The Story Behind the Book: The Story Behind Selling Christmas by Angelina Goode

Monday, October 19, 2020

The Story Behind Selling Christmas by Angelina Goode

The idea for Selling Christmas came about one year when I was sitting around the Thanksgiving table with my family. We were talking about the holiday tour of homes that a local charity puts on every year, and how much work must go into the decorating. It is a lavish event with fancy houses decked out in tasteful arrangements of red, green, and gold. There are enormous, meticulously decorated Christmas

trees at every turn. Everything looks absolutely perfect.

As a writer, I am constantly thinking about how to twist situations into something a little more exciting. Something a book character would love (or hate) to find themselves in. That’s when it came to me. What if someone that had no interest in decorating for Christmas somehow ended up in charge of
decorating an entire tour of homes? Of course, there needs to be a love interest. Who would make it all more complicated than a handsome client that loves to decorate and is looking for his dream home? From there, the story took off.

It was then, at that table, that I announced to my family that I was going to write a Christmas novel. And have it done by that very Christmas. My husband cocked an eyebrow at me. My oldest daughter giggled, and the youngest smashed potatoes into the tablecloth. My dad nodded hesitantly, and my mom
enthused something along the lines of, “I’m sure you can do it.” Their reactions weren’t unjustified. It had taken me a few years to write my first novel, after all. But I was determined.

As I sat in my childhood home it occurred to me that the ideal setting would be small-town Oregon. My grandparents had owned a farm in Oregon that we visited every year growing up. My uncles had planted Christmas trees to farm and I recalled gingerly stepping around the saplings as we ventured about the property. What a perfect place to set a Christmas story!

I was atingle with the idea. I had always wanted to write a Christmas novel, and now I finally had the makings of one. It took every muscle in my body to keep me from frantically scribbling my ideas down on the nearest napkin.

Needless to say, I was not the most attentive dinner guest that evening. I confess that I did not finish the novel by Christmas. But I did finish by Valentine’s Day, and that was close enough for me.

That dinner was Thanksgiving of 2018. And that first draft was just the beginning. There was still the revising, the editing, and getting it to my beta readers. Then the second round of revising and editing. Then hiring an editor and having a book cover made. It is a long journey from that first seed of
inspiration to a final published book. And I am so excited to share this bit of Christmas spirit with the world.

About the Book

Helping people find their dream house has always come natural to Caroline. She’s able to set the stage perfectly so her clients can imagine spending the holidays in their new home, even though she doesn’t decorate her own. When her boss assigns her to oversee the company’s first Christmas Tour of Homes, Caroline thinks she may be in over her head.

Luke has always made sure his daughter, Ella, had all that she needed for Christmas, including a home bursting at the seams with tinsel and holly. Even if it meant working extra shifts patrolling the town. So when a house of their own is at the top of Ella’s Christmas list, he can’t help but set out to find one.

As Christmas fate brings Caroline and Luke together, they just might be exactly what the other needs to make it through the holidays. Until Luke unknowingly stumbles across Caroline’s past. A past that keeps Caroline from looking to a future with Luke.

Can Caroline and Luke find their way to happily ever after? Or is the only thing keeping them from finding it, each other?