Visiting Elisabeth Hobbs in The Great Christmas Tree Tour

Cheryl, thanks for letting me play along.  I’m a bit delayed putting my tree up this year because I dislocated my arm a week ago but now we’re back on track.

Every year I say I’m going to buy a huge, real tree but I look at the space I’ve got to fill and remember how long it takes to pick needles out of the carpet and cats.  Then I dig the old fake one out of the loft and say it will do for another year as it is never as bad as I remember it being.  I’d fill the whole house with holly and greenery and beeswax candles and deck my house out like a medieval Great Hall (what else, given the time period I write about?) if I thought the cats and kids would let me get away with it.

While I look on enviously at people with beautifully colour-coordinated trees I’ve never had one because if I spot decorations I buy them whether they match or not.

Each Christmas since my children were born I’ve bought them a new decoration to find in their stocking.  Part of the Christmas morning tradition is adding it to the collection on the tree.  The first job of Tree Decorating Day (important enough to deserve capitals when you’re 8 and 10) is working out which decoration belongs to which child.   It’s very important that they add their own!

I plan to carry on doing this until they leave home, then they can take their decorations with them to start their own trees.  At that point I’ll have a very bare tree and can start buying decorations for myself to fill the gaps.  Maybe at that point I’ll start on colour schemes but I doubt it!

I do have a few of my own decorations, bought, made by my children or presents from a child in my class, which manage to sneak a little space.  I ’m not sure how Yoda appeared but he generally gets to sit somewhere up the top.  I’d love to know if any blog readers have such a strange decoration hanging from their tree.

I had a lovely surprise through the post as my sister-in-law sent me these gorgeous baubles for my tree made from the covers of my books. Maybe I'll ask her to do me a new one for each release!

I’d like to wish love and peace to everyone for the festive season,

whatever and however you celebrate.

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'I suppose a kiss of gratitude is out of the question?'

Widowed Lady Eleanor Peyton has chosen a life of independence. Living alone on her rocky coastal outcrop, she’s cut herself off from the world of men — until William Rudhale saves her life and demands a kiss!

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Elisabeth grew up in York where she spent most of her teenage years wandering around the city looking for a handsome Roman or Viking to sweep her off her feet. Sadly this never happened, however, inspired by this she took a degree in History and Art History before training as a teacher. Her writing career began when she entered her first novel, Falling for Her Captor, into Harlequin's So You Think You Can Write contest 2013 and finished in third place.

These days she holds down jobs as a part time teacher and full time mom. When she isn't writing, she spends most of her spare time reading and is a pro at cooking one-handed while holding a book.

Elisabeth's other hobbies include skiing, Arabic dance, fencing and exploring dreadful tourist attractions, none of which has made it into a story yet. She loves ginger mojitos, historical fiction and has a fondness for dark haired, bearded heroes.