Christmas Focus with Vickie McDonough

Todays Christmas Focus is on Vickie McDonough and more about A Bride By Christmas.

Firstly thanks for sharing with us. This time we are focusing on Christmas.
So I thought I would have a few fun questions first.

1. What do you most associate with Christmas where you live?

We always have a Christmas tree with decorations and lots of presents, but Christmas is really about Jesus. It’s a time for us to focus on God’s love—that He loved us so much that He sent His beloved son to earth, and my family celebrates Christmas to remember that. I told my kids when they were little, that just like the Wise Men brought gifts to baby Jesus, we give gifts to each other.

2. Do you have any special family traditions you do at Christmas time?

We usually decorate for Christmas the weekend after Thanksgiving and leave the decorations up until after New Years. We hang stockings on the fireplace and have decorations all over the house. Christmas at our house is a time to spend with family. My kids are usually all here, and now we have the fun of a two-and-a-half-year-old granddaughter joining the celebration. We usually have a turkey or ham for dinner with lots of trimmings and pie. This is a silly tradition but for years we’ve used laundry baskets to take our presents from one house to another.

3. Do you have a favorite Christmas Carol and if so do you know why?

I really like Joy to the World since it’s a joyful telling of Christ’s coming to earth. This song isn’t a carol but I love Mary, Did You Know. (Jenny here it counts as a carol. I love it also)

4. If you could spend Christmas anyway you could how would you celebrate?

Pretty much just like we do with all four of our boys home, our daughter-in-law and granddaughter there. I think it would be fun to take a Christmas trip one year, but don’t see that happening. I would love to have my dad back with us so that he could see his great-granddaughter once.

5. Now a few questions about A Bride by Christmas. I really loved the concept
of this book was it hard to co-ordinate with the other authors?

Not too much. This collection is tied together by the concept of people needing to marry by Christmas to prevent something bad from happening rather than by related characters, so that made it easier to coordinate, because one story didn’t affect another one. Each story has a heroine from another country who brings some of her Christmas traditions into the story. The other three authors in this collection were great to work with. Linda Goodnight and Kelly Eileen Hake are both award-winning authors, and it was fun working with Therese Stenzel because this was her first published work. We did all our collaborating online for the most part.

6. What was the best part about writing the Novella?

It’s quick to write. J (this is a smiling face but I lost it.)

7. I enjoyed the whole story you created, did you have a theme when
you were writing An Irish Bride for Christmas?

Yes, I wanted readers to know that no matter how dark things seem, God is always there helping us and loving us, even if we can’t see Him.

8. Do you have a Christmas message for my readers?

I’m on a one-woman campaign to change the abbreviation of Christmas from X-mas to T-mas. There are always times we have to abbreviate, but I refuse to replace Christ with an X, as if I X-ed Him out of my life. The T is similar to the cross, which is why I chose it. Have a wonderful Christmas! And don’t forget that Jesus is the reason for the season.