I first met Mike Martin while serving on the Crime Writers of Canada Board of Directors as a Regional Rep. Later, with Mike as Chair, I job shadowed him as Vice Chair, and a finer human I’ve yet to meet. It’s my pleasure to introduce you to his children’s Christmas books. I’ve already ordered for my great-niece!

I love Christmas. Everything about Christmas. I love the bows and the bangles and the jingles and the jangles. I love the singing and ringing and the lights and the trees and the star on top of everything. But mostly I love the spirit of Christmas. That we are all nice to each other. That we give more than we receive. That we smile at strangers and wish them well. Wish them Merry Christmas of Happy Holidays. Whatever they like.

My only real Christmas wish is that this spirit could last more than a few weeks a year. But I’ll take whatever I can get at this point. We need it!!

Out of my love for Christmas came two Christmas books. Christmas in Newfoundland: Memories and Mysteries, Book 1 and Book 2. I actually didn’t intend to write those books. They are a collection of stories I have written for my family for Christmas over the years. I bundled them together and added a few new ones and then we had a Christmas book. That was so much fun, we did it again for Book 2. Both books are available on Amazon, btw, just sayin’.

But in the last couple of years I have been writing children’s stories about Christmas. Why? I don’t really know. Maybe it’s because I’m a grandfather now or maybe it’s because I’m getting older. In any case, the stories started and they keep coming. I still write my mystery series, the best-selling Sgt. Windflower Mysteries (Book 14 is coming in May 2024), but I am somehow drawn to writing these little, fun Christmas stories for children.

Here’s a secret. Maybe they’re not really for children at all, although children can read them. Maybe they are for all of us, to remind us of the joy that we felt at Christmas when we were children. If I could capture that and put it in a bottle, it would be a best-seller, for sure. Since I can’t do that, I try and put that spirit into these Christmas books and hope that others will feel it, too.

Is it different writing children’s books? In some ways, yes. But in my mind the principles are the same. Write a good story with interesting characters that have some mystery or puzzle or problem to solve. It is always telling stories that have enough depth and weight to them to be interesting to readers. They have to be engaging and interesting so that people, of any age, will want to sit and read or listen to them.

The fun part about writing children’s books is that you don’t have convince kids things like whether or not animals can talk. To their mind, why can’t rabbits or beavers or cats talk? Children are open to the possibilities, especially younger ones. That’s before we teach them rationale thought and not to believe everything that people tell them.

The two biggest things about writing a book for children in my opinion are that we shouldn’t deliberate scare or frighten them, and that they should always have a happy ending. The world is scary enough for little people. And if there really is something that should be afraid of, like crossing a busy street, we teach them to look both ways before crossing. And we try and get through the sometimes-scary parts quickly, so they see that they can be brave and do that too.

Mike Martin is normally the author of the best-selling Sgt. Windflower Mystery series. But now he is also the author of two children’s Christmas books. The latest is A Friend for Christmas. Available on Amazon everywhere.