by Jennie Lucas, author of The Christmas Love-Child (Harlequin Presents Extra, Nov. 2009)
This week, the Presents Extra collection Snow, Satin and Seduction is released in stores! The theme of the four books, as you might guess, is winter and Christmas, and I’m already humming Christmas songs. I recently sent all my fellow Presents authors a YouTube link to Andy Williams singing “The Most Wonderful Time of the Year”. They didn’t say so, but I’m sure they appreciated it.
Anyway, it got me thinking – what are some dreamy locations for a Presents-style holiday season of sparkle and glamour? Every list is personal, but here are my top five Christmas locales, each of them offering a very different holiday experience:
5. VIENNA
From the end of November until Christmas Day, Vienna and much of Bavaria are filled with festive outdoor winter markets. One classic Christmas market is the Christkindlmarkt on the square in front of the city hall in Vienna. Wander through the beautiful winter night, surrounded by snow and your frosted breath. Warm up with glühwein, hot mulled wine, and smell the pine trees and fragrant, freshly baked gingerbread as you shop among the outdoor stalls of hand-crafted goods. If festive outdoor shopping, hot chocolate and freshly baked pastries are your idea of a perfect Christmas, then Vienna is the city for you!
4. MOSCOW
Russians are big on New Year’s celebrations, and traditionally observe Christmas in early January, on Epiphany. It’s such a big country, it’s possible to celebrate Christmas twice! The endless snow…the insanely lavish wealth…the fireworks at Red Square. If your idea of a perfect Christmas is a white fur coat (real or faux) to keep out the cold, a jeweled tiara with a diamond the size of a robin’s egg, and a luscious Russian billionaire prince to help you into your Rolls-Royce, Moscow is the place for you! (And you should check out my story, The Christmas Love-Child!)
3. HAWAII
….Or Aruba, or Tahiti, or Bondi Beach! The location of the beach doesn’t matter, it’s the attitude. If your idea of the perfect Christmas is lazing beside crystal-blue waters in your bikini, drinking una cerveza and working on your tan as you read a romance novel and pretend not to watch the hunky surfers in the distance, then the beach is the perfect place for you!
2. SCANDINAVIA
Santa Claus’s home in the North Pole is reportedly in Lapland, in Northern Finland. If you’ve been very good this year, you might try taking your list to him personally, via dogsled team or perhaps reindeer sleigh. If you like a rustic wintry Christmas, you can’t beat Scandinavia’s winter wonderland! (And you should check out Kate Hewitt’s book Royal Baby, Forbidden Marriage, which is set a fictional island off the coast of Norway, with the capital city Njardvik modeled after Copenhagen!)
And the Number One place to spend a gorgeous Presents-style Christmas this year is…
1. YOUR HOUSE!
Wherever you live, whether you’re a single girl, a young mom, or an empty nester, you can make your own home a mini-Presents paradise! Take some of your favorite ideas and make them your own. Bake Viennese gingerbread cookies with your favorite kids. Give hints to your own prince (or secret Santa) about those three-carat diamond earrings you really want (whether they’re real or cubic zirconia). Play in the snow, make a snowman, or ski in your local mountains in delicious winter solitude!
And when all the Christmas planning just gets to be too much, declare your own little “beach” holiday, complete with margaritas in the blender and a delicious romance novel as you forget the world – if only for an hour. Now that’s really magic. 
Wishing you a merry season full of warmth, joy and pleasure,
Jennie,
How excited you’ve just made me. I love, love, love the holiday seasons and you’ve brought them to life for me today. I want to make gingerbread cookies right now!!!
What a very special gift of sharing you gave. May this season be the very best for you and for all…
Karen, thanks so much for your sweet comment! It’s lovely to chat with someone who’s as goofily excited about Christmas as I am. I was already baking sugar cookies a few days ago (and already ate them all), and now I’m craving gingerbread and peppermint bark.
I’m already starting to ponder Christmas card designs and what kind of tree we’ll have. I’m really in love with the idea of a white tree with blue and silver ornaments. Or maybe I’ll just use the homemade ornaments from my childhood, like we always do.
