I’ve begun my annual Christmas re-read of Josie Silver’s One Day in December, and I’m thrilled to share it’s as delightful as when I first read it back in 2018.

I know what you’re thinking…

“Christa, I’ve seen your TBR. How could you possibly re-read the same novel year after year when there are so many books you haven’t read for the first time?”

Fair point, but let me explain.

In the same way listening to A Charlie Brown Christmas instantly puts me in a holiday frame of mind, this book does the same. It instantly transports me to that December in 2002 when I acquired my first stamp on my passport.

Back in the good ol’ days where glossy print magazines thrived, I traveled across the pond to London to interview a Brit band for a cover story. It was one of those defining life experiences, solo travel to a city and country I had always dreamed about. At Christmas.

My shoebox hotel may have lacked an elevator, but as I schlepped my overstuffed suitcase up four floors, I couldn’t have been happier. Over the course of seven days, I conducted my interviews, remembered to Mind the Gap whenever I entered or exited the Tube, and successfully tracked down the house with the blue door from Notting Hill.

But the images that linger most in my memory are the walks I took, gingerbread latte in hand, as I joined the shoppers on Oxford Street, marveled at the candy-colored houses on Portobello Road (I landed on the pink one for my future residence, ha ha), and eventually found Baker Street and Abbey Road and Harrods.

It snowed lightly, giving my strolls the feeling of being trapped in a snow globe, as I reveled in the bright lights of Christmas everywhere. London wasn’t a city that skimped on holiday cheer, and I loved every bit of it.

Which brings me back to the book.

The hopeless romantic in me could relate to Laurie’s search for the man she was in love with for exactly one minute. If you haven’t read One Day in December already I won’t spoil it.

But the longing, the way the author makes you feel like part of the story, the twists and turns and twinkling lights, it’s a highlight every December.