With Christmas just a week away now, I’ve been looking at it in the way I look at everything – through the lens of my characters. One way you know whether you’ve created something as close to living, breathing people as you can get is whether you can think of them in any situation and know exactly how they’d be or react.
For me, my childhood Christmas memories revolve mainly around my maternal grandmother. It’s her rituals I remember, from the way she put up her decorations early to the battered nativity scene that formed the centerpiece of her efforts. There were always raisins and nuts in a glass square dish with four compartments. Since I don’t like nuts, the raisins didn’t tend to last very long. She had a couple of gold banners, tattered but still shining, wishing visitors a ‘Merry Christmas’, and cards strung on pieces of red wool across the walls. Those are the little things that mean Christmas in my head, despite the fact that none of them survived her downsizing to sheltered accommodation. These days, I don’t much do Christmas. I’ve yet to get into the spirit this year, though I do like the increased varieties of cheese on offer at the supermarkets. Priorities, right?
What about the characters in But By Degrees? How did they spend their Christmases (before the events of the story)?
Well, Danni did the family thing. She’d finish work and join the rush to get ‘home’ for Christmas, although she was leaving her home town to visit her parents in Scotland. Their lunch would be generally be just the three of them and she enjoyed the intimacy of it. It was always treated as a joint venture, especially since her dad had a secret recipe for the mash that turned out to be whisky based.
Jude played the part of the useless daughter-in-law at her festivities. She and Michael would always go around to his parents and there’d be nothing for her to do amidst all the relatives who’d been doing the same tasks all their lives. It was always an excruciating day and she was relieved when it was over.
Harriet, miraculously, pulled the Christmas thing off rather well. She and Paul worked like a well-oiled machine to be the focal point for both their families, although Harriet survived mainly by chain-smoking her way through Christmas Eve and Boxing Day.
So, how about you guys? If someone asked your characters tomorrow what they were doing for Christmas, what would they say?
