I received an interesting question – “How do you describe a holiday like Christmas in a novel?” The answer is like many things in writing. What purpose does it have in your novel? If Christmas occurs just because of the time flow of the novel, you probably need to knowledge it with just a few words. Since Christmas is unimportant of the novel, it could be as short as, “Christmas passed with little fanfare.” However, I think you should never pass up a chance to advance the storyline or at least strengthen it. If Christmas occurs at a sorrowful time in the novel, you might write, “Christmas passed like most of the winter days, cold, gray, and useless.” On the other hand, if it’s a joyful time, you might write, “Christmas brought the sun’s return. Even the trees seem to be happy with their twinkling branches of snow against the deepest blue of the winter sky.” These two examples are about how to strengthen the feel of a novel during the Christmas season.
If the novel is going to turn on something that happens on Christmas, I’ll leave that problem and how to solve it up to you.
