BING CROSBY & A LITTLE HOLIDAY ROMANCE by Amber Leigh Williams

Happy holidays, Sweethearts and readers! I live on the Gulf Coast so I’m loving these low temps and the absence of all that evil humidity we’re plagued with deep down south throughout the majority of the year. Unfortunately, my husband and I left the north part of Alabama less than twenty-four hours before it began to snow. Hopefully, we’ll see a tiny bit of that fluffy white precipitation further down our way before the year is over. Just enough to snuggle up with a blanket and cocoa and read the latest holiday romance….


Wait, what am I talking about? I don’t need an excuse to curl up with a holiday romance. They happen to be my favorite part of the holiday season. And it might come as no surprise to you that my favorite holiday romance of all-time is western-themed. I don’t normally read inspirational titles but I couldn’t resist Jillian Hart’s Homespun Bride. Every holiday season I crack it open again for a sure, warm-hearted holiday read. To me, it’s the perfect medicine and distraction from the stress of the inevitable holiday rush.

I took part in a holiday romance this year, co-written by the authors of The Roses of Prose so the holiday season for me started some time ago while I was writing my two chapters of the progressive story. It's not easy getting into the Christmas spirit in September. Thankfully, not long before I began writing my portion of A Holiday to Remember, my husband found some of his mother's old records in storage. Among them was the best of Bing Crosby. Despite the fact that it was still hot and humid outside, I made myself some cocoa and marshmellows, turned the flames up on our electric fire place and listened to Bing while I wrote. All I needed was a light blanket of snow outside the window and the smell of roasting chestnuts.

So although I've been deeply entrenched in the holiday spirit for most of the autumn months, this is me wishing you all happy holidays! And I want to know which holiday read you're reading or soon to be reading to take you away this season....

(You can find out more about A Holiday to Remember, the holiday romance I co-wrote with The Roses of Prose, at my website: www.amberleighwilliams.com!)

Spirit of (Western) Christmas

I love nothing more than reading a good cowboy Christmas romance. Cocoa goes really well with a blanket and paperback this time of year!

As I was pulling out my Christmas decorations this week, I pondered my favorite things about the holidays. The heat of a fire. Christmas tree hunting. Cranking those ol' music boxes I've listened to every holiday season since I was knee-high to a grasshopper. The scent of pine and chestnuts. And, yes, sneaking time in between my notorious bouts of frantic last-minute shopping and family time to read a holiday romance. Some of my favorite holiday re-reads are of the western variety. For example, the inspirational western Homespun Bride by Jillian Hart. This story isn't necessarily a Christmas romance, but it does take place during winter. With every re-read, I can hear the crackle of the blazing hearth and the chiming of sleigh bells. In fact, it is a near-accident involving a horse-drawn sleigh that brings the hero and heroine together.

Christmas is meant for making memories and bringing family together - but I find the holidays to be very romantic. And one of the most romantic things, to my mind, about the Christmas season are sleigh rides. Who can forget the song?

Just hear those sleigh bells jingling
Ring ting tingling too.
Come on, it's lovely weather
For a sleigh ride together with you.

Outside the snow is falling
And friends are calling 'Yoo-hoo.'
Come on, it's lovely weather
For a sleigh ride together with you.

Giddy up, giddy up, giddy up,
Let's go, Let's look at the show,
We're riding in a wonderland of snow.

Giddy up, giddy up, giddy up,
It's grand, Just holding your hand,
We're gliding along with a song
Of a wintry fairy land.

Our cheeks are nice and rosy
And comfy cozy are we
We're snuggled up together
Like two birds of a feather would be.

Let's take that road before us
And sing a chorus or two
Come on, it's lovely weather
For a sleigh ride together with you.

There's a birthday party
At the home of Farmer Gray
It'll be the perfect ending a perfect day
We'll be singing the songs
We love to sing without a single stop,
At the fireplace while we watch
The chestnuts pop.
Pop pop pop.

There's a happy feeling
Nothing in the world can buy,
When they pass around the chocolate
And the pumpkin pie
It'll nearly be like a picture print
By Currier and Ives
These wonderful things are the things
We remember all through our lives.

Despite the upward tempo, fun whip cracks, and equine backup singers, the picture "Sleigh Ride" paints is quite romantic, is it not? Whenever we're shopping at the local Christmas tree farm, there's a sleigh that takes customers from one side of the fir-lined acreage to the other. No matter the temperature - or whether the horse's hooves are churning up sleet or mud (usually the latter here in the South) - the jingle of those sleigh bells always make me feel very warm and nostalgic. My imagination transports me to a winter fairy land, a powdery white vista, in the old west and the romance of a sleigh ride. With a cowboy at the reigns, it makes the perfect picture! (Now if only Currier and Ives had painted that....)

Readers, I'd love to hear your western romance holiday favorites and the meaning behind your favorite Christmas songs!

Amber Leigh Williams

"Williams has brought the romantic back to romance!" ~ Long & Short Reviews

BLACKEST HEART ~ 1st Place More Than Magic Novella

FOREVER AMORE ~ LASR Best Book of 2009 Nominee

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