It’s Christmas time in March!

Truthfully, it was Christmas time for me in February. After a solid month of reading in January, I could feel the loss of the holiday’s by February. My spirits were starting to fall and pandemic fatigue began to set in. I still had Hallmark Christmas movies sitting in my DVR, so I began to watch them after my kids went to bed. One of the movies I had saved was the fourth Christmas in Evergreen. I decided to read the Christmas in Evergreen trilogy by Nancy Naigle, before I started the movie. Here’s how it went.

*Warning: Christmas feels will commence starting…now!*

Christmas in Evergreen

The first book that started it all. Here is where we meet most of the cast of characters that are sprinkled throughout this series. Allie is a veterinarian for the small town of Evergreen, but not for long because she’s moving away to the big city to move in with her boyfriend! That is, until her grandfather’s red truck and the weather team up to keep her in Evergreen. Meanwhile, single dad Ryan and his daughter Zoe are just passing through, but are stuck due to the weather. They meet Allie, and decide to go back to Evergreen, right before CHRISTMAS!!

With this being a Hallmark movie and book, I think you can see where this is going. But the journey to get there? It’s just Hallmark perfection. I only wish that I would have been able to watch the movie while I was reading it. The side characters are entertaining (and remember who they are if you are proceeding with the series!) and I want to move to a small Vermont town every time I read books like this.

Christmas in Evergreen: Letters to Santa

This is the book where I have realized that Allie’s red truck is really the main character of all Evergreen books. We meet Lisa in this book/movie. Lisa is returning to Evergreen after years of being away, and discovers that the general store she used to love has closed and is due to be sold. To help the owner (none other than the ex-mayor!) sell it, she teams up with a contractor she met, Kevin, to spruce it up and show buyers what they can be getting. Along the way, she discovers an old Santa mailbox and a letter caught inside that may have been written by Kevin about his mom abandoning them!

While this one was not my favorite of the three, I did enjoy reading more about each of the characters throughout the town of Evergreen. Everytime you think the perfect Hallmark ending is about to happen, something different pops up and causes Kevin and Lisa to change course. Another Hallmark gem that brought me some Christmas cheer and had me excited to start book 3.

Christmas in Evergreen: Tidings of Joy

If you have read the previous 2 books, you will know of the lore of the snow globe that resides in the Kringle Kitchen. For it is a snow globe that grants Christmas Wishes, if you know what your heart truly desires. This is the book where the globe is BROKEN! It’s a whole side story and, not gonna lie – when the globe broke I thought the town may disappear off the map. Poor Hannah. She didn’t mean to drop it!

There’s also the main story of an author/journalist, Katie, who decides to take a trip to Evergreen to start writing her second novel. Instead, she gets caught up in the town’s festivities because a 50-year old time capsule is waiting to be discovered and opened! Naturally (because it would not be a Hallmark movie/book if she didn’t), she meets Ben. Ben is a born and raised Evergreen-ian, and he left for only a short amount of time to be a journalist in New York.

As with the other two books, Christmas traditions in the quaint small town make you wish that you could take a vacation and help decorate a tree or 5. Also, if you are longing for a Christmas feel-good moment any time of the year, this fits the bill very nicely!

Conclusion

You can’t go wrong with any of the Evergreen books when you need to fill yourself with Christmas cheer, romance and family/friendships galore. Nancy Naigle is amazing at capturing the same spirit you feel with the movies. I can only hope she is writing the fourth Evergreen book after the movie that just came out last December!