Christmas Stories (2)

An Oxford Book of Christmas Stories includes both traditional and modern tales, and the illustrations are evocative and lush. These are stories for grown ups to enjoy and to read with children.

Some of the titles will give you an idea: “Burper and the Magic Lamp,” by Robert Leeson. “Ghost Alarm,” by Nicholas Fisk. “The Anarchist’s Pudding,” by Geraldine McCaughrean. Mr. Pickwick’s adventure sliding on the ice is included as well.

How about an opening to whet the appetite: “Jeremy James first met Father Christmas one Saturday morning in a big shop. He was a little surprised to see him there, because it was soon going to be Christmas, and Jeremy James thought Santa Claus really ought to be somewhere in the North Pole filling sacks with presents and feeding his reindeer” — from “Father Christmas and Father Christmas,” by David Henry Wilson.

Several of the stories have sinister or macabre twists, and the Christmas ghost story is a classic form, thanks to Charles Dickens.

Stories by Paul Auster, Ann Beattie, Ray Bradbury, Italo Calvino, Annie Dillard, Patricia Highsmith, Jane Smiley and others are included in A Literary Christmas, Great Contemporary Christmas Stories, a collection from the Atlantic Monthly Press. These are stories for avid readers and for those who want to sample the work of some of the most interesting writers of our time. Some entries are excerpts from previous works, and some are topical short stories. A great read for the Christmas season.

For stories in song, The Penguin Book of Christmas Carols is very handy. It includes all the verses of fifty Christmas carols as well as the music, and it’s small enough to slip into a handbag on the way to Midnight Mass or Christmas service. The carols are from throughout Europe, some dating as far back as the Middle Ages. The book includes a brief history of each carol and an introduction with a short history of Christmas caroling, as well as notes on the carols in performance. Like all Penguin Books, it’s a fantastic bargain.

And don’t forget, there are many editions of A Christmas Carol available, from economy paperbacks to lushly illustrated coffee table versions. The movies are fun, especially the musical, Scrooge, with Albert Finney in the title role; but reading the story with your family or friends is a wonderful way to spend Christmas Eve.

Speaking of the movies, let me put in a vote for the oldie with Alistair Simm as Scrooge. Yes, it’s in black and white. But Simm is such a wonderful Scrooge, and he looks like such a jovial granddad, this is a perfect version for children. The Ghost of Christmas Future is really scary, too, which the kids really like!

©2007, RK Silipo. All rights reserved.

Christmas – Homemade Fun with Children

When I was growing up, we took tremendous delight in decorating the Christmas tree. We had some beautiful old glass ornaments, and my dad one year went out and bought these bubble lights. The were shaped like candles in a holder, and the colored water in them boiled when they had been on for a while. Mama thought they were cheap looking but I loved them. (Well, I was only three a the time he bought them.)

But the most fun was making decorations for the tree. We went way beyond stringing popcorn and cranberries, and making paper chains. We cut out 3-D paper ornaments, made spirals and stars and all sorts of intricately cut chains of snowflakes. We never had books for this; my mother just knew how to do all this stuff.

When I decided to do some of these things with my god-daughter, I couldn’t remember how most of the things worked. So I started looking for how-to books (which led to collecting books about Christmas, but that’s another story). The vexing thing was that usually there was one really great thing in a book, and the rest wasn’t very inspiring. But I did find some good ones eventually.

Creative Christmas Crafts, by Alison Wormleighton (Consultant Editor), published by Running Press, is great because it has projects from the simplest, which even young children can do, to more sophisticated decorations that involve sewing, baking and other skills with which children would need help. It’s a particularly handy book because of the templates at the back, and because it begins by giving you a list of things for a General Workbox. There’s also a list for a Sewing Workbox. Then for each decoration, there’s a list of things you need right at the beginning. The photography is excellent in this book, really showing you the skills described in the text.

For a fabulous book to look at as well as use, I can’t recommend any book more highly than Miller’s Traditional English Christmas, by Judith and Martin Miller. The photos are atmospheric, and the decorations to be made from its instructions are gorgeous. Some are fairly simple (dried citrus rings, cut-out stars, sea shells strung on gold cord) but many are more opulent and challenging to fashion. This book has many pictures and instructions on house decorations for your mantelpiece, Christmas table, entry hall and other rooms as well. The instructions are good because they give you opportunities to scale up or down, and they show you how to use everyday objects in gorgeous decorating that results in a real-life still life. There are also plenty of recipes for a children’s Christmas party and edible tree decorations, and chapters on lovely home made gifts and gift wrapping.

And of course there’s Martha Stewart. She has published several Christmas craft books, and many of the projects are repeated in them. They are all good, however, because the instructions are detailed and the photographs instructional. I suggest you browse them in a book shop and buy the one that appeals to you the most. I have several of them because I collect books about Christmas, but the average person really only needs one. And, as always with Martha Stewart’s work, these books are gorgeous to look at.

©2007, RK Silipo. All rights reserved.

Christmas stories

One of the best Christmas stories I’ve ever read is No Holly for Miss Quinn, by Miss Read. She wrote two series of novels about English village life, and three novels about life in a small English market town from the turn of the 20th century through the post-WWII period.

I love this book especially for a particular moment during Christmas dinner, when the young boy has a sudden realization about the nature of Father Christmas and in that realization passes from childhood into the world of grown-up secrets.

No Holly for Miss Quinn speaks especially for women who are happily single and enjoy their lives to the full. But it also speaks for the child on the verge of growing up; and for the person who has lonely Christmases; and the person who has too much family at Christmas.

Miss Read, whose real name was Dora Saint, wrote beautifully, especially in her descriptions of nature–the changes of seasons, the activities of birds and animals and the way children interact with the natural world. She also had great insight into the urge to simplify our lives, to leave some of the unnecessary impedimenta behind.

As far as I know, this book is still available in Penguin Books. It’s a quick, happy read.

I hope others will share their favourite Christmas books or stories in the comments box.

©2007, RK Silipo. All rights reserved.