C is for Christmas

I know, I know... It's only 4 April and here I am talking about Christmas. But this time two years ago I was writing my festive non-fiction book What is Myrrh Anyway? Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Christmas for Icon books.

I have to admit, it was strange listening to Christmas carols in the spring and boring people with facts about Santa Claus at supper parties, but due to the nature of publishing, that was when my book for the festive season had to be written.

I had actually conceived the basic idea for the book years before, at first envisioning it as a Dorling Kindersley-style large format book full of beautiful colour photographs, but that was not to be. Instead I ended up with this.

Which later became this (which was closer to my original vision) when the American published Skyhorse Publishing bought the US rights to the book:

And each year now I find myself updating my TheChrismologist.com blog with fun festive facts and figures, and revealing a little more about the origins, traditions and eccentricities of Christmas along the way.