When Christmas Comes (Hardcover)

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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Christmas travel calamities lead to cross-country romances in bestseller Macomber's latest, a treacly but well-told story that begins when widowed Washington State teacher Emily Springer engineers a house-swap with Boston history professor Charles Brewster in order to visit her daughter at Harvard. Too bad Heather Springer is heading to Florida with her new biker boyfriend, leaving Emily stranded in Brewster's "barren" Boston condo. Meanwhile, scroogey Brewster has discovered that Leavenworth, Wash., is Christmas central (er, he was hoping for the other Leavenworth—the prison town Leavenworth). How will he finish his book when all the kids want to take him sledding? Romance rides in on a sleigh of preposterous coincidence as Charles's brother, publishing executive Ray, goes to Boston to check up on Charles and ends up falling for Emily, and Emily's best friend, Faith, a Bay Area teacher, pays a surprise visit to Leavenworth and winds up snuggling with Charles. Despite the gooey romantic twists of fate, Macomber keeps the comic material light and lively, and it's hard not to root for her likable stock characters. The subplot about Heather's Florida adventure with biker-boy is slightly underdeveloped, and another festive romance feels like overkill. But readers looking for a holiday fairy tale will find plenty of reasons to cheer (even if they wish for an intermittent dose of reality).
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Widow Emily is looking forward to Christmas, when her daughter, Heather, comes home from Harvard to Leavenworth, Washington, an idyllic small town that goes all out for the holiday. When Emily finds out that Heather has no intention of spending Christmas with her, she calls her friend, Faith, for sympathy, then decides to surprise her daughter in Boston. No rooms are available, so she tries a Web site that exchanges houses. Emily trades her house for two weeks with an absentminded professor who hates Christmas and is on her way. Then Faith makes a surprise visit to Emily and is surprised instead. Heather leaves with a biker dude for Florida; Faith then hitches a ride with an acting troupe dressed as elves. Add a Pomeranian and a lobster, and hilarity ensues, as does romance in prolific Macomber's fast-paced, lighthearted, and charming Christmas story, a tale as joyful as the season itself. Maria Hatton
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 240 pages
• Publisher: Mira; First Printing edition (November 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0778320901
• ISBN-13: 978-0778320906
• Product Dimensions: 7.2 x 5.4 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #120,439 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Just in Time for the Holidays!, November 1, 2004

By	Nancy R. Katz "NancyK18" (NJ) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

If it's close to Thanksgiving, it's also the time of year when we find holiday themed books available. And this year Debbie Macomber has written one which I predict will be a classic. When Christmas Comes is the kind of book which will find you laughing out loud,, hugging to yourself when you finish it and hate to see end. It is also a wonderful example of a madcap adventure, the kind some of us remember from the days of Frank Capra and Billy Wilder movies.

Emily is heartbroken when her daughter Heather who attends Harvard tells her she's too busy with school to come home for Christmas. Emily who lives in Leavenworth, Washington can't imagine a Christmas without Heather since its only been the two of them since her husband Pete died ten years ago. Added to this is the fact that Leavenworth is one of those towns that does Christmas up in a big way and Emily worries that everything will remind her of her loneliness. Deciding to surprise Heather in Cambridge, Emily finds an internet site and decides to swap her house in Washington for one in the Boston area for the holidays.

The man Emily swaps houses with is Charles, a stuffy professor at Harvard who hates Christmas almost as much as Ebenezer Scrooge. Working crazy hours, sometimes fogettinggn to eat or leave his office at night, Charles is often bugged by his mother who bemoans the fact that her two sons are still single. The thought of constant phone calls from his mother in Arizona asking him what he's doing for the holidays, has him searching for a place to spen Christmas elsewhere far from any festivities or social enagagements. Thinking that Leavenworth is the area of the federal prison and that Christmas won't be a be a big deal, Charles reaches Emily on the Internet and the swap is planned. But what Charles failed to realize is that this swap is for a house in Leavenworth, Washington and not Kansas.

