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Here we are again, smack dab into another Christmas season. However, to be perfectly honest, in this home, the Christmas season runs from November 1st to January 1st-ish. My goal is to jam-pack the two months with Christmas music, lights, movies, food, and hopefully a blizzard. Getting my fill of the holiday to last me until the next November is focused work and pity the person who doesn’t like to wake up to Christmas carols in this household.
Music, movies, and food are ubiquitous during the holiday season, but what about Christmas stories? Yes, it’s probably difficult to slow down for a quiet activity like reading. But it’s another way to enjoy this special season if you’re able to take the time.
Everyone knows the story of the Nativity, A Christmas Carol, and “Twas the Night before Christmas.” As well known as the stories are, people seldom take the time to actually read them. But you should! Every Christmas season, I pull out my old and new favorites to enjoy and I notice something new every time I read one of them.
When you’re finished with the classic standbys, here are some more that you may not have read. Not only are they good stories for the whole family, but they’re inexpensive to buy. If you choose the digital versions, most of them are free!
Journey into Christmas. I found this copy last January at a used book store and saved it all year to read this Christmas. If you’ve never read any books written by Bess Streeter Aldrich, you’re in for a treat. This is a collection of a dozen of her Christmas-themed stories–old-fashioned vignettes of family and simple living. Some of the stories are excerpts from her longer novels but others are stand-alone short stories. I read “Youth is all of an Up and Coming” for the first time last night and the ending took me completely by surprise. Oh, the scandal!
Did you know that Charles Dickens wrote more Christmas stories than A Christmas Carol? I have this particular beast of a book that my husband bought me, but you can get a similar edition here. (And if you like the e-reader format, you can get the ebook here for a song.) The book includes The Chimes, which I have in a separate, antique edition titled Christmas Stories. I’ve started it several times, but this is the year I’ll read the whole thing, I’ve told myself.
Another of my favorite discoveries is this little ebook gem, called Evergreen Christmas Readings. Although I’d much prefer to read actual, physical copies of books, especially the old, hardbound, slightly musty kind, I’m glad to be able to read these old stories in any form and that they haven’t been lost to history. Anyway, this bargain has everything Christmas–stories, poems, and carols, all by classic authors. The collection includes authors I know, such as Harriet Beecher Stowe and Lousia May Alcott as well as many “new” authors of the past.
I even found a story in this collection that I’ve long looked for but didn’t know the title, which I’ve learned is called “Papa Panov’s Special Christmas” by Leo Tolstoy. (It was dramatized years ago by Moody Radio under the title “Where Love Is.”) It could take years to read through this collection, but that’s perfect. By the time you finish you can start all over again.
Here are a few other shorter vintage Christmas books I’ve discovered that you can find also digitally:
The Christmas Angel by Abbie Farwell Brown
On Christmas Day in the Evening by Grace S. Richmond
On Christmas Day in the Morning by Grace S. Richmond
Campion at Christmas: Four Holiday Stories by Margery Allingham
Christmas Stories by Lucy Maud Montgomery
A Merry Christmas: And Other Christmas Stories by Louisa May Alcott
Merry Christmas and happy reading!
1 Comment
I love Christmas stories. The one by Charles Dickens looks great. I did not know he had written more Christmas stories. This is such a peaceful time of year. Thank you for the story suggestions!