Skip to content Melody Carlson: We Wish You a Messy Christmas: A Contemporary Christian Holiday Romance Novella with Forbidden Romance and Complicated Family Dynamics Sep 17 · 18 min ...more
Melody Carlson: We Wish You a Messy Christmas: A Contemporary Christian Holiday Romance Novella with Forbidden Romance and Complicated Family Dynamics
September 17, 2026 · 18 min
This Christmas, the perfect gift might just be learning to let go and love the chaos. In this delightful Christmas novella full of faith and hope, Melody Carlson delivers small-town charm, family dynamics, and a sweet contemporary romance perfect for the holiday season.
Series Fiction Reads
You will find our host, Eden Gordon Hill, at the intersection of media and patriotism. Hill is the founder and owner of Eden Gordon Media, LLC, and a morning
September 17, 2026 · 18 min · Fiction Reads
This Christmas, the perfect gift might just be learning to let go and love the chaos. In this delightful Christmas novella full of faith and hope, Melody Carlson delivers small-town charm, family dynamics, and a sweet contemporary romance perfect for the holiday season. ...more Show the full description Show less This Christmas, the perfect gift might just be learning to let go and love the chaos. In this delightful Christmas novella full of faith and hope, Melody Carlson delivers small-town charm, family dynamics, and a sweet contemporary romance perfect for the holiday season.
Series Fiction Reads Support this leader Liking this video? Support this ministry.
Support this leader
Liking this video? Support this ministry.
Give
Support this leader Liking this video? Support this ministry.
Comments No comments yet. Start the conversation.
In this video 0:00 Introducing We Wish You a Messy Christmas3:32 Perfectionism, OCD, and Personal Stories7:06 Christmas Memories and the True Meaning of the Season12:10 Bringing People Together Through Story16:02 Call to Action and Gratitude
Introducing We Wish You a Messy Christmas 0:00 Morning, my beautiful America. Welcome back to the All American Book Club. I'm Eden Borden Hill. It's an honor to be here with you for pray dot com and w m a l dot com. And you guys, we0:12 have a brand new release for you that just came out this month, my favorite month of the year, which is my birthday month. We've got We Wish You a Merry Christmas by Melody Carlson. She0:24 is an award winning author of more than 250 books with sales of more than 7500000 books, including many best selling Christmas novellas. And this is my new favorite,0:35 which will be a part of my Christmas package as we send them out for the Thanksgiving holiday. So help me welcome my dear friend back to the show, Melody Carlson. We're0:47 back. Here we go.0:50 Hi there. You know, I I don't know if I heard you wrong. I thought you said we wish you a merry Christmas.0:56 Oh, a Merry Christmas. And it's0:58 no. That's okay. That's because that's funny because I've done the same thing. Because I just look at the book and I and I wanna say that and I go, no. No. No. We wish you a messy Christmas.1:09 Yeah. Yes. It's our messy Christmas. Yes. So let's talk about messy Christmas. Let's talk about your amazing cast of characters. Here we go.1:20 Well, I know. It it was just a crazy idea that hit me. I write my books in the summertime and I had a friend staying here, and it's a long story, but I won't go into all the details.1:32 And she is an extreme perfectionist. She lives in Mexico, so she's probably not gonna see this, but she wouldn't care. She would laugh. And she was telling me a lot of her perfectionist stories. I mean, to the point of
1:44 she just cracks me up. And so she told me about this incident that happened to her when she was being an extreme perfectionist, and it shows up in this book. And, it's the 1 that happens in the bathroom. That's
1:56 all I'm gonna say. Only I took it to, like, another level. And, anyway, but I think a lot of us, you know, especially people who love Hallmark movies and all of that
2:08 Oh, yes. Oh, yes.
2:10 It's easy to to set these really high standards and have really high expectations of yourself to perform and to make everything perfect. And and you think perfect
2:22 will make everything perfect.
2:25 Yes.
2:25 But it doesn't do that.
2:27 No. It
2:28 doesn't. Let's just play with this.
2:32 So let's talk about your characters. I you open it up so well, but the mother. Oh, the mother. Is is there was that modeled after your friend pretty much?
2:45 It was a combination of several people. Yes. Yes.
2:51 So tell me
2:52 known and been good friends with and I've just kind of watched because I used to think I was slightly a perfectionist, but it's more like in the creative way where I like it just to creatively look a certain way.
