Chatting about Christmas with Marie Landry

What do you love about Christmas?

I love the feeling of Christmas - that whole happiness, peace, and goodwill feeling. I love decorating my apartment, I love cooking a huge dinner, and most importantly, I love spending time with my family. Honestly, if it weren’t for my family I’d probably care a whole lot less about Christmas, but they make it so special.

What's your favourite book for this time of year?
I’m a big kid, so I love books like The Night Before Christmas and How The Grinch Stole Christmas. Other than that, I read Dash & Lily’s Book of Dares by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan last Christmas and it felt like the perfect holiday read.

Can you tell us about your new Christmas book?

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year is about Ginny, a young woman who was raised by her grandmother, who absolutely loved Christmas and instilled that love in Ginny. After her grandmother died, Ginny continued all her holiday traditions for the first few years, but this year everything just seems to be going wrong, and her holiday spirit is fading fast. She finds it really hard to remember why Christmas is supposed to be the most wonderful time of the year, but then all these little reminders pop up in amazing and unexpected ways.

Why did you decide to write about Christmas?
Christmas was always my dad and grandmother’s favourite holiday, and since they’re both gone, I wrote this book in their honour. I knew they’d both love a story set at their favourite time of year, especially one that incorporated all the things they loved best about the season.

If your book was made into a film, who would you cast?
It’s funny because I never do a ‘dream cast’ for my books - I have a really hard time picturing actors as my characters, because to me they’re real people that I’ve created. The Most Wonderful Time of the Year is the first time I’d ever been able to picture actors in the roles of my main characters. Ginny would be played by either Karen Gillan (of Doctor Who fame) or Molly Quinn (from Castle), and Dean would be played by Jensen Ackles (from Supernatural).

What's your favourite Christmas movie?
I love the Santa Clause trilogy. The first movie came out when I was ten, and it’s been one of my favourites since the first time I saw it, and then I was thrilled when they made two more.

What's your favourite Christmas song?
I have so many I could probably spend all day listing them, but the first one that comes to mind is White Christmas.

What's your typical Christmas day?
We (my mum and me) pretty much celebrate Christmas on Christmas Eve since that’s when we do our big family get-together. I get up early to start all the dinner prep and finish cleaning the apartment and setting the table. My brother, sister-in-law, and two nephews (who are 3 and 11), and this year, my new niece (who will be 6 months old at Christmas), come over early in the afternoon and we watch Christmas movies and play games before settling in to stuff ourselves with dinner, which is always turkey and all the trimmings. After dinner, we all sit around the tree and open presents, then the kids usually play for a while longer, before going home to get to bed and wait for Santa.

Speed Round...
Favourite Christmas tipple? Eggnog and rum
Holly or mistletoe? Holly
Snow or sunny? Snow (it’s the only time of year I don’t mind snow…I’m Canadian, so Christmas isn’t Christmas without snow!)
Savvy shopper or last minute huntress? A little bit of both…I usually start collecting things in September or October but often end up running out last minute for things I’ve forgotten, like stocking stuffers
Christmas style: Bridget Jones or Audrey Hepburn? I wish I could say Audrey Hepburn, but I’m definitely more a Bridget Jones (and I’m still waiting for my own Mark Darcy, by the way).

Marie Landry is the author of BLUE SKY DAYS (contemporary YA—January 2012), THE GAME CHANGER (women's fiction—November 2012), WAITING FOR THE STORM (contemporary YA—April 2013), and THE MOST WONDERFUL TIME OF THE YEAR (a new adult holiday novella-November 2013). Marie has always been a daydreamer; since early childhood, she's had a passion for words and a desire to create imaginary worlds, so it only seemed natural for her to become a writer. She resides in Ontario, Canada, and most days you can find her writing, reading, blogging about writing and reading, listening to U2, wandering around with a camera in her hand, watching copious amounts of TV on DVD, or having grand adventures with her nephews and niece. For more on Marie and her books, please visit her website, Facebook, Twitter