Jane Christmas
{{short description|Canadian travel writer|bot=PearBOT 5}}
{{Infobox writer
| name = Jane Christmas
| birth_name = Jane Elizabeth Grimshaw
| image =
| birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1954|1|22|df=y}}
| birth_place = Hamilton, Ontario
| education = Bachelor of Arts
| alma_mater = Carleton University, Ottawa
| death_date =
| death_place =
| occupation = Writer
| period = 1990s-present
| nationality = Canadian
| notableworks = And Then There Were Nuns;
What the Psychic told the Pilgrim;
Open House: A Life in Thirty Two Moves
}}
Jane Christmas (born 1954) is a Canadian writer from Hamilton, currently based in the UK,Joe O'Connor, "[https://www.newspapers.com/clip/99468985/jane-christmas/ The Visiting Nun; Former journalist and publicist Jane Christmas shed her old trappings for the cloistered world of a nun, called by a calming, persistent voice]". National Post, September 14, 2013. who was twice a nominee for the Stephen Leacock Award.
Early life
Christmas was born and raised in Toronto, but spent much of her life in Hamilton, Ontario.{{Cite news |last=Crawford |first=Trish |date=2009-09-18 |title=Mother and child reunion - sort of |language=en-CA |work=The Toronto Star |url=https://www.thestar.com/life/2009/09/18/mother_and_child_reunion__sort_of.html |access-date=2022-04-13 |issn=0319-0781}}
Career
Christmas had a career as a newspaper editor and journalist, and later as a public relations manager in the public sector, before devoting her time exclusively to writing.
She was a finalist for the Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal for Humour in 2014 for And Then There Were Nuns,"Conall's hippies in C.B. tale wins Leacock award; Book's humour, insight lauded". Halifax Chronicle-Herald, May 30, 2014. which chronicles a year she spent in various convents while deciding whether to marry for a third time or to take up a vocation as an Anglican nun.; and was long-listed for the same award in 2021 for Open House: A Life in Thirty Two Moves.{{Cite news |last=Armstrong |first=Bob |date=2021-05-01 |title=Leacock medal long list loaded with laughs |language=en-CA |work=Winnipeg Free Press |url=https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/arts-and-life/entertainment/books/leacock-medal-long-list-loaded-with-laughs-574328952.html |access-date=2022-04-13}}
She has published five books of what has been categorized as travel writing but of which she prefers to call journey memoir. She was co-author of A Journey Just Begun (2015) with the Sisterhood of St. John the Divine in Toronto.
In 2025, she self-published her first novel A Flight of Saints, using the pseudonym Elizabeth Braithwaite.
= Selected publications =
- The Pelee Project: One Woman's Escape from Urban Madness (2002)John Laycock, "[https://www.newspapers.com/clip/99469957/jane-christmas/ Lens focuses on Pelee]". Windsor Star, November 1, 2002.
- What the Psychic Told the Pilgrim: A Midlife Misadventure on Spain's Camino de Santiago de Compostela (2007)Sarah Treleaven, "[https://www.newspapers.com/clip/99470442/jane-christmas-1/ Midlife passages; Like pilgrim-author Jane Christmas, many middle- aged women are abandoning their comfort zone to travel solo]" (and [https://www.newspapers.com/clip/99470599/jane-christmas-2/ page 2]). Ottawa Citizen, December 9, 2007.
- Incontinent on the Continent: My Mother, Her Walker, and Our Grand Tour of Italy (2009)Gale Zoë Garnett, "Incontinent on the Continent: My Mother, Her Walker, and Our Grand Tour of Italy, by Jane Christmas". The Globe and Mail, October 1, 2009.
- And Then There Were Nuns: Adventures in a Cloistered Life (2013)
- Open House: A Life in Thirty-two Moves (2020)"Jane Christmas's new book explores a life on the move: For some people, even the thought of moving is hell. For this author, moving is an adventure". Hamilton Spectator, December 17, 2020.
- A Flight of Saints (2025) janechristmas.ca
Personal life
Christmas is a founding member of the Hamilton Civic League, and she remained in the city for more than 20 years. She currently lives in England.{{Cite news |date=7 April 2020 |title=Here are all the #CanadaPerforms literary events that happened online |work=CBC |url=https://www.cbc.ca/books/here-are-all-the-canadaperforms-literary-events-that-happened-online-1.5525329}}
In 2011, she was accepted as an associate with the Canadian Anglican religious community, the Sisterhood of St. John the Divine.Sarah Hampson, "'I found great solace'". The Globe and Mail, September 13, 2013.
References
{{reflist|2}}
External links
- [http://www.janechristmas.ca/ Jane Christmas Official Website]
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Christmas, Jane}}
Category:Canadian travel writers
Category:Canadian women journalists
Category:Carleton University alumni
Category:The Globe and Mail people
Category:21st-century Canadian women writers
Category:Canadian women memoirists