Have a Holly Jolly...Pickle?

 2021: Year of Forced Introspection

Holiday traditions are weird and only make sense when put into the context of Christmas cheer. Taken out of context, when removed from the story, they look like the ramblings of a mad man. For example, at what other time of year do we pay to take a picture of a stranger in a strange outfit holding our child.

Here in my home state of Texas, there is the Christmas Pickle tradition. You hide a small green pickle on your tree, and the first person to find it on Christmas morning gets an extra present. It's hide and go seek with pickles.

Weird, right?

Like at what time of year is it totally okay to bake a ton of cookies and give them to everyone you know, knowing that you will get a ton of cookies in return?

We are a strange race, these humans, with their stories and their weird traditions. 

But all of these things make sense when you put them into the context of Christmas, the world of Winter Solstices, and Festival of Lights. The story and the traditions all come together and glow with a meaning that we can all understand and experience. 

I find the same thing happens with great storytelling and I believe that Helen Lowe has hit upon it this beautifully  with her Fantasy World Building series. The setting of the story, the context of the story, is a vital part of the actions and characters that are participating in the story. Writers might wax poetic about world building because it is fun and exciting to create new places, new religions, new languages. And yes, that is all fun, but the real part of creating a world for a novel is its integral part to the plot and the characters. 

Like these marvelous pinwheel cookies, the three things are completely twisted together. You can't have a character without defining where that character came from. You can't build a plot without a character to act within it. And you can't have action without a world to provide obstacles to overcome. It is all perfectly swirled together into a delicious treat, baked up by your favorite author to give you a little something to take with you as you toil. 

So when you think about your traditions this holiday season, please appreciate the story of it, the context, the players and the plot and how they are all spun together to make this the most wonderful time of the year. 

Until next time, dear readers. Happy Holidays and see you next year!

Amanda Arista

www.amandaarista.com

Author, Diaries of an Urban Panther Series and The Merci Lanard Files.