Setting Novels During the Holiday Season

Going to be honest here... I have never written a novel that is set during the holiday season. In Mystery of the Dark, it touches on the Samhain holiday but it's not really the main focus on the novel. What I'm talking about with setting a novel during the holiday season is taking the season and making it be more than just seeming like a random event that your characters are around during. You're going to want to make sure that the season is shown in more ways than one. There's a few ways to do that.

One of the best ways to do that is to make sure, when you're giving details of the location, to include holiday decorations. For example, say that a detective shows up to a crime scene and there's a bit of added sadness because there's now blood splattered on the decorated tree. Or the wrapped presents that were under the tree. That's showing the reader that, yes, it is the season and you have a bit of attachment to the victim in wondering who he or she left behind. It's an easy way to work in the holiday season but then you need to continue it. Does the place where your detective work have holiday decorations up? Or is it bare save for a desk here or there? It's one of the smaller ways to have the holiday there but yet not being a overwhelming presence.

Another way is to make the novel all about the holiday. When you're setting up your plot for the novel, have it be that the main character is heading home and you can easily write a family drama around the holiday. Honestly, this is a way that you could plot out a novel around any sort of tradition. It could even be a funeral or a wedding and things go from there. This brings the holiday or whatever you're putting the plot around have center stage. It is the main reason for why the characters are getting together because, any other time, they wouldn't really be talking to each other. Or meet at all in some cases. That is a bigger way to have the holidays be in your novel and it is a very successful way too. If you want proof, turn on the Hallmark channel and see what they're showing wall to wall.

So those are the two big ways that I know of to have the holiday season in your novels. How would you go about having the holidays in yours? Feel free to leave a comment below or poke me on Facebook or Twitter. Until next time, keep on writing!