The Joy of Christmas Book Tag 🎅🎄

Merry Christmas!!!

Christmas Eve is a lawless day. I don’t know about your family, but we only really have traditions on the night: nice bath, new pyjamas, etc. So the daytime always feels chaotic.

Right now my brother is having a minor mental-breakdown in the kitchen because we’re making him follow through and make the brownies he promised us weeks ago. And I’m not so patiently waiting for him to finish so I can have a bacon sandwich. With the rate he’s going, I’m going to stave before I can have my breakfast.

While we drown out his complaining with some not-Christmas music (we really should have some Michael Buble on but we’ve got Little Mix instead), and I wait for food, I figured I’d do the Joy of Christmas Book Tag!

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1) Anticipation: The Christmas excitement is real, what book release(s) are you most anticipating? ✨

I feel like I’m a bit behind on the 2022 releases compared to previous years. Besides from new books from my faves (which I talked about in a post the other day) I don’t know too much.

There are definitly two I have my eye on though. The first being So This is Ever After by F.T Lukens. I’m drawn to anything with such a pretty cover, the fact it’s pegged as Carry On but with Arthurian Legend makes me very excited.

And then there’s also This May End Badly by Samantha Markum which I actually thought was coming out in 2021 and was very disappointed when I realised I had to wait longer. I’m pretty sure this is just a romance with a boarding school and a leather-jacket-wearing bad boy. That’s really all it takes to get me interested.

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2) Christmas Songs & Carols: What book or author can you not help but sing its praises? 🔔🎧

If people took a shot every time I sand the praises of Erin Hahn on this blog they’d probably die of alcohol poisoning. Or, at the very least, have a really bad hangover the next day.

Her books are like crack to me. They’re so addictive! It’s a culmination of the characters that feel so real, the interesting plot lines, and how you feel the authors passion for whatever it is she’s writing about. I’ll continue to hype her up as much as I can until she get’s the recognition she deserves … and probably after that too.

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3) Gingerbread Houses: What book or series has wonderful world building? 🍪

For this I think I’m going to go with Lore by Alexandra Bracken. This book is set in the modern world with one minor difference: the Greek Gods are real and every seven years they’re turned mortal and hunted.

I thought this book did a really good job at expanding and explaining this complex system with it’s different god, families, powers etc and was what made the book so entertaining.

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4) A Christmas Carol: Favourite classic or one that you want to read 📚

The amount of classics I’ve actually read can be counted on one hand. Even though I’m now doing a literal English Literature degree, I’ve not read many. I do, of course, hope to change that. I want to read: The Handmaids Tale, Frankenstein, Dracula, The Great Gatsby, 1984, etc.

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5) Christmas Sweets: What book would you love to receive for Christmas 🍬

I’ve already recieved the bookish gifts I’m gonna get this year, just cause lugging them from uni to home wasn’t practical. But if I was to get some more … or maybe gift myself some (more) I’d want One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston or maybe Daisy Jones and the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid.

One Last Stop because I’ve wanted to read it since last year but my order got cancelled and I just never got around to picking it up. And Daisy Jones because I’m always late to the party and I’m finally taking interest in Taylor Jenkins Reid’s books.

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6) Candles in the Window: What book gives you that warm fuzzy feeling 🕯

All For the Game by Nora Sakavic shouldn’t give me the warm and fuzzies with the amount of pain and violence it has, and yet it’s my go to comfort read.

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7) Christmas Trees & Decorations: What are some of your favourite book covers? 🎄

I did a post all about my favourite book covers of 2021 last week which also feature Six Crimson Cranes by Elizabeth Lim and Afterlove by Tanya Byrne, both of which are ridiculously pretty.

Also giving a shout out to As Many Nows as I Can Get by Shana Youngdahl. The cover is what originally made me want to read this book which I ended up loving! (Aslo: do the two characters on the cover look exactly like Dakota Johnson and Froy Gutierrez or is that just me?)

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8) Christmas Joy: What are some of your favourite things about Christmas? 🎅

I’m normally a bit of a grinch when it comes to Christmas. Not on purpose, it’s just that for the last however many years, Christmas = stressing over exams. This year has been 100 time better though and I’ve gotten to fully appreciate it more.

Obviously spending time with family is up there, but the best thing has got to be the food!! Not a huge lover on turkey (especially this year when my parents got the turkey off our tattoo artist who also runs a farm and breeds turkeys so the turkey in our fridge literally has a name). But everything else: pigs in blankets, boxes of chocolate all around the house, cake! Making me hungry just thinking about it!

So that was the Joy of Christmas Book Tag! In the time it took me two write this my brother gave up on the brownies, my mum tried turning it into a teaching moment which didn’t stick and my dad ended up finishing it off.

On the other hand I got my bacon sarnie before I wasted away and it was glorious!

I hope everyone has a great Christmas if you celebrate, if not then I hope you have a fun weekend either way. Thanks for reading :))

Elli xx