I quite enjoyed the other books in this series featuring Van Lifers travelling around in their little vans and having cosy encounters with their movable bookshops and bakeries. This one was similar but featuring a new set of characters as Flora left her life behind and started over in a Christmas shop campervan in Lapland. It’s a nice rom-com with funny moments and plenty of fun characters to follow around.

When I heard there was going to be a tv series continuing the Santa Clause film franchise on the small screen, I was… bemused. I watched the first film a long while back, and thought it was okay, but hadn’t got round to watching the next two so it obviously wasn’t that special. And I didn’t know they were popular enough to warrant a return of the characters to the world of Santa, elves, and the North Pole.

Sometimes I write about festive episodes of series that I like but this time I thought it’d be fun to focus on every Christmas episode from ten years’ of Friends. They spend more time on Thanksgiving, obviously, with some really classic episodes in November: the football game, Brad Pitt, Joey with a turkey stuck on his head, etc. But Christmas does crop up every now and again, quite inconsistently, through the decade.

This was a different book to the one I was expecting - it wasn’t just a festive rom-com, I mean, it was hardly that at all really. Emma splits up with her partner and has an unfortunate accident that means she heads home to recover and re-connect with her family. It had elements of magic and long family feuds and that village mentality where everyone knows each other’s business. It reminded me a lot of Practical Magic (the movie, I haven’t read the book yet), so it was good but it wasn’t quite what I had hoped.

I’ve been on the Sarah Morgan festive book train for a couple of years, and enjoyed them. This one was another very good Christmas rom-com, with a family coming together with very different viewpoints and learning to forgive and respect each other’s choices. I liked the story, I liked that the big confusion of Lucy’s arrival was actually dealt with quite quickly and just set up everything that happened next rather than being a big plot point. I did think some of the dialogue was a bit clunky and it was a little bit drawn out in places, but these are minor complaints for another entertaining read.

I loved this. A short collection of essays by the author about the joys and horrors of Christmas, and particularly about those horrors that are really joys and you would miss if they weren’t there. They’re written so well to really bring you into the moment. I can completely imagine the swimming pool situation - Santa in a swimming pool is such a weird concept. And the endless obsessions over the moistness of a turkey. Brilliant. Just a great read and so easy to get through in one sitting.

This was a nice, cosy Christmas read, As per the traditional rom-com Christmas story, the girl who fled to the city has come home to face up to her family and her past.. and find love along the way. I liked this because although some elements of it were really predictable, it didn’t all happen in the way I was expecting. The pair were happy by mid-way through the book so then something was bound to come and split them up for a bit but what was it… and then the whole parentage thing. A good read.

The underlying story of this is fine - a bit of a rom-com, a bit of our heroine saving the local theatre from closure, a bit of Christmas fun and games. But I don’t know that the characters held up their end of the bargain. The sister, Cleo, was hideous to her sister and took any opportunity to criticise, whilst our main character Sam(antha) was an odd creature, pretty judgmental herself and very buttoned-up. I did like the relationship with her and Jimmy though, it progressed nicely. This was a freebie, I think, so nothing wasted, but not a favourite.

I really liked this book, it kicks off with a chance glance through a bus window and then whizzes forward in time to when things start to get very complicated. It’s proper drama from start to finish, stepping forward in time each year to revisit the characters and where they’re at in their lives. It was well written and engaging, I wanted to know what was going to happen next and loved it. But I guess it wasn’t too Christmassy, only really that first bit. Not a real complaint though.

I whipped through this book in super quick time, my first Christmas book of the festive season. It starts off with our heroine running out on her wedding and very quickly falling into the arms of her saviour, who of course comes with his own baggage. At first, I thought this was going to be a bit dull, the pair fell in love very quickly and usually what we’re looking for in Christmas cheesy rom-coms is the will-they-won’t-they. But it started taking twists and turns I wasn’t expecting and kept me reading until the end. Not bad, but I suppose not really that Christmassy once the initial stage is over.