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Your favorite Christmas Books.

Cleopatra

Philosopher
C
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Mar 15, 2003
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When I was a kid I spent many of my Christmas holidays in Israel and I loved it.The reason why I loved Christmas in Israel so much is because my grandmother who had a very humaine attitude towards ideas, religions and people used to wake up my sister and me in the night of Christmas Eve, guide us to the roof of our house and show us the Star of Bethlehem that was supposing to rise above this tragic city. :)

She kept doing that even when we grew up and when I asked her how was it possible for her to do such things she smiled and she replied " Hey! Those people, Jesus, Mary and Josef, were Jews too".

It wasn't only the Star but during the holidays each evening and after dinner she gathered us and the other kids that lived in the vinyard and read us Christmas stories.

I have two favorites. " A Christmas Carol"( The Christmas of Scrooge) and of course " The Happy Prince" of Oscar Wilde that makes me cry every time I read it.

Last night I started reading Dicken's book.

What's your favorite Christmas book? I wonder if is there a popular Christmas book written by an American novelist. ( You see I am stuck to Dickens and Wilde).
 
You may laugh at this, but what I enjoy reading the most around Christmas time is the Mickey Mouse magazine, and any special Christmas editions of Walt Disney´s Pocket Book Comics. There are usually some heart-warming stories there each year.

My personal favorite is a rather old story where Huey, Dewey and Louie are trying to organize a big christmas party for the poorest neighbourhood in Duckburg. The German title is "Weihnachten für Kummersdorf", roughly "Christmas for Grief Village". It ends with Uncle Scrooge (more or less voluntarily) paying for the most lavish Christmas party Duckburg has ever seen.
 
Cleopatra said:
What's your favorite Christmas book? I wonder if is there a popular Christmas book written by an American novelist. ( You see I am stuck to Dickens and Wilde).
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I've posted this elsewhere on these boards but, since you ask... This isn't a book, but it's certainly American, about Christmas, and it's a true classic. It's also one of my favorite pieces of literature of any genre:

New York "Sun," September 21, 1897

We take pleasure in answering at once and thus prominently the communication below, expressing at the same time our gratification that its faithful author is numbered among the friends of The Sun.

Dear Editor: I am eight years old. Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus. Papa says "if you see it in The Sun it's so." Please tell me the truth, is there a Santa Claus?

Virginia O'Hanlon
115 West 95th Street.

Virginia, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehended by their little minds. All minds, Virginia, whether they be men's or children's are little. In this great universe of ours man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect, as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.

Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to our life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Virginias. There would be no childish faith then, no poetry, no romance, to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The eternal light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.

Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in fairies! You might get your papa to hire men to watch in all the chimneys on Christmas Eve to catch Santa Claus, but even if they did not see Santa Claus coming down, what would that prove? Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that's no proof that they are not there. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.

You may tear apart the baby's rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest men, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived, could tear apart. Only fancy, poetry, love, romance can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory behind. Is it all real? Ah, Virginia, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding.

No Santa Claus! Thank God! he lives and he lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay, ten times ten thousand years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.

/s/ Francis P. Church
 
Re: Re: Your favorite Christmas Books.

Beady said:
I've posted this elsewhere on these boards but, since you ask... This isn't a book, but it's certainly American, about Christmas, and it's a true classic. It's also one of my favorite pieces of literature of any genre:

New York "Sun," September 21, 1897

We take pleasure in answering at once and thus prominently the communication below, expressing at the same time our gratification that its faithful author is numbered among the friends of The Sun.

Dear Editor: I am eight years old. Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus. Papa says "if you see it in The Sun it's so." Please tell me the truth, is there a Santa Claus?

Virginia O'Hanlon
115 West 95th Street.
Click to expand...
I'm skeptical of the authenticy of Virgina's letter. As evidence, I would point to the phrase, "some of my little friends." Children usually don't refer to their friends as "little friends." That's a phrase adults use when referring to children's friends.

BTW, one of my favorite Christmas books is Thomas Hardy's Under The Greenwood Tree.
 
A Christmas Carol is good. I also like "Twas The Night Before Christmas".

'Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house
Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse;
The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,
In hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there;

The children were nestled all snug in their beds,
While visions of sugar-plums danced in their heads;
And mamma in her 'kerchief, and I in my cap,
Had just settled down for a long winter's nap,

When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter,
I sprang from the bed to see what was the matter.
Away to the window I flew like a flash,
Tore open the shutters and threw up the sash.

The moon on the breast of the new-fallen snow
Gave the lustre of mid-day to objects below,
When, what to my wondering eyes should appear,
But a miniature sleigh, and eight tiny reindeer,

With a little old driver, so lively and quick,
I knew in a moment it must be St. Nick.
More rapid than eagles his coursers they came,
And he whistled, and shouted, and called them by name;

"Now, DASHER! now, DANCER! now, PRANCER and VIXEN!
On, COMET! on CUPID! on, DONDER and BLITZEN!
To the top of the porch! to the top of the wall!
Now dash away! dash away! dash away all!"

