Approaching Christmas and a New Year by Allison Symes

Image Credit:  Images created in Book Brush using Pixabay photos.  

Firstly, may I wish you a happy Christmas and New Year. Secondly, may I hope you receive many wonderful books as presents.

 

One of the joys of the post-Christmas and pre-New Year period is having more chances to curl up on the sofa with a good book. I make the most of this. My Christmas reading consists of books I receive on the big day (these always jump up my To Be Read pile) plus I catch up on writing magazines.

 

 In the run up to Christmas I take in a number of related stories usually via film. To my mind, the best rendering of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol is The Muppet Christmas Carol. Sir Michael Caine is superb in that. After that, comes the Patrick Stewart version. 

Hogfather by the much missed Sir Terry Pratchett is the Discworld’s answer to Christmas and the story is a cracking thriller. Who is trying to get rid of the Hogfather and why and can Death, assisted by his granddaughter Susan and manservant, Albert, stop this? It is an interesting story on the nature of belief too.

I often take part in Carols by Candlelight services and in recent years have read some interesting poems around the Nativity story. This year’s one is called The Shepherds at Bethlehem. I love the rhythm of poems like this and the imagery they create. 

Most of the carols themselves are stories put to song. My favourite here is Christina Rossetti’s wonderful In The Bleak Midwinter though for me only the Gustav Holst music will do. There is a bleakness to it which I think suits the poem.

As for my fiction, I have been submitting festive flash. It’s lighthearted and good fun to do and is what I call my seasonal writing. If ever there was a time for lighthearted reading and writing, it is for this dark period as we approach the end of the old year, I think. Am pleased to say I will have had another festive piece broadcast by the time this post goes out.

I also review my writing year. As ever there have been ups and downs. I set down a few things I would like to achieve in the new year though I admit the big thing I am looking forward to in 2026 is the publication of my third flash fiction collection, Seeing The Other Side. 

I am also putting together a fourth collection and I would like to get that submitted by the end of 2026 if I can. I’m due to reach a significant birthday next year so would like to see more publication credits. For me, that would be a great way to celebrate that birthday! 

Christmas is a time to take a breather (at least after the busyness of the big day itself) and the New Year period is a time to take stock and I shall welcome both of those things. 

Have a wonderful Christmas break and see you in 2026.