Hercule Poirot's CHRISTMAS

I hope you've had as much fun reading Hercule Poirot's CHRISTMAS as I did!!

Hercule Poirot's CHRISTMAS was the first book we've read in The Classics Community where I genuinely had a hard time deciding what to include as the novel treasure! I took two pages of notes while I was reading, idea upon idea, and in the end decided on something completely different because:

I knew I wanted it to be something fun and interactive.
I knew I wanted it to be a clue.
I knew I wanted to spark your curiosity.
I knew I wanted it to be something you could not figure out until the very end of the novel - just like the characters in the book.

A Bit O' Background

Before I began The Classics Community, I watched a LOT of unboxings on YouTube to get ideas for how to shape our monthly book box. One of them included small trinkets and envelopes that were opened on certain pages in the book and I KNEW that I wanted to do that at some point for you. How exciting that a Christmas mystery provided the perfect opportunity!

I truly hope you enjoyed the gamification that I added to this month's book box.

Now let's uncover the meaning behind the contents of December's book box:

1. Chocolate covered nuts

Every year around Christmas I lock myself in my bedroom to wrap all of the kids' gifts at one time. I usually have a Christmas movie playing in the background (something that does not require me to watch it because it is so familiar like While You Were Sleeping or National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation) and I always have chocolate covered nuts to fortify (and reward me) for the task at hand.

I hope you, too, enjoy this little treat sometime during the holiday season.

2. Hot Chocolate

I can't help it. It's Christmastime and in our house that has always meant hot chocolate season. Nothing beats a good cup of hot chocolate at some point during the season. I hope the weather cooperates at some point this holiday season to give you the most epic hot chocolate moment.

3. Postcard Painting

There are so many clues sprinkled throughout Hercule Poirot's CHRISTMAS that it is oh-so-easy to dismiss everything. In my mind, after page 210 I kept going back to Poirot's request for the painting with a perplexing head scratch. In the end, I wanted YOU to have that same perplexing head scratch as you read through the remaining 2 sections of the novel.

There was so much talk about how handsome a man Simeon Lee was in his youth, so I sought a portrait of the most fetchin' young man I could find on the internet. The product of my search was the handsome young man in the postcard that you opened after finishing Part 5.

I hope you used it as your bookmark while you read, seeing that face & studying those features. I asked you to use it as a bookmark because I wanted you to have many interactions with it as you finished the book, like Poirot did. And I wanted you to wonder about it, like the family did.

4. The Moustache

Were you surprised that Poirot ordered a false moustache and had it delivered to the estate? I wondered alongside the characters why he would do that, especially when his own real one was so fine a specimen of manly moustachery.

I thought it the cleverest of clues, though I did not figure it out until Poirot spelled it out at the end. He used it to hold up to the portrait of Simeon Lee to see what that face would look like covered in a moustache as singularly awesome as his own - just the thing that affirmed his suspicions as to the murderer's identity.

Brilliant, right?

So, the two novel treasures are complete head scratchers on their own - just like they were in the novel. Put them together and they provide the reader with a portrait of the murderer.

Did you figure out that they went together BEFORE the end of the novel? I'd love to hear what you thought about them, as well as the fun of opening novel treasures at important points in the story.

5. Jingle Bell

When I saw these, I knew immediately that I wanted you to hear that bell jingling when your box was delivered. I love jingle bells and usually wear one around my neck in December because they are just so cheery! I hope the unexpected addition of that to your December Book Box brought a smile to your face.

Happy Holidays!

Ericka