Christmas Books

[Petrushka]

I'm on the lookout for books or short stories set entirely at Christmas time for reading during the festive season but am having difficulty in locating anything more than the inevitable and much-loved A Christmas Carol and Hercule Poirot's Christmas. I read the latter in 1968 and can still remember whodunnit.

Any suggestions?

[umslopogaas]

I'm not convinced this this counts, since it is set "... on the second morning after Christmas, ..." but 'The Blue Carbuncle', one of the Sherlock Holmes short stories, might qualify? It concerns the finding of a goose, slaughtered for Christmas feasting, which before it died was fed with a famous and stolen gem, to hide it until the thief could recover it.

I am sure there is also a classic Russian short story about a wealthy and well-intentioned man who goes out on Christmas Eve to do good among the poor, but it all goes horribly wrong. I thought it might be Dostoevesky's ' A Nasty Story', but now I'm not sure, and life has become too too short to read Russian gloom.

[Flosshilde]

I'm on the lookout for books or short stories set entirely at Christmas time for reading during the festive season but am having difficulty in locating anything more than the inevitable and much-loved A Christmas Carol and Hercule Poirot's Christmas. I read the latter in 1968 and can still remember whodunnit.

Any suggestions?

Can't help, I'm afraid. When I read an Agatha Christie I usually forget who dunnit fairly quickly, which means that I can read them again (and again) & they still retain an element of surprise!

[antongould]

I have from somewhere the Folio Book of Christmas Crime Stories which I dip into each year. A different Christie/Poirot, Marsh, Dexter, Allingham, James and the like. I would recommend it if you can find it.

[Pabmusic]

Can I endorse Antongould's suggestion? There have been many anthologies of crime stories published over the years, and Christmas often figures large.

Modern (again, crime) novels include Frost at Christmas, the first Jack Frost novel by R D Wingfield. If you liked David Jason's TV portrayal, you'll be pleased with the book (the first couple predate the TV series) and realise just what a good bit of casting that was.

Then there's the 'Christmas' series by Anne Perry. She is a decent writer of historical - mainly Victorian-Edwardian - crime novels. The Christmas books are all very good and clearly written as seasonal spin-offs of the main series. Here's one of them:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/A-Christmas-Odyssey-Anne-Perry/dp/0755376900/ref=tmm_pap_title_0

There's at least four or five more.

There's a slight problem with Anne Perry, though, that might affect your decision. In 1954, aged 15 and called Juliet Hulme, she was convicted with her school friend Pauline Parker of murdering Parker's mother horrifically on a family picnic. It is still an infamous case in New Zealand (where it happened) and there was a disturbing film made of it, with Kate Winslet playing Hulme. It wasn't until only a few years ago that she was discovered to be the successful crime writer Anne Perry, living in Scotland.

[doversoul1]

A Child’ Christmas in Wales by Dylan Thomas. I always thought Edward Ardizzone’s illustrations was the best thing. Come to think of it, I remember this as a book and not so much as a story.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Childs-Christmas-Wales-Dylan-Thomas/dp/1858810116

Also, if you have a chance to go to a second hand bookshop, have a look at children’s section. You may find some of those old Christmas story collections. These stories remind you how Christmas felt like once upon a time.

[mercia]

I see there's an Oxford Book of Christmas Stories edited by Dennis Pepper, but I can't vouch for its contents
30 stories in 224 pages, so they won't be very long

http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Oxford-Book-Christmas-Stories/dp/0192782444/ref=pd_sim_b_2/277-0546124-7099304#_

I've just spent five minutes enjoying O. Henry's The Gift of the Magi

http://www.auburn.edu/~vestmon/Gift_of_the_Magi.html

[Nick Armstrong]

There's a slight problem with Anne Perry, though, that might affect your decision. In 1954, aged 15 and called Juliet Hulme, she was convicted with her school friend Pauline Parker of murdering Parker's mother horrifically on a family picnic. It is still an infamous case in New Zealand (where it happened) and there was a disturbing film made of it, with Kate Winslet playing Hulme. It wasn't until only a few years ago that she was discovered to be the successful crime writer Anne Perry, living in Scotland.

Blimey, that's a heck of an anecdote! I suppose one could conclude that her murder stories have a unique if lugubrious authority...

(I was going to add that she must write with conviction... but I thought better of it... )

[aeolium]

There are the other Dickens Christmas stories, such as The Cricket on the Hearth and The Haunted Man.

There's E T A Hoffmann's The Nutcracker and the Mouse King (and other tales) which was eventually used as the basis for the Tchaikovsky ballet.

Erich Kästner's The Flying Classroom, though a children's book, is the kind of children's book that is also for adults.

[Pabmusic]

Blimey, that's a heck of an anecdote! I suppose one could conclude that her murder stories have a unique if lugubrious authority...

(I was going to add that she must write with conviction... but I thought better of it... )

Apparently both now live in Scotland:

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10765998

[vinteuil]

There are the other Dickens Christmas stories, such as The Cricket on the Hearth and The Haunted Man.

.

... there are indeed lots of Dickens "Christmas Stories".

The enterprising publishing house Hesperus has brought out quite a few volumes of the works which Dickens produced with other collaborators - and many of these were for the Christmas editions of 'Household Words' and other Dickens periodicals. Among the Hesperus volumes, the following are specifically Christmas-focused -

The Seven Poor Travellers
The Holly Tree Inn
The Haunted House
Somebody's Luggage
Mrs Lirriper
Doctor Marigold's Prescription
A Round of Stories by the Christmas Fire
Another Round of Stories by the Christmas Fire

[aeolium]

Yes, Wilkie Collins was perhaps the best-known of those collaborators.

There is also Dickens' unfinished novel The Mystery of Edwin Drood - not a specifically Christmas work but one in which the mysterious event, the disappearance of Drood, takes place on Christmas Day.

[Richard Tarleton]

I've just spent five minutes enjoying O. Henry's The Gift of the Magi
http://www.auburn.edu/~vestmon/Gift_of_the_Magi.html

And if you can manage the Brooklyn accents, Damon Runyon's Dancing Dan's Christmas. One of my very favourite Damon Runyon stories is not set at Christmas but does involve eating turkey, in fact it's about an eating contest, A Piece of Pie.

[Extended Play]

It's interesting that so many of the suggestions above are crime stories. What is it about the "festive" season that evokes darker instincts, alongside the mandatory peace and goodwill? Are we trying to hide from something.....?

Petrushka, you asked for books or short stories set entirely at Christmas time -- so apologies for bending your rules. Do you think there might also be other books that feel just right to be read at that season? For example, I'd endorse wholeheartedly aeolium's recommendation of Edwin Drood -- it has long been one of my favourite books for that time of year.

I tend to "stockpile" books months in advance specifically for Christmas reading: the anticipation is part of the pleasure. A couple of years ago, they included the ghost stories of MR James. Last year, The Nine Tailors by Dorothy L Sayers -- IMHO, a magnificent novel that's much more than just another "Lord Peter Wimsey mystery". And not hugely off-topic, either -- it starts on a snowy New Year's eve: the snow that had fallen all day gave back a glimmering greyness to a sky like lead.

Anyway, whatever you choose: good reading!

[Petrushka]

Thanks for suggestions so far. Some I know, some I've read, one or two new to me.

It's not lost on me that so many Christmas books are centred on crime or the supernatural and I was wondering why this is so...

The Dickens Christmas Stories as mentioned by Vinteuil are in my complete Dickens as, of course, is Edwin Drood. Will look at them again.