'TIS THE SEASON BOOK TAG

Deck the halls with boughs of holly!

Welcome to 2015, fellow book addicts readers! And welcome to our first tag in the new year. If Christmastime in the book community had a bucket-list, doing a winter-inspired tag would be about the only item left unchecked for us this season. And thanks to Richard over on BookTube, we're about to check it off our lists and move on to new achievements. We haven't been tagged by anyone, but we have read enough dystopian novels to have a comprehensive know-how as far as breaking the rules goes. It's more or less something like this...

1. Do you have a favorite winter read?

Natalie: I don't have one that I read every year but I do like books that involve snow or anything Christmassy. Usually ones like Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone or The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe. I don't re-read very often so I usually try and find a new Christmas book every year, something short, light and festive.

Lexie: Every year around Christmas, I re-read Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Most people have a Hogwarts Christmas in mind when they mention Harry Potter in conjunction with the holiday season, but personally I never experienced a more touching Christmas than that I experienced through Harry and Hermione, in Godric's Hollow in the final book. It was a small reprieve, a hallowed moment in the midst of the terror the characters faced in that final book, and that's more precious to me than all of the Christmas books combined. But I also must give an honorable mention to A Christmas Carol, a classic I never skip over during the holiday season.

2. Find a book with blue on the cover!

Lexie: For reasons unknown, most of my favorite books (and most of my favorite book covers) are blue, so this wasn't so much a challenge to find as it was to narrow down to just one. In the end, I went with a longterm favorite.

Natalie: It has to be a Colleen Hoover book. I don't have this edition because I have the UK version, but if I am in America in the future, I wouldn't mind getting myself a copy with this gorgeous cover. 

3. Find a book you’d use as the star on a Christmas tree!

Natalie: I think this cover of The One is lovely! You could use this book as she could bet the angel on top of the tree.

Lexie: My pick would be The Archived, in all its splendor. Besides, it's blue, so it's wintery. Sort of. It counts. I only wish I could show how beautiful it is on the inside as well as the outside. It's a visually stunning book (not to mention the stunning content).

4. Pick one fictional place that would be perfect for a winter vacation!

Lexie: Hogwarts. I don't think there's any need to elaborate.

Natalie: I'd also pick Hogwarts or Narnia. That would be magical, without the White Witch, of course. 

5. Pick one fictional character you’d take with you on your winter vacation! 

Natalie: Ahem... Kellan Kyle. We could escape somewhere and snuggle up in a cabin by a fireplace. If I can't because well, Kiera wouldn't be happy, I wouldn't mind going with someone magical like Harry Potter. All the possibilities with a wand! That sounds wrong...

Lexie: I'd be lying if I said it didn't make me laugh. :) As for who I'd bring, this was the toughest call of all the questions in this tag. I think I might like to spend a winter with Gansey from The Raven Cycle. With boys of Gansey's descent, skiing in some prominent winter retreat is almost a rite of passage, so I bet he'd be good at it. And I wouldn't mind joining him on the slopes. Not to mention we both have quite a love affair with nature. 

6. Name one book on your wish list this year!

Lexie: Thanks to my incredibly generous friends with a book-buying problem, I've received quite a few books from my wishlist this year. But if I had to name one, it would have to be The Daughter of Smoke and Bone, one of my favorite trilogies which I still don't own in physical form. As for unread books, it would have to be Libba Bray's Gemma Doyle series - A Great And Terrible Beauty in particular, as the first book in that series.

Natalie: I have so many! I have a lot to be bought for my bookshelf that I have read, like the Unearthly series and the Percy Jackson series. There's also many that I added that are out in 2015 which include Thoughtful and pretty much every Colleen Hoover book.

7. Favorite holiday drink, treat, & movie?

Natalie: Tea. I can drink tea forever. I do drink hot chocolate a lot in the winter too, especially mint hot chocolate. For a festive treat, I love mince pies so I'll say that. And a movie, I have to watch Muppet Christmas Carol and Home Alone every year. It's a tradition. 

Lexie: I'm tempted to say hot chocolate, because that's definitely a winter-time beverage. But if we're being honest, it's coffee. It always comes down to coffee. I'm 10% blood, 90% caffeine. As for a treat, this holiday I've been in a chocolatey mood, so I'm going with chocolate rum balls. As for a holiday movie, apart from the obvious (the Harry Potters) I love Home Alone and Love, Actually. It's a tie.

And thus ends our first (rebellious) tag of 2015. We like to think it set a precedent for many tags to come. We may be too emotionally fragile to delve into The Book Thief, but where tag thieving is concerned, we're top notch. If you wish to do this with us, consider yourself tagged. Or consider yourself a rebel and do it without incentive, whichever you prefer. You can find us on Twitter, Instagram or Facebook and share. We'd love to check your answers out. We officially tag Christy at TheReaderBee, and Sabrina and Samantha over at iheartyafiction.

So set new challenges, meet new goals, thumb through hundreds and thousands of new pages and in the end, enjoy a myriad of different lives you'll be experiencing in your 2015 reads. We wish you a very, very merry Christmas and a happy New Year! Love from Natalie and Lexie.