December approaches rapidly – I am in the middle of Christmas shopping, and there are no less than three evening meals out on the calendar. There is no escaping it – the run up to Christmas is underway. The German Christmas markets landed in Birmingham a couple of weeks ago which generally heralds the start of that Christmassy feeling in many around here. Now I enjoy Christmas as well as the next person, though I rather loathe the over commercialism – my house isn’t covered with lights – but despite living alone I do bother with a tree and love putting up my cards. Mine is a balanced non-religious, but traditional approach to Christmas I think.
Now in this run up to Christmas – but certainly in the final week before Christmas – I really rather like a Christmassy book – although I have struggled to find good ones in the past. Looking at online bookshops I see there are masses – but honestly they do look rather…umm how can I put this politely? Suffice to say they look as if they wouldn’t be really my thing. Now there are some books that I have read over the years that are great for cosying up with as the tree goes up, and the fire gets turned up.
Below is my list of books that I think are wonderful for Christmassy reading – however I am hoping to get some recommendations too – my dream is to find a host of things preferably published pre 1950 (my favourite era) that I can acquire for future Christmases (no more buying this year – honest!)
1. Ten days of Christmas by G B Stern – (1950) set in a country house a group of cousins and siblings decide to put on a play – a wonderful find that several of us over on the Librarything Virago group fell in love with a couple of years ago.
2. Christmas at Cold comfort farm – Stella Gibbons (1940) some short stories from the author of Cold Comfort Farm – only the first two are in any way Christmassy but I thoroughly enjoyed them.
3. A Proper family Christmas – Jane Gordon Cummings –(2008) something a bit lighter – – a lovely comforting read – this is a novel with some gentle festive laughs too and a marvellous cat – I fully intend to re-read it one year.
4. The Inn at the edge of the world – Alice Thomas Ellis – (1990) – this was a bit of a find a few years ago – I think I hadn’t expected much of it – but actually really liked it. A group of strangers gather at the inn of the title all wanting to escape Christmas. Therefore it isn’t actually that Christmassy – but still a good read.
5. Hercule Poirot’s Christmas – Agatha Christie (1938) – A family reunion, a blood curdling scream all set to a backdrop of a traditional Christmas Eve. And there is the lovely Poirot who plays a slightly more minor role in this – but obviously it’s the most important part. I last read this about five years ago – and I think I will re-read it this year.
6. A Christmas Carol – Charles Dickens – (1843) – well it obviously needs no introduction – is there anything more Christmassy? It is years since I read it – and although I am not planning on re-reading this year I’m sure I will one year.
I often go looking for Christmassy books about this time of year; one year I read Christmas Holiday by W Somerset Maugham (1939), such a great titIe and I excitedly took it away with me for the season – it turned out a good book but not at all Christmassy. I re-read Little Women at the end of the Christmas season last year – and despite its simpering, preachy tone – I still loved it. Whenever I hear or see any mention of Little Women I think of that memorable Christmassy opening to the novel.
“Christmas won’t be Christmas without any presents,” grumbled Jo, lying on the rug.
“It’s so dreadful to be poor!” sighed Meg, looking down at her old dress.
“I don’t think it’s fair for some girls to have plenty of pretty things, and other girls nothing at all,” added little Amy, with an injured sniff.
“We’ve got Father and Mother, and each other,” said Beth contentedly from her corner.”
Excitingly I have two more Christmassy books to read this year – two I haven’t read before – Christmas at High Rising – short stories by Angela Thirkell, and The Very Dead of Winter by the marvellous Mary Hocking (although not sure the later will be very Christmassy ). Now what I really need are plenty of recommendations for next year – or I shall have to keep re-reading the above. Please tell me about your favourite Christmas theme reads.
What will you be reading christmas week? something festive or something about anything but Christmas?
Elizabeth Goudge’s Pilgrim’s Inn (aka The Herb of Grace) has a marvelous Christmas-time finale, with a lovely description of a child’s (Caroline’s) delight in her first Christmas after the war, with lights shining through windows she has only seen blacked out, and little luxuries showing up in shop windows. This one should be easy to come by if you don’t already know it – it was one of Goudge’s most popular books and there are lots out there.
Margot Benary-Isbert’s books are lovely as well with their descriptions of wartime and post-war German Christmases, most notably in The Ark, Rowan Farm, and A Time to Love. I’ll be reading at least one of these this month.
This will be the first year in quite a few for us to be putting Christmas lights up; everybody has been mentioning that we need to do more of this sort of thing as we got rather out of the habit of it with the past 5 or 6 years hectic running about, caring for elderly, ailing parents, and being constantly on the road because of our daughter’s busy Christmas-time performance schedule – she was, until just lately, a member of a dance troupe. While we miss seeing her dance (and she dreadfully misses dancing), we are all enjoying the time at home!
