Many of us like to read, and when that special season comes around, Christmas, we pull out our books that have to do with that holiday. Perhaps we read them all year round, but they are sure to be more special if read in the season they are set in.
I'm sure all of you have your favorite Christmas book (I know I have several), and here and now is the place to share them.
There are the more classical books, like A Christmas Carol, by Charles Dickens, as well as more modern stories and books. Some even argue that books like Little Women and The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe are Christmas books.
So come and tell us, what are you favorite books to read during Christmas time, and what books would you recommend others to read
always be humble and kind
Less than two weeks until Christmas and I haven't read a single Christmas book. And with the way things are going it might be February before I do. Seriously! I will read them in February if I have to in order to be able to read them for this Christmas season.
But I do plan to read all of my favorites, The Pony Express Christmas by Sigmund Brouwer, One Shenandoah Winter by Davis Bunn, Sarah's Song by Karen Kingsbury, and of course The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe. That's not all of my favorites, just the ones I can think of right now.
SnowAngel
Christ is King.
I wondered when someone would create this thread!
I finished The Big Book of Christmas Mysteries (2013) last week. I highly recommend it. Here's my blurb in the 'books' thread. viewtopic.php?f=10&t=1804&p=285551#p285539
I also read Melody Carlson's Christmas at Harrington's (2010) a few weeks ago. I gave it 2 stars on Amazon. http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00B853W60/
I read a Christmas collection of Louisa May Alcott's stories back in July and I really liked it. It's a beautiful book too! http://www.amazon.com/Louisa-May-Alcott ... 589199502/
So far, the only Christmas-y book I've read this year is Angels in Harmony by Christa Kinde. It's a fun short story with characters from her Threshold series.
I've read most of the stories in that Louisa May Alcott collection, 220. I should dig out my copy and indulge while I'm waiting for the library to deliver Pony Express Christmas.
We have hands that fashion and heads that know,
But our hearts we lost - how long ago! -- G. K. Chesterton
@Meltintalle: I read a library copy of Alcott's book, so it isn't handy. But I did like the stories.
I finished reading Agatha Christie's Star over Bethlehem collection on my Kindle - poems, stories, etc. I'm surprised at how devout she seemed, at least in her fiction. Some of the selections were really nice, esp. the Bethlehem ones.
http://www.amazon.com/Star-over-Bethleh ... 06207430X/
I received Home for Christmas: Stories for Young and Old (2002) in the mail today. It has stories by Henry van Dyke, Pearl Buck, L'Engle, and more. I get free books from Handlebar Publishing if I review them online.
I typically read The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe around Christmas, and so I'm doing now. I'm reading it out of an omnibus edition (the type with the books all out of pub order ) because my old American version is just getting too frail to do that to. Mental note: Replace Maugrim with Fenris Ulf and Fire Stones on the Secret Hill with the World Ash Tree.
Kennel Keeper of Fenris Ulf
@Shadowlander: you read LWW every Christmas? Wow. I've read it 2-3 times in my life.
I finished reading Home for Christmas this morning and reviewed it online - 3 stars. If the stories had had more "spiritual integrity," according to the publisher's blurb, I would have given it 5 stars. http://artsandculturereviews.wordpress. ... christmas/
I also reviewed Answers in Genesis' The War on Christmas (2013), another publisher freebie, on my blog last month. http://artsandculturereviews.wordpress. ... tmas-wars/
Not every year, but when I can and have time. And this year I have a little time. My sister Liz gave me her Narnia set (my beloved yet fragile American edition) when I was 13 back in the mid-80's around Christmas, so each year it's become something of a tradition to read LWW around Christmas like I did back then.
Kennel Keeper of Fenris Ulf
Do children's books count? I love to reminisce with our copies of "The Crippled Lamb" by Max Lucado, and "The Nutcracker".
As far as adult books go I like a couple of those that have been mentioned so far (Little Women and LWW), but I haven't purposely read them at Christmas time. This year I'm re-reading/listening to the books in the A.D. Chronicles series that pertain to the Christmas story. The series is by Brock and Bodie Thoene, and books 4, 5, and 6 tell the story of Jesus' birth. They are pretty detailed writers, so I usually skip over some of the more gruesome parts.
Shadowlander: sounds like a nice Christmas tradition.