by Liz Ireland
When I was a kid, my brain was focused on holiday anticipation from the moment the Sears catalog wishbook crossed our doorstep, usually sometime in October. My mom worked hard to make every holiday magical. The amazing thing was how often Christmas lived up to or exceeded my expectations. I can’t say that any one of them was less than joyous…even if there were a few years when I didn’t get the gift I really wanted. Like the several years running that I was wild to receive a ventriloquist dummy. Never happened.
Looking at those scary dummies now, I have to have to admit that maybe my parents really did know best! But of course receiving a scratchy wool sweater instead of a dummy seemed a calamity at the time.
In the years since then, I’ve come to understand that little disappointments aren’t the worst things that can happen at Christmas. Life keeps happening all year long. Sometimes we suffer unbearable losses in December just when the rest of the world is celebrating. Usually the holiday catastrophes aren’t quite as heartbreaking: fully decorated trees flop over, the family dog decides to unwrap presents before the family wakes up on Christmas morning, or the travel Gods laugh at our carefully planned airline reservations.
I was thinking about Christmas calamities when I dreamed up Mrs. Claus and the Nightmare Before New Year’s. I also wanted to imagine what happened after Santa’s Sleigh took off on its annual flight. On Christmas Eve, just as the elves are celebrating after Santa’s send-off, three mysterious strangers arrive in Santaland, bedraggled, frostbitten, and near death…and one seems to be the victim of an attempted homicide. Now the elves of Santaland have to contend with strangers in their midst and trying to hide the fact from these unwanted guests that they’ve landed in a secret, enchanted world.
Then there are a few little other problems, like a flu that threatens the annual reindeer Hop-n-Snort…and maybe even the safety of Santa’s sleigh! While Santa’s away, it just might fall to April Claus to save Christmas week from total calamity.
Whether the holidays ahead are quiet and peaceful or chaotic and crazy-making, I hope you’ll find joy in the season. Remember: It’s often when things go wrong that the best stories are born!
ABOUT LIZ IRELAND
Liz was born in Texas and credits a rural upbringing in a houseful of books for her lifelong love of stories. After earning a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Theater from Southern Methodist University in Dallas, she moved to New York and worked various jobs (book clerk, world’s slowest professional typist, substitute teacher) before landing a job in publishing. Since then, she’s made her home in Austin, Portland (Oregon), Ottawa, Montreal, and now Vancouver Island in British Columbia. In her free time, she enjoys playing in local concert bands, watching classic films, and—of course—reading. In addition to her writing career, Liz has worked for two decades as a fiction editor. She’s a member of Mystery Writers of America, Sisters in Crime, and has served as a regional representative for Crime Writers of Canada.
Under the pen name Liz Freeland, Liz writes the Louise Faulk historical mystery series. She also writes women’s fiction as Elizabeth Bass.
