Guest Post and Giveaway: Once Upon a Highland Christmas by Lecia Cornwall
Lecia Cornwall stopped by the virtual offices to share a guest post, and she has two awesome giveaways for you enter! Enjoy!
CHRISTMAS IN SCOTLAND (and other places) by Lecia Cornwall
Ah, Christmas in the Scottish Highlands. Sounds wonderful, doesn’t it?
My wonderful mother-in-law was Scottish, born in Glasgow. I remember telling her about an ad I’d seen in a magazine, offering a Scottish castle for rent over the holidays. Visitors (up to twenty people) could come and spend a glorious Christmas in the Highlands. My mother-in-law looked at me as if I were daft, and said, “Are you crazy? It’s cold and damp in the Highlands, and those old castles are drafty. You’d never get warm or dry!” Not very romantic, perhaps, but practical. It certainly is easier to enjoy a white Christmas from indoors, by the fire, with good company, a Christmas tree, and a hot drink. Our Christmases with my in-laws here in Canada were always warm and wonderful, and though she might not have welcomed winter in a Highland castle, my mother-in-law brought the best Scottish traditions with her, and never stopped longing to be in Scotland.
The Christmas I created in ONCE UPON A HIGHLAND CHRISTMAS comes from a blending of cultures. The story takes place in Scotland, but there are English guests at Craigleith Castle, and they’re looking forward to an English Christmas. In fact, the English ladies aren’t even certain the Scots do celebrate Christmas.
That’s not such a shocking thought, dear reader. In truth, Christmas, or ‘Yule’ celebrations were banned in Scotland by the Reformed Church in 1560, and all vacations and observations of Church festivals, including Christmas, were strictly forbidden. Sounds cold indeed, doesn’t it—sitting around a lovely (if drafty) Highland Castle with no holiday cheer at all? But the canny Scots are not the kind of folk to be denied the chance to celebrate. To stave off winter’s chill and the gloom of long, dark nights, the Scots celebrated mid-winter instead, especially Hogmanay, or New Year’s. Right up until the 1960s, Christmas Day in Scotland was just another working day, and Hogmanay was the big holiday. My mother-in-law remembered her father working Christmas day, and the parties with friends and relatives took place at Hogmanay.
Now you’re sure I’m cheating, setting a Christmas story in the Highlands, but Christmas didn’t die out, despite the laws. In fact, it was far more likely to be celebrated in the Highlands since there was a larger population of Catholics who kept Christmas celebrations alive.
In ONCE UPON A HIGHLAND CHRISTMAS, Craigleith Castle is preparing to celebrate a very unique Christmas. While the English visitors insist on an English Christmas, the Scots will not be denied their own traditions. They come to a compromise, and discover there are far more similarities than differences.
Christmas celebrations in both countries have their roots in the pagan Yule celebrations—greens are gathered and brought inside to decorate the house in both England and Scotland, and there’s a Yule log in both cultures. In Scotland, the Yule log is called a Cailleach. It’s carved with the face of the winter goddess Cailleach, and winter is symbolically vanquished when the log is burned. IN ONCE UPON A HIGHLAND CHRISTMAS, our hero Iain MacGillivray carefully carves Cailleach’s face, only to discover it brings a very different kind of heat and light.
I love the Scottish tradition of placing a candle in the window on Christmas Eve, both to light the way for the Holy Family, and to guide travellers to safety with the blessing “Fire to warm you by, and light to guide you.” My children and I make ice luminaria instead—we freeze buckets of water outside overnight. The outside freezes while the inside remains liquid. We take the block of ice out of the bucket (over the sink), chop a hole though the thin ice on the bottom, pour out the extra water, and set them back outside on Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve with candles inside.
