Book Love: The Father Christmas series

Last week I wrote about one of my favorite book series to reread every December and now I have my other favorite book series to share!  I have been reading Robin Jones Gunn for 2/3 of my life and she's had a huge influence on my faith life, especially as a teenager.  Yet, somehow it took me years to get to reading this series, probably because it didn't include my fictional friend, Christy Miller.  Yet, once I started reading them, they became a December staple for me!

These are novellas which means they are pretty short, I can almost read one in a day, depending on what else is going on in my life (Oh, are there things going on in December??).  Yet, even with (relatively) few pages, I still feel like I get a good sense of who the characters are. 

The first two books center around Miranda, who grew up in the States with an stage actress mother and never knew anything about her father, other than a picture of him as a child.  In Finding Father Christmas, with her mother passed on and living a pretty boring and lonely life in California, she decides to figure out who her father is.  She flies to England right before Christmas to visit the town where the photographer took the picture of her father.  What she finds surprises her, surprises her hosts, and throws her into a loving family.

I've never been to England in December but it all sounds so cozy (and, honestly, not THAT much different from Christmas in the Midwest, with the cold and snow and all).  Robin is good at very vivid descriptions and setting a strong sense of place, I really feel like I am there, with these people, experiencing an English Christmas.

The second book, Engaging Father Christmas, picks up Miranda's story a year later, when she is returning for her second English Christmas.  These people were just strangers a year ago but now they are beloved family members and she is quickly folded back into their crew. 

Kissing Father Christmas picks up with a new character, peripherally related to the characters from the first book, but Anna didn't appear in either of these.  I appreciate knowing more about the characters, and spending another Christmas with them, but I never felt as connected to Anna like I did with Miranda.  However, it was nice to revisit again.

There is at least one Hallmark movie based on the series, however I haven't seen it yet.  I did just find out that my library does have the DVD though so maybe I'll get to it soon!

I have a couple non-Christmas books I am finishing up and then I plan to read through these three books in a couple days before starting on Winter Street.  If I can time it just right, I'll finish all this Christmas reading right on Christmas, a feat I've only accomplished once before.  With all the hustle and bustle of December, I really like simplifying my reading a little by spending time with familiar characters, in cozy books I know will give me the perfect feels for Christmas. 

Do you have any December favorites you reread every year?  
 

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