Sara Blaedel: A Christmas Q&A
Sara Blaedel: A Christmas Q&A
What books do you give as gifts?
I like to see myself as an ambassador for the fantastic crime writers I have met on my travels around the world, so I always give books by my crime fiction colleagues as gifts. I also enjoy giving classics; this year I’ll be gift wrapping Ruth Rendell. Peter James, Michael Connelly, Karin Slaughter, Mark Billingham and Deon Meyer will all be under our Christmas tree as well. I cannot resist giving their gruesome stories away.
What is your favourite holiday memory?
My favourite holiday memory is a little crazy, but it still evokes a lot of laughs in my family. It was the year when Kamma (my grandmother) and her friend (Christian) got lost on Christmas Eve! The whole family was gathered in my childhood home where we waited for Kamma and Christian to show up, but they did not come. This was before cell phones. As it got later – they should have arrived in the afternoon – a little panic started to set in, and my father went down to the train station several times to look for them. Suddenly the phone rang, and it turned out that the two old people had forgotten to get off the train, and had ended up in a small town some distance from where we lived. They did not know where they were, but we got it cleared up so my dad could pick them up. Christmas was saved!
What is your favourite holiday food (bonus points if you can share a recipe!)?
On Christmas Eve in Denmark we eat roast duck with boiled white potatoes, sugar-browned potatoes, red cabbage and gravy. For dessert, you have Danish rice pudding, which is cold, with hot cherry sauce. If other Danes are reading this, it can create great debate, because there are also people who eat goose and roast pork. But roast duck is the most traditional. The recipes for the dishes are long, so I have found a great place on the web that (in English) tells the history and gives irresistible recipes: mydanishkitchen.com
Good luck to anyone cooking Danish Christmas food; it is strong winter food specially designed for Vikings!
What is your favourite holiday tradition?
Without a doubt, decorating the Christmas tree. I like to trim the tree stylishly and often with a theme. One year, for example, it was done in all shades of white. But my son, Adam, prefers a traditionally decorated tree with drums, angels, elves and lots of colours. So now he has started to take over the Christmas tree decoration, beginning the decorating the day before Christmas Eve (in Denmark, we celebrate Christmas – and decorate the tree – on December 24th, and we open presents on the evening of 24th after the traditional Christmas meal). The Christmas tree, which is spruce, is decorated with real candles, and in my family the candles are lit up several times during the day and evening on the 24th. It’s so beautiful with all the candles on the tree, lighting up in the Danish winter darkness.
What is your favourite holiday song?
There is no doubt in my mind being both an incorrigible romantic and a fan of AC/DC that Chris Rea’s ‘Driving Home for Christmas’ is the best holiday song ever. Great voice. And a laid back feeling that sets you in the mood for spending time with your family and friends. Perhaps some of them are loved ones you have not seen for a while.
What is your favourite holiday movie?
I really love traditional Christmas movies, those where Christmas first seems impossible and everything goes horribly wrong, and then is saved because of love, unity and hope. As said before, I am a hopeless romantic in spite of all the cruel stuff I write about in my books. My family and I really enjoy Tim Burton’s Nightmare before Christmas, and we have seen it every year for almost ten years now.
The ebook edition of Sara Blaedel’s latest page-turning thriller is out today! Only One Life tells a story of jealousy, honour, obsession and a desperate race to stop a killer…
