Christmas Classics

On That Night, by Elizabeth Yates

The townspeople have gathered for the traditional candlelight service. "…all shared the wonder of the time when, for a space, everything became new, transparent, beneficent. Here, for this hour, all was tender; here, because life was young and heaven-sent, there was hope."

Little Christmas, by Agnes Sligh Turnbull

Christmas has come and gone and Mrs. Greaves is left feeling rather empty and disappointed. Her family have all gone back to their everyday lives and she is left to remove the withered greens and decorations. How depressing! Until she realizes that this is Twelfth Night or Little Christmas and she begins again to make a Christmas the way it should have been.

Prairie Christmas, by Paul Engle

"It was a handmade Christmas. The tree came from down in the grove and on it were many paper ornaments made by my cousins… there were popcorn balls from corn planted on a sunny slope, paper horns with homemade candy, and apples from the orchard. The gifts tended to be hand-knit socks, or tiny crocheted yokes for nightgowns, tatted collars for blouses…" Tired of the frantic rush to buy that Christmas has become? This little book will show the reader another pattern for the joyous season.

Once in the Year, by Elizabeth Yates

For two thousand years legends have grown up surrounding the Christmas season. In this tale Yates blends two of those legends - the flowering of the forest and the animals talking at midnight - into a lovely story for parents and children.

…"And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn." The original Christmas Classics.

A Christmas Carol, by Charles Dickens

"Every idiot who goes about with 'Merry Christmas' on his lips should be boiled with his own pudding and buried with a stake of holly through his heart." First published in 1843, this supernatural story of an elderly man's redemption from his mean-spirited, miserly ways has engaged, enlightened, and delighted generations.

Miracle in the Wilderness, by Paul Gallico

In spite of the contention between the French, the Indians, and the British over which will control America, Jasper Adams has managed to keep his wilderness home and his genteel, European-born wife, Dorcas safe and sound until the morning of December 24, when an Indian raiding party surprises Dorcas while Jasper is from home.

Sister of the Angels, by Elizabeth Goudge

The reader first meets Henrietta and her family and the town of Torminster in The City of Bells. In this story Eleven-year-old Henrietta is delighted that her writer father Gabriel Ferranti is coming home for a long visit at Christmas. For Fans of Goudge here is a wonderful Christmas tale.

Old Christmas, by Washington Irving

Twenty-four years before Dickens wrote a Christmas Carol, Irving wrote these sketches of the English Victorian Christmas as observed by an American. The reader is treated to glimpses of hospitality on Christmas Eve at Bracebridge Hall, Christmas Day in the village, and dinner in the great hall complete with a Yule Log and mummers.

Christmas Every Day, by William Dean Howells

Wherever Christmas is celebrated and presents given, children have wished it would come every day. Here is a story written in 1892 telling what would happen if it did. It is a story guaranteed to horrify parents and make children think.

No Holly for Miss Quinn, by Miss Read

Miss Quinn is the highly efficient secretary to a businessman. She is terrifyingly competent and completely unsentimental about Christmas and intends to spend the Day in the blissful peace and quiet of her bachelor quarters. Then her brother phones to say that his wife has been rushed to hospital and can she come cope with the children. Secretly cursing, Miss Quinn sets out to do her duty.

The Fox at the Manger, by P.L. Travers

Before Barbara Robinson wrote The Best Christmas Pageant Ever Travers of Mary Poppins fame wrote this tale of three young boys in postwar London at Christmas time who are told the story of the fox who came to the manger to see the Christ Child, and defended to the other animals his right to be there and his gift for the child.

The Story of the Other Wise Man, by Henry Van Dyke

First published in 1895 this is the story of Artaban, the fourth Wise Man who, delayed and side-tracked by his compassion for humanity, fails to arrive in time to see the Christ Child at Bethlehem. Or is he side-tracked? See if you can read this one without a tear.