When it comes to writers, Christa Banister is top-notch. Author of the popular Sydney Alexander chick lit series (Around the World in 80 Dates, Blessed are the Meddlers, and the yet-to-be released third novel), Christa is also a freelance journalist and an avid blogger. Always amusing and encouraging, I was excited that Christa took time out of her busy schedule to unwrap Christmas with Backseat Writer.
Did you score any good deals on Black Friday? Is it a day of great deals or terrifying chaos?
I absolutely, positively love to shop, but not on Black Friday. I think it was doing so in Manhattan a few years back that officially turned me off. I remember being in H&M and not being able to breathe because of the sheer volume of people, not a pleasant feeling to say the least.
What is one of your favorite Christmas memories?
Will and I started dating a month and a half before Christmas in 2004, so it was too early to officially met each other’s families. But I remember him dropping me off at the airport and thinking how that was probably the last Christmas I’d be spending alone with my family, and I was right. I couldn’t tell you how excited I was when he called and wished me a Merry Christmas…it was definitely love, baby!
Let’s talk Santa. Did you believe in him as a child? How did you find out he’s not real?
I definitely believed in Santa as a kid and remembered being really worried that He wouldn’t be able to find me when I went to my grandparent’s home in Illinois, rather than staying at my place in Wisconsin. But when he didn’t bring me a computer after asking for one several years in a row (and I was even nice not naughty to boot), I suspected that my parents probably were involved somehow. And of course, I was right…
What’s your fave Christmas song/Christmas movie or cartoon/Christmas cookie?
Hands down, my favorite Christmas song is when anyone with a really good voice sings “O Holy Night.” My favorite Christmas movie is probably everyone’s old standby, “It’s a Wonderful Night,” which incidentally, I didn’t see until Will and I started dating (and he hadn’t either…we quite possibly were the two last people left on earth who hadn’t). I remember the night we went to the Belcourt in Nashville and saw it…it was such a fantastic and heart-warming story, despite the underlying sadness. As for my favorite Christmas cookie, I can’t pass up a really good M&M cookie or the peanut butter cookies with the Hershey kisses in the middle.
She is Beloved 