Finding the Christmas Spirit in Robyn: A Christmas Bride

By Jacqui Nelson

When I first started pondering a plot for my second Christmas story, Robyn: A Christmas Bride, my first questions were... 

What should the theme be? Is there a classic Christmas tale with an uplifting spiritual theme that many people might recognize or at least relate to? 

The Gift of the Magi - my first inspiration when writing Robyn: A Christmas Bride

The Gift of the Magi (written by O. Henry and published in 1905) features the themes of selfless gift-giving and how the gift of love is priceless. In that story, a husband and wife each sell their most valuable possession, but they are items that can be grown again (hair) or can be bought back again (a watch). 

I wondered what if the thing you valued most was sustaining a way of life that you’d struggled a long time to create and that now defined your entire self-worth? Could you give that up if it meant ensuring the happiness of a loved one? That might be the ultimate selfless gift to give.

My next thought was having a heroine who was a trouser-wearing tomboy who loved driving wagons in a time, 1877, when society wasn’t very accommodating about women’s appearances and occupations that strayed from the norm. 

So…what if my heroine decided she needed to do something drastic to win the heart of the man she loved? Changing yourself to please another person (even if they haven’t asked you to) might be considered another selfless gift. So…what is a classic transformation story? 

My Fair Lady and its heroine Eliza Doolittle were my next inspiration

My Fair Lady (released in 1964 as a movie starring Audrey Hepburn) focuses on speech lessons, but Eliza’s transform also includes her appearance—her clothing, hair, the way she carries herself, and more. It’s a life-changing transformation that is difficult for Eliza and takes hard work and sacrifice—for her own good (a chance at better job prospects) but also, as time goes on, to please her instructors.

So…selfless giving and self-sacrifice. Ready. Set. Go. Write a Christmas story!

I hope you enjoy Robyn: A Christmas Bride as much as I enjoyed not only writing the story but also giving Robyn Llewellyn and Max Peregrine their hard-won and well-deserved Christmas gifts.

Here’s a teaser graphic from Robyn: A Christmas Bride about gift-giving and friendship because the man whose heart Robyn wishes to win is her best friend, Max.

CLICK HERE to read an excerpt from Robyn: A Christmas Bride.

Or CLICK HERE to read an excerpt from my 1st Christmas story The Calling Birds - which happens also in the small mountain mining town of Noelle, Colorado, but one year earlier during Christmas 1876. 

Wishing you the best Christmas possible during the challenging year of 2020! 

I hope we all find - and give - an abundance of love in our real and virtual stockings this year ❤️🎁 

~ * ~

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CHRISTMAS IN EARLY COLORADO #Christmas #Colorado #History

In honor of the upcoming Holiday Season, I thought I would share some of the research I've done on early Colorado. I will return with the discussion on writing in January. 

Imagine if you will, the 1800s. You have followed the siren's call to Colorado. Life has been busy and the high desert with its mild weather has fooled you. Or perhaps you've been in the mountains trapping. You do some figuring and realize it's Christmas, what do you do? 

Around 1842, the northeast corner of Colorado/Utah saw the trappers celebrate the holiday with the help of the Indians in the area. Their festive meal consisted of appalost, a type of shish kabob with lean meat and fat roasted over a low fire, buffalo cider, a liquid found in the stomach of buffalo, supplemented with washena, marrow fat and pomme blanc from the Indians.

If you were in what is now the Denver area in 1858, perhaps you would have partaken of one of two celebrations in the new towns that were approximately sixty days old.

Records show the area had about 200 men and 5 women (four were married) and assorted children. One town had candles for a tree that had been cut in the foothills. A German couple were doing the planning and trees were a part of the home country festivities. The other town had a meal of buffalo, rabbit, wild turkey, rice pudding and peach and apple pie, listing just part of the menu. Now add into this mix some  "Taos Lightening" compliments of good ol 'Uncle Dick' Wooten and you would probably have a day to remember, that is if you didn't indulge in too much of the gift 'Uncle Dick' brought to the festivities.

In 1863 one family on the Arkansas river, up close to the cut off to what is now Monarch pass, had been cut off from others and the towns due to heavy fall snow storms that year.  They had been working their claim, even in the heart of winter. When Christmas arrived, they had plenty of food, but not much variety. One daughter, with the help of her siblings decided to bring out the good china brought from their home in Nebraska and serve up a feast of mock turkey made from beef and beans along with substitute coffee, made from browned bran. The parents were the guest of honor. 

Leadville Mine 1908

Even the boom towns celebrated the holidays. In Leadville in 1888, Dick Berryman's Saloon offered the following bill of fare for patrons on Christmas: Possum, Turkey, Roast Pig, Sweet Potatoes and Corn Dodgers.

Two other stories, with unknown dates, show yet another side of the Christmas holiday. 

On a train ride a woman and her two children were leaving Kansas to go to Denver to live with her mother. The ranch she had tried to maintain after her husband’s death had been too much for her to handle. As the train proceeded from Kansas to Colorado, it was stopped by a large drift across the tracks on Christmas Eve. The two children were upset that they would not be able to spend Christmas with their grandmother. The train crew and the three male passengers made the children comfortable. While the children slept near the stove, the crew and male passengers used the wealthy ranchers socks and filled them with gifts. On the morning of Christmas day the children had their Christmas thanks to the kindness of strangers.

For another family, living in the high mountains, the father had gone to a nearby town to purchase sweets and some gifts. On the way home, he and his traveling companions were caught in a blizzard. They dug down the three feet of snow that had accumulated to the bare ground and burning wood during the night along with the insulation of the snow were able to keep from freezing. Although he returned later than expected he made it home to spend Christmas with his family.

I will leave you with a description of an 1873 Colorado winter from Isabella Bird found in her book "A Lady's Life in the Rocky Mountains". As Isabella rode her horse Birdie through the fir covered area near what is now Estes Park she wrote  "...I think I never saw such a brilliant atmosphere.That curious phenomena called frost-fall was occurring in which, whatever moisture may exist in the air, somehow aggregates into feather and fern leaves, the loveliest of creations, only seen in rarefied air and intense cold. One breath and they vanish. The air was filled with diamond sparks quite intangible. They seemed just glitter and no more. It was still and cloudless, and the shapes of violet mountains were softened by a veil of the tenderest blue."

I hope you enjoyed the journey through the past in Colorado during the Christmas time of year. Some of these stories helped to inspire my novella "Gift of Forgiveness" which takes place in the Colorado Mountains during the same time of year. 

purchase e-book here

May your Holiday Season be filled with joy, love and the promise of even more in the upcoming year.

Doris Gardner-McCraw -

Author, Speaker, Historian-specializing in
Colorado and Women's History

Angela Raines - author: Where Love & History Meet

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