MPR’s Greta Cunningham interviews author Lee Smith about using Christmas letters as an idea for creating a novel…with recipes, of course.

Little Janie is Valedictorian and Little Johnny is class President--we've all received them--the annual Christmas letter. According to the U. S. Postal Service--an extra 57-million letters and cards are sign, sealed and delivered EACH DAY in December. Lee Smith's new book "The Christmas Letters" uses these letters to trace the lives and deaths of three generations of a family, Lee Smith says she's fascinated by Christmas letters...as a matter of fact, has saved every Christmas letter she has ever received.