Christmas Focus with Jillian Hart

Please help me welcome back Jillian Hart to talk about Christmas. Its been really good getting to know Jillian this year and if you like Love Inspired Historicals come to http://www.goodreads.com and join the LIH group and join in the fun we have there.

Would love here in the comments what your favourite Christmas movies are or if you have seen any good ones this year so you can share the titles with us.

1. Firstly thanks for coming back to my blog as we are focus on christmas.
What do you most associate with Christmas where you live?
 
Thanks so much for having me back, Jenny. : ) I grew up in western Washington state about an hour east of Seattle, where it is green all the time and where rich evergreen trees line the Cascade Mountain range and the foothills. It can snow, but I only remember a few white Christmases. To quote a local favorite song, “Christmas in the northwest is a gift God wrapped in green.” Maybe that is why I love Christmas trees so much. One of my very favorite parts of celebrating Christmas is putting up and decorating the tree. All those soft lights and ornaments and lovely evergreen boughs.  The smell of pine. 

2. Do you have any special family traditions you do at Christmas time?
 
My birthday is in December, so when I was young my family always put up the tree on my birthday. I still do.  It is a lovely way to celebrate and kick-start the season. My mother would make Christmas cookies and I would help her decorate them. The house would be bustling with secrets until Christmas Eve when we could each open just one present, and my brother and I took a lot of time deciding which one it would be. In the morning Santa brought more festively wrapped gifts and we would have a family gathering full of merriment, great food and lots of carols--both my mom and I play piano so the day was full of music and singing.

3. Do you have a favourite Christmas Carol and if so do you know why? 
 
It’s a tie between "O Holy Night" and Amy Grant’s "Grown-Up Christmas List." Both songs say exactly how I feel about Christmas.
(Jenny here I love O Holy Night its such a special song)
4. If you could spend Christmas anyway you could how would you celebrate?
 
Spending it in Maui sounds nice . (sounds good to me too)

5. Do you have any special memories of Christmas?
 
One of my favourite memories is sitting at the piano singing Christmas carols and hymns with my family circled around. We would do that for hours and hours on Christmas day.

6. What is a typical Christmas eve and or Christmas day for you.
 
Christmas Eve is usually a lasagna dinner (my mom has a great recipe that has become tradition). Lots of fun making it, everyone in the kitchen, Christmas music blaring and of course, singing along (I’m usually off-key). It’s A Wonderful Life is the movie of choice that night and then off to the candlelight service. Christmas is relaxed, fun, full of good things to eat--Christmas cookies, pie, a ham dinner midday, presents to open, Christmas music and more holiday movies.  (sounds good this year I am going to be watching quite a few Christmas movies.)

7. Do you have any Christmas movies or Christmas books you like to see or read each year?
 
I am a confessed Christmas movie junky. Right now Hallmark’s Meet the Santas and ABC Family’s Snowglobe are my favourites. It’s a Wonderful Life is a yearly must see. Every year I record every Christmas movie I can find on tv and then watch them one after another every weekend in December, knitting away on my couch. I have the tree lights on to make it extra festive. Other favourites: Bill Murray’s Scrooged, The Christmas Visitor, The Christmas Box, The Christmas Shoes, The Christmas Wish and the Hallmark Channel’s The Ultimate Gift
(Oh I saw Meet the Santas last week nice movie. haven't seen ABC Family's Snowglobe but now I want to.)
8. Do you have a Christmas message for my readers? 
 
It’s a busy and hectic time of year, but there is so much beauty in the Christmas season. I hope you can take a moment and let that beauty touch you deep, heart and soul.
 
Thank you so much, Jenny. It is an honour to be on your blog, my friend.
(Thanks you Jillian I have loved getting to know you and read your books)


Jillian can be found at http://www.jillianhart.net 
Below are two of Jillian's books the second is the January release.





His Holiday Bride
Book #3
Autumn's story
October 2010Bity-city sheriffs don't belong in tiny Wild Horse, Wyoming. At least that's what rancher Autumn Granger thinks when handsome Ford Sherman sweeps into town and sets his sights on her. A country cowgirl, she can't possibly be his match. Like most newcomers, he'll eventually get restless with small-town life and leave it--and her--behind. But when rustlers attack her family's ranch, Ford helps her protect Granger territory. She finds herself hoping that he really is in Wild Horse to stay. Could her holiday wish of a happily ever after with this handsome lawman come true? 

His Country Girl
January 2011
Love Inspired
Book #4 in the Granger Family Ranch Series
Tucker's story
A Child's Wish
To fulfill a sick boy's wish, rodeo star Tucker Granger surprises little Owen in the hospital. But no one is more surprised than single mother Sierra Baker. She figures the carefree champion for a different kind of man. One whodoesn't spend hours talking "cowboy code" with a hospital-bound child. One who can't have her dreaming of a second chance at love. Somehow, Tucker ropes her heart and fills it with hope. Hope that this country girl and her son can lasso the roaming bronc rider into their family forever.