Yesterday I wrote about some of my favorite Christmas comedies, and now to my favorite redemption stories. A redemption story, in my book, is about a character who has misbehaved quite badly, usually hurting someone dreadfully, and who either knows about this already or comes to realize this in the course of the story, which then is about his either atoning or at least apologizing, and then finding the strength for a new start. Alternately, it is about a lost soul who doesn’t even realize how lost he or she is, and his or her finding love. And somehow, redemption stories fit Christmas like a glove, although from the themes you’d almost expect them to be Easter stories.

I love stories about Joseph – the man who believes his wife is about to bear him a child by another man […]

Now is the time of the year to go to my shelves and pick out a book to curl on the sofa with. Not surprisingly, many of my choices for December are holiday romances. I treat them like I do lebkuchen: If I start consuming them too early (like in September, when they appear on the supermarket shelves), I am satiated by mid-November. If, however, I restrain myself until the beginning of December, they enrich Advent and the Christmas holidays enormously.

My favorite Christmas romances, the ones I pick up again and again, tend to come in two disparate groups- comedies, and redemption stories. Either I want lots of frivolous fun, or stories with such depth of despair and bliss that they move me to tears. Go figure.

Of the comedies, many of my favorites are house party stories. They form the perfect backdrop to flirtations, to games and excursions, to […]