Frost At Midnight And Other Christmas Stories

Four different stories - four very different Christmases….

Frost At Midnight
Jake’s love for his new wife and son is offset only by the fact that he’s just lost his job at the Christmas Tree farm (but then, who buys Christmas trees after Christmas Eve?), and the fact that they’re going to have to find a new place to live - again - because their landlord won’t have babies in his properties. Despair weighs heavy on his shoulders. After his last, long shift at the farm he’s cold and he’s tired, but on Christmas Eve night, Jake takes on the midnight feed from his exhausted wife. He talks to his son about his past, his hopes and his dreams….but can an overlooked Christmas card offer hope for a better future?

Perfect Christmas Angels
Amanda really isn’t in the mood for Christmas. Her daughter barks at her all the time, and her new boss is so obviously trying to get rid of her - but if it wasn’t for the nuisance calls, she could just about cope. It’s always the same thing….hundreds of times a day….‘Come Home Jenny, please, please, please come home.’ She doesn’t know any ‘Jenny’, and she certainly doesn’t know the caller. How can she make them stop? With help from her new ex-policewoman friend Eileen, she tracks down the source of the calls and on Christmas Eve they go to confront the perpetrator. For Eileen, what they find offers closure on a 30-year-old unsolved case she was involved in as a rookie cop. For Amanda, it means so much more. It offers a reason for her childhood dreams of making Christmas Angel cookies, and for why the smell of cinnamon means so much to her.

The Christmas Window
Archie’s worked hard and long to be a grumpy old man. Why should he want to change now? A little girl’s smile is what started the thaw - she wanted so much for her mum’s new Teddy Bear shop to succeed, and he never could resist a challenge. Sarah is very resistant to Archie’s approaches - all she’s ever gained from her contact with men was her daughter, Holly, so why on earth would she trust a grumpy old man with anything, let alone her last-chance business?

Midwinter Solstice
Twelve-year-old Matthew Crawford, lonely and grieving following his parents’ death, is stuck in a boarding school he hates. When his kindly form-teacher, Mr Pearce, takes him to spend Christmas at his elderly father’s house, he finds himself adrift again when the old man’s health fails. He is sent to spend Christmas with neighbours, where he meets Bridie, a year older and his complete opposite - where he is wind-blown and lost, she is as grounded and as planted in the landscape as the ancient granite ley-line bridge she keeps watch over. As the strength of the ley-line increases with the midwinter solstice, both children find that their lives are changed irrecoverably by its power.