Joanna Franklin Bell:
Born, Baltimore, The United States.
American writer and blogger.
Genre: Fiction, Contemporary, Memoir.
But here I am in July, and why am I thinking about Christmas pudding? Probably because we always pine for what we don’t have. The winter seems cozy and romantic in the hell of summer, but hot beaches and sunlight are what we yearn for all winter.
The quote revolves around the well-known “grass is greener” principle: people always long for the season (or situation) they are not currently in. In the heat of summer, the narrator suddenly romanticizes the coziness of Christmas and winter — while that same person, in the middle of winter, actually craves warm beaches and sunlight. It is an ironic observation about human discontent: we rarely cherish what we have, but instead dream of the opposite. Consequently, on Goodreads, the quote is tagged with themes such as ‘contentment and attitude’ and ‘grass is greener’.
Origin:
It comes from the novel “Take a Load Off, Mona Jamborski” by Joanna Franklin Bell (also the author of “That Birds Would Sing” and “Muse”). The original English quote reads:
“But here I am in July, and why am I thinking about Christmas pudding? Probably because we always pine for what we do not have. The winter seems cozy and romantic in the hell of summer, but hot beaches and sunlight are what we yearn for all winter.”
It has since become a popular quote in lists of “July quotes” and summer/winter-related sayings on sites like Goodreads and various quote collections.
