A Letter from Danielle for December ’22
Hi Everyone,
December has to be my favorite month. I love Christmas as much as I did as a child, maybe more, since I have my own children to share it with now. It can be a challenging time in families, a busy, stressful time, or a hard time if you are alone. But underneath it all is the magic of Christmas and of hope, and the magic you can create for others. Sometimes, at your lowest point, the joy you can give to someone else will lift you above your own problems or griefs.
The hardest Christmas we ever faced was three months after my son Nick died at 19 and, amazingly, the love we shared with family and friends got us through it. It was a sweet, tender Christmas that none of us had expected.
I love all the little traditions associated with Christmas, picking the tree, baking brownies for friends, reaching out to people, picking gifts for people you love, and hoping they love the gifts too. The gift can be small if it comes from the heart, or even something you made. The shared family meals, my kids coming home from other cities and being together for the holidays. That’s the best part for me. Christmas is about giving even more than getting. I still have all the gifts my kids made for me at Christmas over the years.
If you can embrace the spirit of Christmas, or Chanukah, or the holidays generally, and reach out to those in need—or who are lonely, sad, or in despair—you will be blessed with a sense of joy that will lift you above your own problems.
My holiday book this year is about a big family of six siblings, who are close but all very different. They range in age from 21 to 40+ and inherit their parents’ big family home where they grew up. They have to deal with the loss of their parents, and the house they were left, full of memories of their childhood, and make hard decisions about what to do with it. For a time, they all come together and live in the house together while they decide, and it turns out to be a blessing for each of them. I fell in love with The Whittiers when I wrote it, and I hope you will too, and that you’ll find some time to read it over the holidays.
And also in December my book High Stakes will come out in paperback. It’s about five very different women who work for a talent agency, the challenges they face—with the clients, their coworkers, a good boss and a bad one—and how each of the women deal with it. It’s all the challenges that women face today in the workforce, at an exciting agency with interesting jobs, and how they manage both their personal lives and their careers. It’s a fun book and I hope you enjoy it.
And wherever you are, whether alone or with your family, or sharing the holiday with friends, whatever your beliefs about the season (or no beliefs!), I hope that you find joy in this holiday period, and that joy finds you, and you feel the touch of peace and love and hope for the future. May this holiday season be filled with blessings for you.
With all my love,
Danielle