3:04 I mean, you can see in my bookshelves behind me. Oh, yeah. I'm not a perfectionist. I've got books, helter skelter, all mixed up. Yeah. You know, and I have some friends that'll come in here and they'll go, oh, I'll
3:13 straighten it up for you. I'm like, no.
3:16 You have your own organizational system.
3:19 But yeah. It I mean and I grew up with a well, several a couple of people live with OCD, and 1 of them was 1 of my best friends very, very early on, and I didn't know. Nobody knew what OCD was.
3:31 But I would go into her bedroom, which everything was perfect. And on her, like, little vanity table, her her commas brush up would just be all lined up, and I would just turn 1 sideways. It would
Perfectionism, OCD, and Personal Stories
3:43 last 3 seconds since she'd straighten it back up.
3:46 That just that just happened to me last night. My husband had OCD before he joined the army, and then they just magnified it. And so now we're army retired.
3:58 And last night, he wanted me to look for something in his 1 of his drawers. You will not watch this so I can share as much as I want. He has all of his shorts perfectly
4:10 layered in there, color coordinated. And he wanted me to find something. I was in the wrong drawer. And he said, you didn't mess the flaps up. Are they all flat? Nothing's been moved, has
4:22 it? If it has, you need to go back in and he would not let it go until I opened up the the drawer and made sure everything was flat and perfected. I live with an excessive compulsive army retired,
4:33 sir. Oh, bless your heart. So, yes, so that OCD
4:45 thing but you know what? I'm 1 to talk. We all have some kind of aspect of OCD in us a little bit. Sometimes morning I know. 5. Right?
4:57 And I wanted to talk because I have to vacuum after every morning after we've had breakfast. I have to go in and vacuum. Otherwise, I can't continue on with my day. So
5:09 I know. And what I've told people because I have a sister-in-law. I actually wrote a whole book about her OCD, which really got out out of hand, crazy out of hand.
5:18 Kinda like the kinda like the mother?
5:21 And this 1 Way way beyond that.
5:24 Oh, how
5:25 Way way beyond that. And but here's what I tell her and I tell myself this too. I don't know that if I and from what I've read too, it's not really I mean, it's not
5:37 OCD or it's not harmful if what you do makes you feel better when you're done. You know, like Yeah. But some people, they don't feel better. They just keep going. Yep. And they have to do
5:49 it again and again and again.
5:51 I shouldn't be laughing because I know there are people out there that really struggle with it. I know. I know. Hey. If anybody wants you wants me to vacuum for you guys, I'm available. Okay.
6:06 Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh. So let's go back to the whole premise of we wish you a merry or miss Did you come up
6:17 with this title? Because you're really tripping me up.
6:20 Yes. I did. And it trips it trips me up.
6:25 So tell me tell us the audience so we can go buy a copy. And it's a great it's a great size for stocking stuffer too, but it'd be great to give them out before Thanksgiving. So
6:37 just to, like, to encourage people to go buy them. And it's
6:40 It's anybody. It's anybody. It's all ages. It's it's daughters. It's mothers. It's grandmas. It's it's like everybody knows somebody who is a little and we're
6:52 all a little bit like this.
6:53 Yeah.
6:54 We're all a little bit like we want things to be perfect. Okay. Maybe not all of us. And and those of us who are not like that to an extreme, then maybe it helps you to understand the people that are.
Christmas Memories and the True Meaning of the Season
7:06 But,
7:07 Yeah. You know, we really put a good a good spin on Christmas. And here's why I'll say that, and then I'll let you go back to my the question I asked you. I I loved
7:19 Christmas growing up. I still do. I put my Christmas we're gonna, you know, decorations out October 31st. I mean, that's I was I went 2 full months, maybe even push it to, you know, January. But I
7:31 grew up and my mom will probably see this and she's okay with me sharing this, but she she didn't have the best childhood growing up and and liking Christmas. So you kinda put a spin on
7:43 a spin on the Christmas aspect. All different types can pick this up and read it, get a laugh out of it, enjoy it, pull something away from it. And, obviously, that has changed for her over the
7:55 years, but not everybody likes Christmas. And, in fact, a lot just dread it. They just dread it.
8:01 It brings out a lot of old, you know, ways that we grew up.
8:05 Yep.
