Literally covered. There can't be enough snow. Or tinsel. "You think that's enough tinsel?" said my editor. "WRONG. Go back and put some more in."
I can see the sense in this. Christmas is a once-a-year thing. You can't repeat it in January if you feel you didn't get it quite right; you have to wait twelve months. The less-is-more school of thought dominates when you have twenty to lunch and you have to turn your tired house into an enchanted grotto. So up goes a gaudy tree, paper chains snake across the ceiling, fake snow is sprayed on the windows (in case the weather didn't get the memo) and it's time to search out those novelty hand towels for the downstairs loo.
Writing a Christmas novel is a little like that. You take an ordinary scene and fling glitter at it. All emotions are heightened. The likelihood of romance shoots through the roof. And everybody looks better in that special lighting provided by snow.
Snowed in for Christmas by Claire Sandy is out on 19th November. Published by Pan Macmillan ISBN 1447299299. View at Amazon.