Perhaps it’s a bit silly of me to think about it so early…then again, maybe it’s not. Christmas comes so fast. One minute it’s *ages* away, and the next it’s suddenly Christmas Eve and I’m panicking because I haven’t finished my gift shopping / made baked goodies for my neighbors / hosted that caroling party like I promised myself I would last year! And the season’s suddenly over!
It’s also the time to enjoy the sweetest, sparkliest, most hopeful movies – classic Christmas movies. Loretta Young and Cary Grant in “The Bishop’s Wife”. Bing Crosby in “White Christmas”. Bing Crosby in “Holiday Inn”. And my absolute favorite, starring Barbara Stanwyck as a writer, “Christmas in Connecticut”. The best!
So maybe I’m a big goofball, but why not start early? It’s wonderful to have an excuse to be merry and create new beauty in our lives during what otherwise might be the coldest, darkest season of the year.
Jennie – I have just finished The Christmas Love-Child and it is FABULOUS! It’s without a doubt one of my favourite Presents stories this year, and it has totally got me in the mood for the festive season so thank you
I adore cities at Christmastime, my husband and I always love to do city breaks in December – we’ve done Paris, Barcelona and my personal favourite, Brussels, with it’s gorgeous Christmas markets (it’s seriously underrated!). Desperate to do New York one year and thanks to you, Moscow’s now on my list!
And I totally get planning early, having Christmas to look forward to makes the long winter months fly by
Plus I’m addicted to mince pies and have been eating them since the start of October 
Sabrina x
My mom and her friends like a trip to NYC in December, but this year they are going to checkout Colonial Williamsburg. Personally I like to stay home by the fire, drink cocoa and eat cookies, watch Christmas movies, and read lots of books! – and just spend time with those I love.
Nice post!
Laurie
Jennie,
I was so impressed on how excited I got over your descriptions of the season, I just had to buy (based on Sabrina’s recommendation) The Christmas Love-Child. I couldn’t wait to go the store, so I purchased it via e-book.
My thought is, if you can bring things to life on a blog, I can only imagine what I’ll find between the pages of your book.
I can read it while the cookies are baking…lol
Thanks again,
Karen
Hi Jennie,
I loved reading about Moscow in The Chirstmas Love-Child. Such a brilliant book.
For me here in the UK I have just baked Christmas cakes and the whole house smelt of Christmas, but I’d like to have a go at gingerbread cookies.
Various locations spring to mind, from Alpine Ski slopes, to sun drenched beaches, but really there is no place like home!
Enjoy your seasonal planning and thanks for a lovely post.
Rachael
Jennie, adored Maksim…..fell in love and I’m so happy you made your hero a Russian alpha.
Jennie, your Russian story sounds wonderful!
I love Christmas too- as an Australian transplanted to England, I adore having a frosty Christmas with open fires, chestnuts, wrapping up warm. And its not too early to start to celebrate. The wonderful Christmas lights on Oxford Street in London were turned on today (and I got caught in the huge crowd and the unannounced closed train station, and was an hour late home from my already over-long working day- grumble grumble mutter mutter).
Luckily dh was there to collect me from the train at the other end of my commute, with a glass of wine, a hot bath, and dinner waiting at home. Your number one Christmas location is definitely best.
My man may not understand romance, but he does know what love is!
Sabrina, thank you so much for your kind words about “The Christmas Love-Child” – that made me so happy!
New York in the wintertime is beautiful. You should definitely put it on your list. And the “official” kick-off to the holiday season is in just a few weeks, the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade. It starts near Central Park and ends in Herald Square. It has huge schmaltzy floats and enormous flying balloons, then ends with Santa. (Most Americans know this, but I’m telling you because as a Brit you might not know.) I attended once when I was at boarding school in person. Now I watch it on television every single year.
Lucky Kate Hewitt lives right in New York, so she’ll probably see it live this year! We’ll have to get the report!
BTW, I’ve never had a mince pie but it sounds fab. Will have to try one.
Laurie, I hope your mom and her friends have a wonderful time in Williamsburg! I have fond memories of visiting there as a teenager. (It was in the summertime though.)