This coming Christmas promises to be very different for us than usual, as my mother is now in an old age home, my husband is working five 12 hour shifts right through Christmas (the 23rd to the 27th) and our traditional German Christmas Eve celebration at my family home will be now a thing of memory only. Ah well, times change. There is plenty of good still in our world, and we are looking forward to seeing friends over the holiday, and having a peaceful time together in the week between Christmas and New Year.
Thank you for those recommendations – adding to my list for the future. Hope the season is kind to you and yours 🙂
I just read “Coming Home for Christmas” by Jenny Hale…lighthearted read. Every year I watch Love Actually, it’s my Christmas tradition 🙂 Merry Christmas in advance xx
A nice selection of books there, and many of them would be ones I would read at Christmas! There is always the “Christmas at Cold Comfort Farm” short story collection. Although only the title story is at the farm (and about Christmas!) the rest of the tales are good too. I think you can’t beat Little Woman and Christmas Carol myself!
Yes Christmas at Cold Comfort farm was good – although as I said I thought the first two stories were christmassy – though only one as you say set at the farm, a nice short story collection though.
The books I’d pull out as favourites are ‘Ten Days’ and Adalbert Stifter’s ‘Rock Crystal, but this year I think it will be ‘Christmas at High Rising’ and one of the Dickens’ Christmas specials that Hesperus has reissued. And I suspect that ‘The Virago Book Of Christmas’ might be coming off the shelf again.
I didn’t know there was a Virago book of Christmas – what is it? essays?
It’s a mixture – a few short pieces, a lot of extracts and one or two poems.
I usually like to take the opportunity of a few days off over Christmas to read something lovely and meaty – like Daniel Deronda last year, which seeped into the New Year and became my top read for 2013 (still unbeaten!). So, not a Christmassy book, but a good satisfying one I can have a proper go at. This year I have quite a few substantial books on my TBR, so I may well pick one of those off it … That’s a lovely list, though, and now I want the Virago Book of Christmas, too!
Yes you made me want to re-read Daniel Deronda. I was going to re-read Middlemarch in December too but not in right frame of mind now so probably won’t.
I’m in the anything but Christmas camp I’m afraid. It’s a combination of things, I think. Being brought up in a small corner shop by the time Christmas arrived we were all so tired and so sick of Christmas stock that all we wanted to do was sleep and never see anything to do with the ‘festive’ season again. Then I found working in schools where Christmas often began at the beginning of November was a sure way to want nothing more to do with it by the end of term. Both those experiences are well behind me, but they seem to have left their mark. However if you want another book with Christmas in it you could try Susan Cooper’s ‘The dark is Rising’. I know it’s children’s literature but it is superb.
Thanks for the recommendation – I can see how working in a corner shop would make you sick of it all pretty quickly 🙂
Ooh yes, didn’t I re-read The Dark is Rising with M last Christmas. Fab Christmas book. I can lend it to you …
I don’t do Easter Eggs either 😉
A good reminder! I got 10 Days at Christmas just after Christmas last year so I saved it for this year and Inn at the Edge of the World is on my TBR pile.
I’ll second the recommendation of Herb of Grace, too.
Oh I do hope you enjoy Tens days of Christmas 🙂
I have already started the Christmas reading. Light stuff at the moment, but I have just start A Christmas Carol as never read it before! I can’t wait for my two week holiday to indulge my reading!
Good choice! enjoy your Christmas reads 🙂
Not much into nostalgia but Christmas tradition is to watch Its a Wonderful Life. and Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. Great thing about Christmas is to open the books you have asked for and the surprises you have been given. Favourites are American crime and autobiographies…especially of popular contemporary figures. Nowadays I get tokens for a kindle and audible and store them up for download through the year. Great luxury. This year I am going to ask friends and family to give me recommendations so I can link the book with the giver.
So long since I watched A wonderful Life I can barely remember it.
The recommendations are a lovely idea 🙂
Ah, I was thinking about Maugham’s Christmas Holiday for this year as I picked up a copy at a sale last month. I guess the title will be Christmassy enough, even if the contents are not! 😉
Hope you enjoy it 🙂
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Just finished The Inn at the Edge of the World; what a superb novel. Thanks so much for recommending it on your list; I would have never found it otherwise. Already thinking about rereading it, it gave me so much to think about.
Yay so glad you enjoyed The Inn at the edge of the World – I must get hold of a copy to re-read one day too.
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