The Christmas Spirit by Debbie Macomber ~ a Review

by Susan Roberts

Two lifelong friends decide to trade places the week before Christmas and end up finding love along the way in this delightful novel.

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October 2022; Ballantine Books; 978-0593500101
audio, ebook, print (240 pages); holiday fiction

I don't read a lot of Christmas novels but I always make sure not to miss Debbie Macomber's yearly Christmas story.  As always, she provides her readers with a well-written story, likable characters, and a great Christmas lesson to remember.

Pete and Hank have been best friends since they were in school.  Even though they lead totally different lives, they get together for lunch at least once a month.  Both are stressed out over the demands of their jobs - Hank owns a neighborhood bar and Pete is a pastor at a local church.  One day at lunch, they decide to swap jobs for a few days -- each one thinks that the other will learn how hard their job really is compared to the other.  Each one thinks that they got the easier job in the swap but by the end of their swap, they have found out how difficult each job really is.  They find that there are a lot of similarities between the two jobs - both of them spend time to listening to and trying to help the people they come in contact with.  Pete starts off on the wrong foot at the bar -- he doesn't know how to fill a pitcher of beer so it isn't all foam and the local motorcycle group gives him a hard time.  Hank has to visit the elderly and get a donkey for the Christmas Eve nativity play among other issues.  The good news for both is that they finally find the woman they love during the swap and their lives are forever changed.

If you want a well-written reminder of the meaning of Christmas, this is a book that you don't want to miss.

Buy The Christmas Spirit at Amazon 

Susan Roberts grew up in Michigan but loves the laid-back life at her home in the Piedmont area of North Carolina where she is two hours from the beach to the east and the mountains in the west.  She reads almost anything but her favorite genres are Southern Fiction and Historical Fiction.  

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