As dry leaves that before the wild hurricane fly,
When they meet with an obstacle, mount to the sky,
So up to the house-top the coursers they flew,
With the sleigh full of toys, and St. Nicholas too.

And then, in a twinkling, I heard on the roof
The prancing and pawing of each little hoof.
As I drew in my hand, and was turning around,
Down the chimney St. Nicholas came with a bound.

He was dressed all in fur, from his head to his foot,
And his clothes were all tarnished with ashes and soot;
A bundle of toys he had flung on his back,
And he looked like a peddler just opening his pack.

His eyes -- how they twinkled! his dimples how merry!
His cheeks were like roses, his nose like a cherry!
His droll little mouth was drawn up like a bow,
And the beard of his chin was as white as the snow;

The stump of a pipe he held tight in his teeth,
And the smoke it encircled his head like a wreath;
He had a broad face and a little round belly,
That shook, when he laughed like a bowlful of jelly.

He was chubby and plump, a right jolly old elf,
And I laughed when I saw him, in spite of myself;
A wink of his eye and a twist of his head,
Soon gave me to know I had nothing to dread;

He spoke not a word, but went straight to his work,
And filled all the stockings; then turned with a jerk,
And laying his finger aside of his nose,
And giving a nod, up the chimney he rose;

He sprang to his sleigh, to his team gave a whistle,
And away they all flew like the down of a thistle.
But I heard him exclaim, ere he drove out of sight,
"HAPPY CHRISTMAS TO ALL, AND TO ALL A GOOD-NIGHT!"
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I don't know of a novel,but a well known Christmas-themed
short story by an American is The Gift of the Magi by
O.Henry.

I also like Dylan Thomas's A Child's Christmas in Wales
and,yeah Dr Suess's How The Grinch Stole Christmas .
 
Re: Re: Re: Your favorite Christmas Books.

Psi Baba said:
I'm skeptical of the authenticy of Virgina's letter. As evidence, I would point to the phrase, "some of my little friends." Children usually don't refer to their friends as "little friends." That's a phrase adults use when referring to children's friends.
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1st of all, it's a pretty minor quibble. In other words, "So what?"

2nd, your proposition is unscientific, since it can be neither tested nor falsified. It therefore enters the realm of faith, which is a hell of a framework for a skeptic to argue from.

3rd, someone apparently did some research a few years ago that did turn up an O'Hanlon family at that address. No, I can't give a reference; it was just one of those articles that turn up at this time of year.

4th, the use of the term "little friends," no matter how unlikely, is well within the realm of possibility. Even you say they don't use it "usually," which seems to indicate that even you admit that they do use it on occasion. Therefore, even you have to concede that she *could* have used it, and *might* have used it. That being the case, I have to consider your skepticism about Virginia's letter as having no substantial merit.

5th, it's neither necessary nor emotionally healthy to believe you have to personally debunk everything in this world.

6th, it would seem to be very bad manners to publicly attack, to no evident purpose, what you very well know to be someone's favorite piece of literature, which was posted in reply to a question which specifically solicited such responses.
 
Re: Re: Re: Your favorite Christmas Books.

Psi Baba said:
I'm skeptical of the authenticy of Virgina's letter. As evidence, I would point to the phrase, "some of my little friends." Children usually don't refer to their friends as "little friends." That's a phrase adults use when referring to children's friends.

BTW, one of my favorite Christmas books is Thomas Hardy's Under The Greenwood Tree.
Click to expand...

Is it me or is there something vaguely ironic about a skeptic questioning the existence or not of a child in a piece suggesting there's a problem in people being skeptical about Sanity Clause?
I mean it's in there somewhere, right?
:D :D :D
And BTW I let my kids use my 270 year-old grandfather clock as a "magic post box" for the grandkids to send their letters to Sanity. So I'm a hypocrite!
 
Re: Re: Re: Re: Your favorite Christmas Books.

tim said:
Is it me or is there something vaguely ironic about a skeptic questioning the existence or not of a child in a piece suggesting there's a problem in people being skeptical about Sanity Clause?
Click to expand...

The entire criticism struck me as not only gratuitous and mean-spirited (and very badly reasoned), but downright pointless, as well. Every piece of literature has a premise, and there is absolutely no rule that prohibits fiction from having a factual premise, nor nonfiction from having a fictional premise.

Even if it should turn out that there really was no Virginia O'Hanlon (and at this late date such a revelation is unlikely), or even if there were no real Frank Church (although his existence seems well-documented), the piece and its sentiment remain, and Psi Baba's attempts at deconstruction aren't going to change that.
 
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