasure contributing to Cowboy Kisses, friends.

Happy Christmas to you.

The Long Way Home

Sweet With Faith Christmas

By day, Cynda Marks produces a celebrity baking show. On the side, she works on her own series about small towns and the fascinating people who live there.

When she discovers a failing toy store at a Christmas tourist town in the Cascade Mountains, Cynda hopes to include it in the series and help the owner raise the money she needs to keep the store. Discovering that a reclusive “secret santa” hand makes all the toys in the shop fuels her desire to tell the story. The owner shuts the idea down to protect the toy maker’s privacy.

John Carter has all but withdrawn from society. He has his reasons, and nobody needs to know them.

The only person he maintains contact with is his dead friend’s wife, Maggie, and that’s because he owes her—big time. When it appears she’s going to lose the family toy store, he stretches his social limitations to look for work that will help her hold onto it.

A knock on his workshop door in the middle of a snowstorm introduces him to the pushiest, most talkative woman he’s ever met. He turns her proposal to film him down flat despite the money she promises and sends her on her way into the stormy night.

Her second knock brings an offer he can’t refuse, and before he knows it, he finds himself living in Cynda Marks’ home, practically in view of the house and memories he's spent his whole life running from.

As John and Cynda work toward the same goal of helping Maggie save the store, Christmas miracles stir and create a heartwarming journey’s end for the prodigal who took The Long Way Home.

Christmas in July - Cowboy Style

 

Tis the season for Cowboy Christmas! Yeehaw.

Each year, dozens of rodeos are held around the Fourth of July holiday. For spectators, it's a lot of fun to see their favorite rodeo athletes competing.

 For rodeo athletes, it's an opportunity to increase their chances for qualifying at the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo this December in Las Vegas as well as earn additional income. Typically, rodeos around the 4th of July have higher payouts, and there are certainly more rodeos happening to choose from. 

Because of this fast-paced, hectic season with the opportunities for big money and nailing the possibility of competing in Vegas, it's referred to as Cowboy Christmas.

Cowboys who go join in the craziness might compete in Prescott, Arizona and be back on the road before the dust in the arena has a chance to settle. Those who travel to my home state of Oregon will find PRCA sanctioned rodeos in Molalla and St. Paul. Or their travels might take them to Colorado, or Cody, Wyoming, or Red Lodge, Montana before heading up into Canada for the Calgary Stampede - an event that could be a cowboy's Christmas dreams come true since the winnings are rich. 

My love for rodeo started when I was old enough to attend our local rodeo, held over the Fourth of July. Growing up on a farm twenty miles from the closest town, we generally took our excitement anywhere we could get it.

Each summer, I eagerly anticipated our small town’s biggest event of the year – the Fourth of July Rodeo. Back in those days, it was a PRCA-sanctioned rodeo. Some of the top names in the circuit would join hundreds of rodeo fans for four days of rodeo, events in the park, a parade through town, and the annual Suicide Race (a crazy horseback race down a steep butte, across the highway, through the river, and into the rodeo arena -clink to link to watch if from a participants viewpoint - start at the 2 minute mark).

For a horse-crazy little girl who loved the smell of leather and the sight of cowboy hats, it was amazing. 

One of the few stores we had in town was a saddle-maker with a boot shop. When I was five, my dad took me to Leroy’s shop to pick out a new belt for the rodeo. It was the first time I got to choose my own and I was so excited.

As we walked inside, the welcoming aroma of leather filled the air. Dad led me to where Leroy worked on saddle at the back of the shop and they talked a few minutes. Impatiently waiting, they finally told me to go see what I could find. My gaze – and heart – immediately settled on a hand-tooled belt with little flowers and a silver buckle with a gold saddle that glistened in the overhead lights.

I still have that little belt today along with my love of rodeo. It’s because of how much I enjoy the watching rodeos that led to the creation of my Rodeo Romance series, set near Kennewick, Washington.

Read about rodeo cowboys, their adventures in competing, and the women who can't help but fall for them in my Rodeo Romances series!

Start with The Christmas Cowboy.

The combination of Christmas and hunky cowboy may prove to be more than she can resist.

Tate Morgan is as tough as they come. He can handle the wildest bronc on the rodeo circuit, but he loses the ability to think straight around the beautiful woman he keeps running into at the airport. Completely captivated by the uptight executive who makes it clear she detests cowboys, Tate will have to work a little holiday magic if he wants to win her heart.

Married to her job as a corporate trainer for a successful direct sales company, Kenzie Beckett doesn’t have time for a man. Besides, after being burned twice by two-timing losers, she refuses to allow a third opportunity to exist. Unfortunately, no one told that to the handsome rodeo cowboy who catches her eye at the airport. He’ll need more than a pair of fine-fitting jeans, dusty boots, and dimpled smile to break past her resistance and bring her a heaping helping of holiday cheer.

Full of laughter and tender romance, The Christmas Cowboy takes readers on a sweet Christmas adventure to a happily ever after.

After spending her formative years on a farm in eastern Oregon, hopeless romantic Shanna Hatfield turns her rural experiences into sweet historical and contemporary romances filled with sarcasm, humor, and hunky heroes. When this USA Today bestselling author isn’t writing or covertly hiding decadent chocolate from the other occupants of her home, Shanna hangs out with her beloved husband, Captain Cavedweller.

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