Friends and family have often asked, “Where do you come up with the ideas for your Christmas stories?”
While the process is ever changing, a certain established routine has helped. Typically, I don’t start writing anything until mid to late November. Usually the weekend after Thanksgiving is when I fully clock in. In my early days, once the needle on the record player touched down on Andy Williams, “The Christmas Album,” the taps on the typewriter followed suit. Christmas music still plays an intricate part of the Christmas writing process and Andy Williams Christmas music usually kicks off the writing season.
There are three ways I find something to write about:
1) I get the idea from a picture, a piece of music, something I saw, heard or read about.
2) I get the idea from a piece of my past.
3) Out of thin air, the idea appears. A gift from Santa Claus himself.
Truckin’ Santa just came to me out of thin air. I asked myself, “What would happen if Santa had to make an emergency landing on Christmas Eve? How would Christmas happen?” From that idea the story magically unfolded before me.
In Gardening with Santa, I had been building and maintaining a rose garden. I asked myself as I dug holes in the dirt, “What would be in Santa’s garden?” From that gardening experience came a list of flowers and vegetables that I thought one might find a garden which magically grew out of snow.
As I write on one story or poem, other ideas may come and go. I write a few down and sadly, I forget many. If I like an idea, and cannot complete it, I will usually shelf it for the following year. In the last five years, I have started to do more writing after Christmas and before the New Year. These creations usually become the foundation for the following year’s group of stories and poems.
While, I must admit some stories and poems come easier than others, I really find joy in the process. I look forward every year to doing what I love to do.