I totally agree with you about the best part of Christmas. Snuggling in at home with a nice fire and a great book or movie. Hot cocoa. (And now, thanks to Sabrina, possibly a mince pie as well…)
Oh Karen, what a nice thing to say – both about my blog and about my book! Thank you! I hope you enjoy the story. I think reading it will go very well with a big plate of cookies, when they get out of the oven.
Hi Rachael! Thank you for your lovely words about The Christmas Love-Child! And your Christmas cakes sound delicious…what kind were they?
Marilyn! Thank you!
You guys should know it’s largely because of Marilyn that Maksim stayed Russian in my book! I really wanted to write a Russian prince, but halfway through the book I was panicking that I should make him Greek instead (readers adore Greek heroes!). Then I ran into Marilyn at a writing conference and she convinced me that I absolutely had to stay true to my convictions and fantasy for this particular hero, and keep him Russian.
So thank you, Marilyn!
Oh my heavens, Mulberry! I loved your description of the Oxford Street lights and the story of your rollercoaster night. Your dh sounds like true hero material. WOW. A hot bath, glass of wine, and dinner waiting?? And he collected you at the train station???
I’m shaking my head in amazement. That man is a keeper. And he’s clearly over the moon for you. That’s true romance IMO.
Jennie, you definitely are a goofball but we love you for it, especially after you’ve given us such a lovely seasonal blog to get us in the Christmas mood. Tonight I’m going to have to light my winter scented candles and curl up with a copy of The Christmas Love child, which sounds like a real treat. Home is definitely best for Christmas, except that the birds are already munching their way through the berries on my holly so I’m going to be decorating my fireplace with bare branches unless I can think of an appropriate round red substitute.
Jenny! Loved your blog! Between your lovely post and the Harlequin ornament exchange, I’m already shifting into the holiday spirit! Way early! Just added your Christmas book to my list. Can’t wait!
Hugs!
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Ha! Sarah, you know me well. And you always make me laugh!
Your Christmas set-up sounds lovely, but grrr….sorry to hear about the birds eating the berries! What is it about wild animals always helping themselves to the best of one’s garden? This past spring I never saw a single tulip – they were all munched and crunched by deer before they even had a chance to grow. Grrr! Freeloaders!!
For a substitute for the berries. let’s see… no, not M&Ms, those might melt on the fireplace mantle. Red Skittles? That is, if you have Skittles in England….
Hi Marian! Thanks so much for your sweet words. I sure hope you like the book! Merry Christmas!!!
Hi Jennie
Looking forward to reading The Christmas Love-Child, it sounds like a cracker (excuse the pun!!). I’m a huge Christmas-a-holic too.
We went to Finnish Lapland a few years back for New Year and it really was spectacular, 40 degrees below one day, but after putting on six layers of clothing, having a few hot toddies and looking at all that powdery snow sparkling in the lamplight it gives you a surprisingly warm glow!
Myself I like to stay home for Christmas in London. My boys make a Christmas events calendar every year which involves us writing down something Chrismassy to do each day during December until Christmas Eve. This year we’re doing the Christmas Lights on Regents Street, Skating at Somerset House on Christmas Eve, and seeing the new Jim Carrey movie A Christmas Carol on the South Bank and all the usual suspects like getting the tree, baking cookies, writing Christmas cards and making our annual trip to John Lewis department store on Oxford Street to buy a new ornament for the tree… Love it…
Heidi x
Heidi!! Your pun made me laugh, and your Lapland trip left me all agog. Wow. You are the very first person I know in real life who’s actually gone there. What an incredible trip!
I loved hearing about your Christmas events calendar with your family. I seriously need to do that. It’s too easy as the Mom to get swamped with all the things on the holiday to-do list, and to forget what the meaningful events of Christmas really are. Things like going ice skating. Thanks for the fab idea! *hugs*
The best Places for christmas is Germany. The Christkindlmarkt is not in Vienna, is in Nuremberg.=)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LwN_Kcb-XhM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t1TK8dKBZDA