What ensues when Emily arrives in Boston and Charles arrives in Leavenworth had me laughing out loud as Charles realizes he's in Christmas town USA and Emily's daughter if off to Florida with her new motorcycle riding boyfriend. Addd to this story are two other people who change the course of thse holdiays. First there's faith, Emily's good friend who arrives with Santa and six elves to cheer her up. And then when Charles's mother calls him and a woman answers, she insists that Charles's workaholic brother Ray travel from New York to see that Charles isn't being held captive by a gold digging woman.

Previous to reading this book, I read Between Friends by Debbie macomber and loved both the theme and writing. I promised msyself that I would continue to read this author. It was my lcuky day when I saw this book, grabbed for it and gulped it down. Now I look forward to both the holidays and other good reads from an author I highly recommend. In the tradition of John Grisham's Skipping Christmas and David Baldacci's The Christmas Train, When Christmas Comes is a wonderful holdiay read and one which I look forward to rereading before the holidays again and again.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Heart-warming Christmas tale, December 10, 2004

By	booksforabuck "BooksForABuck.com" (Dallas) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

When her 21-year-old daughter announces she's too busy to come home for Christmas, mother Emily Springer decides to travel across the country to spend it with her. After all, the two have always spent Christmas together. She arranges to swap houses with a Harvard professor (Charles) who wants to escape the Christmas bustle and heads for Boston. But when she gets there, her daughter has other plans--plans that definitely don't involve having a mother tagging along. Abandoned in Boston, with no way to get home, Emily looks forward to the worst Christmas of her life. But Charles's mother, learning that a woman is staying in Charles's apartment, sends her other son, Ray, to investigate.

Knowing that she hurt her best friend Emily's feelings, teacher Faith Kerrigan flies to Emily's house for the holidays. But Emily is in Boston and Grinch-like Charles Brewster has replaced her. Only her stellar cooking keeps Charles from tossing her out into the cold.

Faith, Emily, Charles, and Ray all have bad experiences with Christmas--and have learned to expect to be alone. But this Christmas is different--a second chance for them to experience the magic of the season--and of love. Or will they simply go back to their ordinary lives, once the extraordinary events of Christmas have passed?

Author Debbie Macomber tells a dependably well-written and emotionally satisfying story and WHEN CHRISTMAS COMES is no exception. It's a fast read, without the complexity of some of Macomber's recent 'big' novels, but just the thing to cosy up to around a fire as the Christmas season unfolds around us. Whether you're a grinch yourself, or a Christmas adict, there's a lot to like in this charming, if predictable, tale.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Holiday Reading Tradition, November 6, 2004

By	Calico Cat Lover "Cathy" (Burbank, CA USA) - See all my reviews

In the last several years I have made it a habit to read author Debbie Macomber's newest Christmas book. Some people have described this years selection, WHEN CHRISTMAS COMES, as bland and sappy. I would not call this book bland by any means with all the great characters (main or otherwise) and situations that are involved. It isn't hard to picture in one's mind a Scrooge type man visiting a town (Leavenworth, WA) that he thought was a prision town (Leavenworth, KS) only to discover he's entered a Christmas village of sorts. Ms. Macomber left no detail out when describing this picturesque town.

As for sappy, this is a holiday tale. Christmas is the holiday that really brings people together and sometimes love is the result. Charles (Brewster), the Harvard professor, is an uptight man who concentrates only on his work and hates Christmas because he broke up with someone special at that time of year. His brother, Ray, is also someone who devotes all his time to work. He doesn't get into the holiday either. When they meet Faith and Emily, their lives are turned upside down. The blend of mixups (Emily going to Boston to visit (surprise) her daughter who is actually going out of town to Florida and Faith who decides to visit (surprise) Emily in Leavenworth and she not being there) and entertaining scenes (the escaped lobster that latched onto Emily on one pant leg and a small dog latched onto the other pant leg) made this a wonderful read that I can't wait to share with my daughter and others.

Thank you Debbie for a great time. I look forward to next year.