8:05 I mean, you know, I have a hard time with Christmas now because my husband died right before Christmas, which was also his birthday. You know? So, yeah, it's it's a challenge for me now. It
8:17 didn't used to be. But as a child, my mom my mom was in a way, she was a little bit like Jane. Not that our house was perfectly clean by any means, but she likes things to be
8:29 precisely a certain way. And so she got okay. We grew up in the sixties, which tells you how old I am. But, she got a tin tree because they were brand new then, the aluminum trees. And then she
8:41 got blue balls to hang on it. And I think blue lights too if I could recall right. And that was our Christmas tree. And my sister and I thought it was the ugliest thing in the world because we wanted
8:53 a live 1. Yeah. An old fashioned, you know, all you know, like, string our own popcorn and all you know, everything like that. And so we would go to my grandparents' house. So my grandparents are the ones that just
9:05 really showed me the old fashioned country kind of Christmas, which I love. But if I if we'd been limited to my mom's tin tree and blue balls,
9:19 And she did put rinses on her hair that had blue in them. Yeah.
9:25 But, you know, it's it's those fun it's those memories of Christmas traditions that, you know, whether you burn the turkey or you have, you know, the the hottest thing out for
9:36 Christmas, but then it's it's it's going back to the memories that you make and the fun the fun memories. And, also, you know, like you said, when we
9:48 have losses that holiday time period, you we still can look back. You can look back. We can look back on the memories and the treasures that we had with those people that were so close to us that we
10:00 love dearly and remember those special times together. That also is another part of what we can bring out at Christmas too.
10:08 Yeah. Because I think what I'm trying to show and I I think I tried to show it in I wanna say all my Christmas books. Is this really about the people? It's really about loving the people around you and
10:20 it's about a time of showing grace. Yeah. Because isn't that what Christmas is really supposed to be about?
10:27 No. No. Is it that why he came? In my family, we talk politics, and then we all stop talking to each other after the meal. Oh,
10:37 ouch.
10:39 It's hysterical. My my southern husband, again, he will not see this. He comes he 1st, 2nd, 3rd Christmas being married. So how about the president? And my brother's like, I'm done
10:50 here. Get up. Let's go. Honey, we're out of here.
10:55 No. I know.
10:57 Yeah. Yeah. But it is. It's supposed to be about grace. It's supposed to be about Christ. It's supposed to be about giving back. And you are right. In all the Christmas books that you have written, I've
11:08 probably read most of them. I'm pretty certain about that, and I've ordered the rest of them that I haven't read yet. I save them for each Christmas. But in the Christmas quilt, I'm gonna quote an old book that you
11:20 read, you had written quite a while back, and you had posted it on your social media over the summer saying, hey, this is a good book to read if you want a Christmas kind of in July book. And the cast of characters,
11:32 you bring people together who normally would have not been together. You bring families together to create family. You bring you bring people together who did not neighbors who did not know each
11:44 other. And that's what Rangers. Yeah. Creatures. Yes. And that's what you do for your Christmas themed books. So even with We Wish You a Messy Christmas, you're
11:56 bringing together and you even talk about the, you know, part of the neighbors
12:02 The neighbors that hate each other.
12:03 That hate each other.
12:04 Well, no. Not it's not on both sides.
12:07 1 side. It's one-sided. It's one-sided. Yeah. Yeah. But no. You do you have a way of bringing people together, but that's what Christmas is about. It's bringing people together. And for those
Bringing People Together Through Story
12:18 strangers who may not have somebody, it's about reaching out to you and loving your neighbor, which is sometimes really hard to do.
12:26 Yeah. In their case, it's really hard.
12:31 Yeah. So it got no. Go ahead. Go ahead. What you're saying? I was
12:34 gonna say it's hard and it gets harder throughout the book, but it it brings you know, and the the fun thing about the book because, you know, I don't outline my books. I do not know where they're going.
12:46 And, the my initial plan with the book was that the Jane's Jane's the perfectionist, and her side of the family was gonna try to stage an intervention. Well
12:58 Yeah.
12:59 They don't even need to because the intervention just kinda happens. I'd like to say God thing, fate thing, whatever. It just happens. Yeah. Jane actually brings it upon herself Yes.
13:10 With this craziness. And, so I, that was really fun. Just to let just allow it to happen.
