Q&A with Nancy Thayer

  

Photo by Kit Noble

 

 

 

 

 

Nancy Thayer is the author of the new novel Nantucket Christmas Stroll. Her many other books include Let It Snow. She lives on Nantucket. 

 

Q: What inspired you to write Nantucket Christmas Stroll?

 

A: I love Christmas!

 

My birthday is in December, and I’ve always been grateful for the days of celebration during the darkest days of the year. Christmas is all about nurturing the soul. The birth of a new baby is always a miracle.

 

Composers have written glorious Christmas music. Writers like Charles Dickens, Dylan Thomas, Chris Van Allsburg, and Clement Clarke Moore have written classic stories and poems celebrating the spirit of Christmas. And the fragrances of pine and cinnamon and gingerbread---and hot chocolate!—warm our bodies and our hearts.

 

Plus, presents! Scientists will one day prove that buying and giving and getting presents releases all the good chemicals our brains need to be happy. I’ve already written three Nantucket Christmas novels. The third one, Let It Snow, is a Hallmark movie called Nantucket Noel.

 

Q: How did you create the Parsons family, and how would you describe the dynamic among the family members?

 

A: Honestly, I think I wrote this book because I miss my children and my sister, who was a nurse and who always sent dozens of presents to us every year. She lived in Kansas City and because of her I have Patrick Mahomes knee-high socks and T-shirt (red, very festive). She always brought laughter to our Christmas.

 

We used to hold a large Christmas party at our home every year when our two children were teenagers, continuing when they were college graduates starting their new lives.

 

When they were young and at home, I had cookie cutters shaped like Santa and stars and bells, and I made a baked Alaska which I brought flaming to the table for Christmas dinner. For several years, the kids and I made gingerbread houses.

 

A word to the wise—it’s a lot of work to make a gingerbread house from scratch and don’t even try to keep the peaked roof on the walls with icing. It never works. Use Elmer’s Glue instead. It’s white and no one will know the difference.

 

And punch!  Decades ago, a friend gave me the recipe that’s used in Nantucket Christmas Stroll. It is perfect for parties, but not for just two people.

 

Our children are grown now. My son and his husband live far away. My daughter and her husband have six children and they live in the same state, but still a day’s trip away. They now give an annual Christmas party which Charley and I travel to. Many of our friends have moved away to Florida for the winter. Yes, we’re that old. I wrote this book to relive and keep the Christmas party tradition.

 

But I wanted to make the party realistic, so I needed to have some drama and surprises and difficulties, but what holiday—what day—is ever perfect? I love romance, and I’ve lived in Wisconsin and in Finland, so I drew on those memories.

 

As for the characters—the first person I wanted to write about was a male nurse. I think we need more male nurses and Lucas was the first person who arrived on the page. I knew right away that his father would be upset that his son, who was supposed to take over the family business, wanted to be a nurse.

 

As I was putting the family together, my daughter, at the age of 42, gave birth to her sixth very adorable child. I know that more women are having babies later in life.

 

A minor character is Beatrice, an older woman like me, who causes a crisis and does it with style. The mother Jane is probably a lot like me. If you throw a party, things are bound to go wrong. Just go with it.

 

One year we had 12 people for Christmas dinner and I roasted two geese. I’d never cooked a goose before and I didn’t know how much fat they had. When I took the pan out of the oven, some of the goose fat spilled onto my foot. It hurt SO much, and I had to keep smiling as I put the damned geese on the platter. My advice—don’t cook a goose unless you’re wearing boots.

 

Q: What do you think is special about Nantucket during the holiday season?

 

A: Nantucket is an island, and that makes the season special. The Coast Guards hang an enormous Christmas wreath on the Brant Point Lighthouse, the first sight you see on arriving.

 

The shop windows are cleverly, beautifully decorated, and best of all, during the Stroll, Santa Claus and his wife come by boat! They are taken across the water by a Coast Guard cutter and met at Straight Wharf by a cheering crowd.

 

Nantucket is a very small town. You can walk off a ferry and two steps later, there you are, with the town just a few more steps away. A chorus wearing Victorian costumes strolls along, singing holiday songs. Christmas trees line the streets and a very large tree covered in lights stands at the top of Main Street, just a short walk from the ferry. (I’ve heard rumors that the tree talks to children.)

 

And Mitchell’s Book Corner on Main and Orange has many wonderful books to buy, including quite a few about the Christmas Stroll.

 

Q: What do you hope readers take away from the book?

 

A: Hope is the word, isn’t it? Christmas is all about hope, about new life and joy, about light in the darkness. I hope my readers laugh while reading my book, and I hope they find people in the book who are a lot like they are. . .and they love them.

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: My 2027 novel, Seaside Romance, comes out next May. Mandy Meriweather is 24 and an agent wants to see the novel she’s writing. Mandy goes to Nantucket to stay with her fabulous Great Aunt Violet for the summer to finish her novel. But more people arrive and the beautiful old Victorian house needs repairs and life is complicated. And some people fall in love.

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: I’ve always wanted to write about “normal” women and families. I’m not sure I qualify as “normal” anymore, but I’m not sure anyone does. I love my readers so very much and I’m grateful to you for reading my novels.

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb. Here's a previous Q&A with Nancy Thayer.