Introduction
The idea for a "Holiday Fiction" issue came from my hunch that
holidays are enormously important. It’s probably not fashionable in
literary settings to express this opinion. At best, we view holidays as
something from our childhoods¾ wearing green
on St. Patrick’s Day or cutting out construction paper turkeys in
elementary school. At worst, we rail against the Hallmark-ification of
our culture, the very invention of holidays in order to sell trinkets
and decorations and greeting cards. I understand the point of view that
says, "You should tell your loved one that you love them every day, not
just Valentine’s Day." Or: "People have lost the ‘true’ spiritual
meaning of Christmas in favor of mall Santas and shopping binges at Toys
R Us." And yet at the same time, my feeling is that these industries
could do worse than make us celebrate with loved ones, and I find myself
wondering, what’s wrong with a mall Santa?
For the last couple of years I’ve been in a long distance
relationship in which holidays are the only times when we can visit to
each other. He comes to Mississippi for Christmas, Thanksgiving, and New
Year’s; I go to Texas for Halloween, Mardi Gras and Easter. When we’re
together, we make a big deal about these holiday moments. We eat Easter
Peeps and buy turkey-shaped cookies and watch television as the ball
drops in Times Square. In between, on holidays like Valentine’s Day,
we’re still apart and instead must send elaborate packages of tissue
paper and homemade cards and candy and hearts, making sure that these
arrive exactly on the fourteenth¾ as if to
make up for not being able to have dinner reservations like a normal
couple. This experience made me interested in the way that holidays can
mark important times, revealing our relationships and cultures and
beliefs.
The stories in this issue take up the different meanings of the
holidays in our lives. We see the ways that the religious and cultural
meanings of a holiday can impact and even illuminate a character’s
emotional state and situation. The ways that a holiday can make a person
reflect on romantic and family relationships, revealing inner
obsessions. Two stories span a lifetime of holidays¾
Rosh Hashanah and Christmas¾ marking changes
in the narrators’ lives by showing them every year on the same holiday.
We’ve got representations of traditions¾
scrubbing feet, giving candy to children, throwing barbecues, visiting
graves, buying flowers and werewolf masks, making gypsy costumes,
watching fireworks and A Charlie Brown Christmas. In one story,
we even see the savagery of the holidays, the ritual slaughter and
feasting that goes along with celebration. And sometimes the holiday
takes a secondary role as a character simply goes about his or her life,
Fourth of July fireworks exploding quietly in the background.
I thank all of the contributors to this issue for writing these
stories. It would be very easy to slip into the cranky or sentimental or
overly-symbolic, but these stories speak to the more complicated ways
that we experience the holidays. I also thank all of the contributors
who sent me stories that centered on just about every holiday, including
some I’ve never heard about. Thank you for sharing your work with me.