13:19 Yeah. Yeah. Just to allow things to naturally happen. So what I wanna do is what would be I always ask this of many people, and you and I have so many fun conversations as it is. Call
13:31 to action for this book. And here's why I'm asking you that. Because whenever I post about you and me on my social feeds, my family loves you. My
13:42 cousins love you. So many people love you and just yeah, they just love you. But what would be your call to action for us as we're in the bur months, officially
13:54 in the bur months, even though the weather doesn't wanna make up its mind? We're in the bur months. What would be your call to action with this book? But then literally, as we are preparing for Thanksgiving and
14:04 Christmas, they're gonna be here tomorrow.
14:07 Yeah. It's it's kinda the same thing is I I wanna say, like, take a breath.
14:16 Yeah.
14:17 Give that person before you a moment of your thoughtful consideration. What I mean, you can't get in their skin. I know.
14:29 But, I mean, just take a moment and think what is it they need? What is it they're going through? What what can you give? You know? And because, I mean, Christmas
14:41 time I mean, really all the time should be about, you know, what can we give and and
14:45 Yeah.
14:47 But just take a moment because, you know, the the sweetness too about that. I mean, get selfish here is when you do that, you get so much back, you know? And
14:59 it just it just it changes everything.
15:02 Absolutely. Absolutely. So I will say this. I am as we're rapping, we are rapping because that's how quick it this went, and we laugh
15:14 most of the time. But on a serious note, I'm grateful for what you have, yeah, you have filled libraries with powerful books that have inspired us, that have been
15:26 there with us through joy and loss. And, yeah, that you have impacted so many of us. So thank you.
15:38 Oh, thanks. And I'm about to start dusting off some of the old ones and bringing some of the old ones back. Like, the 1 I told you about OCD is actually somewhere on my coffee table because I was just talking to somebody
15:48 about OCD, and I'm like, oh, yeah. I wrote a whole book about that. And I pulled it out. It's out of print, and I was like, I don't I'm gonna try to figure it out in the upcoming year.
15:59 Can I can I make a request? Sure. Dear Daphne and Mulligan sisters, please. Yes. I
Call to Action and Gratitude
16:06 know. We need to and, you know, it was actually my virtual assistant that put the thing about the Christmas quilts. And then
16:13 Yes. Yes.
16:14 And and so I'm just I'm trying to figure out how much more I can incorporate her help or or someone else's help because I just the thing is, what I really wanna do is just keep creating. And right now, I'm writing a new
16:25 novel, and I'm just excited about it. It's Yeah. It's a different it's very different than anything I've done at all, really. It's kind of a contemporary western ish, western theme
16:37 story about an old woman and a young woman. And anyway, it's it's really fun.
16:43 But That sounds great. When's that coming out?
16:46 Oh my gosh. That won't be out for, you know, another year.
16:50 That is.
16:51 The the book is coming out Next is the, not that you're asking, but I'll tell you. This is is the, it's like the sequel to the Honey Bean Bee
17:03 book.
17:03 Oh, yes. Yes. Yes. I remember you saying that when we talked last year.
17:07 And then not too long after that 1 comes out, there's a book that's about it's totally about found family, and it's called The Lost and Found Club. And that'll be out kinda early summer.
17:19 So what you were you were sort of talking about earlier about just that, you know, creating yeah.
17:25 Creating family even though it's blood. Creating that blood.
17:28 It's kind of like it's not like the quilt book, but is it it's similar because it's these lives that just randomly come together and it's really inspired out of real life. So it's kind of
17:38 fun. Yeah. You know what? Then nothing's random. Nothing's random.
17:41 I know. It just feels random. Yeah.
17:44 Oh, yeah. Yeah. But you you know
17:45 Until you start putting the pieces together and it's like, oh my gosh. This isn't random. This fits.
17:51 Absolutely. Absolutely. So alright. Call to action. Go reach out to somebody in your neighborhood who you may not know that before. Call to action. Go buy
18:03 a messy Christmas. And, also, go follow you on all the social channels. Make sure that they sign up and get engaged with you and all the amazing books. And my final call to action,
18:15 pick up the Mulligan sisters and dear Daphne. You will not regret it. 2 of my favorite series by Melody Carlson. So thank you so much for being here at the all American book club. I appreciate you so much.
Eden Gordon Hill & The All-American Book Club64.5K followers
Comments
Keep it kind. Comments are public.