Casa For The Holidays Virtual Tour and Giveaway from Sourcebooks

Sourcebooks is celebrating the upcoming holiday season with an early gift for one lucky reader at The Reading Cafe. Read about each of the author’s favorite Christmas Story and then tell us what is your favorite holiday read. ONE lucky commenter will win ALL 4 new release holiday books from Sourcebooks. Giveaway is open INTERNATIONALLY.

Carolyn Brown’s Favorite Christmas Books:

Holiday books are such fun and always put me in the spirit. My all-time favorite Christmas book has always been ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas. The pictures and the rhyme speak volumes to my imagination. I can feel the cold outside and hear the jingle of the bells. I can even see Rudolph’s red nose. In my Christmas romance novel, The Cowboy’s Christmas Baby, Henry loves to read to Baby Joshua. Maybe Henry is just using the excuse to reread them to the baby, like I do when I read ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas to my grandchildren. One of Henry’s favorite Christmas books is Baby Jesus is Born and he is convinced that Joshua understands every single word.

My favorite Christmas book lately has been Grace Burrowes Lady Sophie’s Christmas Wish but it could take a back seat to her newest one, Lady Jenny’s Christmas Portrait which I’ve promised to buy myself for the holidays.

A quick story here: I used to read ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas to our children during the season so Husband wrote his version of the poem when they weren’t very old. It became a tradition for him to read it to the children and later to all the grandchildren on Christmas Eve at our house when they gathered to open presents. I won’t quote the whole thing but it starts out: ‘Twas the night before Christmas and all through the house, not a creature was stirring except a flea and a louse.

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Grace Burrowes’ Favorite Christmas Books:

I love O’Henry’s “Gift of the Magi,” a short story supposedly written in about two hours flat. The penniless young husband and wife long to give each other the best possible holiday gift, even in their straitened circumstances. The husband sells his heirloom watch to buy his wife decorative combs for her beautiful hair; the wife sells her hair to buy her husband a gold chain to go with his prized heirloom watch.

The punch line of the story is that, in the Christian tradition, love was the gift of significance on the first Christmas, and love remains the essence of the holiday when it’s properly celebrated.

Sigh.

I don’t find that message reflected in too many longer works of fiction, so I’ll have to wiggle away from the notion of Christmas books, and say instead that “A Charlie Brown Christmas” is one of my favorite stories. When Linus comes out on that empty stage, makes his little speech, and uses his beloved blankie to begin the transformation of the bedraggled Christmas tree, I just tear up.

Every. Time.

Because the other aspect of Christmas that should be part of its proper celebration is togetherness. Love wants sharing, whether it’s love in the form of voices raised in song, a shared batch of cookies, two friends watching “It’s A Wonderful Life,” or a skating party that will end with an empty bowl of wassail.

And I do love “It’s A Wonderful Life.” I may not watch it each year, but when I do catch that story, I’m always heartened by it. Same with “How the Grinch Stole Christmas,” “Garfield’s Christmas,” and “Rudolph” (all together now: “Bumble’s bounce!!!”).

How fortunate we are, to have so many Christmas stories, all of them cheering, and all of them about the enduring power of love, and the pleasure of celebrating that power with friends, family, and the entire world.

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Terry Spear’s Favorite Christmas Books:

Some of my favorite holiday books include The Snowman (watched the video with my married daughter last time I visited in the spring—it’s just special), The Polar Express, A Christmas Carol, Gift of the Magi, and The Elves and the Shoemaker… Notice they’re all Christmas stories suitable for children? I’m a kid at heart.

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Juliana Stone’s Favorite Christmas Books:

I have a confession to make to you all—I don’t read a lot of Christmas books. And Ever since I bawled for hours watching The Christmas Shoes, I don’t watch many Christmas movies either.

But, there are some books that always remind me of Christmas, Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder. I loved all the books and of course watched the television series ( I had a huge crush on Michael Landon) but that first one, where they spent the winter in the big woods and had Christmas is special.

Another is Little Women. Both of these books are timeless classics and speak of a simpler time. For me, that is the real spirit of Christmas and sadly, sometimes that spirit is lost. I think that’s why—for me—Christmas is my favorite holiday. I keep it simple. It’s about family and that’s not always about blood either—a lot of my friends are as close to me as if they were family, and I love spending time with them!

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To enter to win a prize pack of all 4 of these Christmas authors’ novels, tell us in the comments the books you love to read during the holidays!! This contest is open internationally.

1.  Please register using the log-in at the top of the page (side bar) or by using one of the social log-ins

2.  If you are using a social log-in, please post your email address with the comment.

3.  Tell us in the comments, which book(s) you love to read during the holidays.

4.   Giveaway is open INTERNATIONALLY

5.  Giveaway runs from October 29 to December 10, 2013

FOLLOW ALONG WITH THE “CASA FOR THE HOLIDAYS” VIRTUAL TOUR!

October-December 2013

Fun Holiday-Themed Posts from Carolyn, Grace, Terry and Juliana,

And Chances to WIN Books at Each Stop!