When We Are Facing A Different Type of Christmas

I know this season is not always easy

Every December 1st, come what may, for the last six years, a package has arrived at my house. Inside the brown paper was a Christmas box, and inside that there were dozens of individually wrapped gifts. There was also a lot of Christmas confetti, and fake snow – packets of the stuff – to my daughter’s absolute delight.

Each year since Wendy Mitchell and I published her first book Somebody I Used To Know in 2017, she would send my daughter a Christmas box to help her get excited about the festive season. This is because Wendy loved Christmas, she loved the lights, the songs, the buying of gifts, the wrapping, everything. Each individually-wrapped present that she selected for my daughter would be something sweet to eat, or a Christmas decoration-making kit, or a bit of festive stationary. Here are some photos of some of the boxes she sent over the years:

Last year – which would be Wendy’s last Christmas – she thought Gracie was getting too old for all these little silly gifts, but as it…