On New Year’s Eve, the candle in the window serves to welcome ‘First Footers’, or visitors who arrive with good wishes after midnight. It’s considered good luck if the first person to cross your threshold in the New Year is a dark haired man. It’s bad luck if the first foot is a red-haired woman, a fact that dismayed my red-haired daughter when my mother-in-law told her the story—but the bad luck can be undone if a pinch of salt is thrown into the fire as soon as the lass is inside the door. First footers are expected to bring a ‘handsel’, or a symbolic gift of coal, shortbread, salt, whisky, and black bun, which is a kind of Christmas fruitcake. IN ONCE UPON A HIGHLAND CHRISTMAS, the ladies of Craigleith prepare handsels to take round to villagers and clansmen, while the cooks debate the best way to make a proper black bun. There’s a raging debate over the family Christmas cake recipe among my Scottish kin-by-marriage. I must admit I stay out of it and order my Christmas cake from a wonderful bakery in Texas.
In my opinion, the very best part of Christmas is the magic of the holidays—that sense of anticipation that catches in your throat when the first snow falls, the joy, and the gathering of the ones we love most. The theme of ONCE UPON A HIGHLAND CHRISTMAS is magic. The magic begins with a seemingly harmless love spell, meant to summon true love by Christmas Eve. Instead, it begins to snow, and snow, and snow, and the spell brings an unexpected visitor arrives at Craigleith—a lovely lady, lost in the storm on the eve of her wedding, half-frozen, carried into the castle by a handsome laird, wrapped in his plaid, and held against his heart … As they say in Scotland, “Is Blianach Nollaid gun sneachid”, or Christmas without snow is poor fare. And magic will always have its way, especially at Christmas.
May your Christmas be merry, bright, magical and white, dear readers, and may your New Year be a happy and prosperous one.
I’ll be dropping by throughout the day to chat and answer your questions and comments. Please leave a comment below for a chance to win a signed copy of ONCE UPON A HIGHLAND SUMMER, the book that began the Once Upon A Highland series.
Check out all my books at www.leciacornwall.com. Go to the events page to see the wonderful Avon Authors Holiday recipe ring—favorite recipes from all your favorite authors!
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Once Upon a Highland Season # 3
By: Lecia Cornwall
Releasing December 9th, 2014
Avon Impulse
Blurb
Lady Alanna McNabb is bound by duty to her family, who insist she must marry a gentleman of wealth and title. When she meets the man of her dreams, she knows it’s much too late, but her heart is no longer hers.
Laird Iain MacGillivray is on his way to propose to another woman when he discovers Alanna half-frozen in the snow and barely alive. She isn’t his to love, yet she’s everything he’s ever wanted.
As Christmas comes closer, the snow thickens, and the magic grows stronger. Alanna and Iain must choose between desire and duty, love and obligation.
But it’s Christmas in the Highlands, and there are bound to be a few surprises.
Link to Follow Tour: http://www.tastybooktours.com/2014/10/once-upon-highland-christmas-once-upon.html
Goodreads Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/21479389-once-upon-a-highland-christmas?from_search=true
Buy Links: Amazon | Barnes | iTunes
iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/once-upon-highland-christmas/id842644587?mt=11
Author Info
Lecia Cornwall lives and writes in Calgary, Canada, amid the beautiful foothills of the Canadian Rockies, with four cats, two teenagers, a crazy chocolate Lab, and one very patient husband. She is hard at work on her next book.
Author Links: Website | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads
Website: http://www.leciacornwall.com/
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Lecia-Cornwall/147981455226519?sk=app_7146470109
Twitter: http://twitter.com/Leciacornwall
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4441913.Lecia_Cornwall
There are two giveaways for you to enter! One lucky commenter will win a signed book from Lecia, and one Rafflecopter winner will score a gift card! Please make sure to comment and fill out the Rafflecopter to enter!
Lecia would like to also giveaway a Signed Print Release from Lecia to a Commenter (US or Canada)
Rafflecopter Giveaway ($25 Gift Card to Amazon or Barnes & Noble)
The post Guest Post and Giveaway: Once Upon a Highland Christmas by Lecia Cornwall appeared first on Manga Maniac Cafe.
