Great introduction, lysander! (And excellent signature quote. It's among my favorites from Dickens).

I try to read A Christmas Carol each December. No matter how many TV and movie adaptations there are, and how much the ideas of Scrooge and Tiny Tim have affected our popular culture, there's nothing like reading the original. And it's short enough that even busy people can read it over the holiday season.

I'm embarrassed to admit I haven't read A Child's Christmas in Wales, even after our very own Cymru introduced me to the movie adaptation some years ago. Perhaps I should remedy that this year.

And in How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Dr. Seuss has managed to capture a wonderful sentiment (highlighted below) in just a few words in this children's book:

And the Grinch, with his grinch feet ice-cold in the snow,
Stood puzzling and puzzling. "How could it be so?

It came without ribbons! It came without tags!
It came without packages, boxes, or bags!"

He puzzled and puzzed till his puzzler was sore.
Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn't before.

Maybe Christmas, he thought, doesn't come from a store.
Maybe Christmas, perhaps, means a little bit more!

I'm not the sort of person who picks up books at a certain time of year. Ever.
But in the winter, during the holidays, I like big fat old classic books. Though I always like them. I love reading LotR in the winter.

What are your favorite Christmas-themed books?
The popular Christmas books in our house during the season is the Christmas In My Heart series by Joe Wheeler, The Night Before Christmas, and The Best Christmas Pageant Ever.

Are there any books you make sure you read every Christmas season?
We read The Best Christmas Pageant Ever every year. Also, there are two or three favorite stories from Joe Wheeler's books that we make sure to read at least one time during the holiday.

Do you pick up any of these books at other times of the year, or do you reserve them all for the month of December?
Nope! They are for December, and December only. It welcomes in the Christmas spirit.

Interesting, Elanor. Usually the beginning of Christmas break is the first time in a while that I'm able to read for pleasure, so what I reach for is largely dependent on what kind of a semester I've had, what my assigned readings have been. I've done the I've-got-to-gobble-up-a-bunch-of-classics-before-the-spring-semester thing before, but I feel that this break I'll probably just read a lot of fluff.

I do think I will read A Christmas Carol over Christmas week. Although it's one of my favorites, reading it is not a yearly tradition with me. In fact, I reread it for the first time in years in 2007 ... it's definitely time again! I will probably have to read it aloud to myself as I did then: otherwise my two years in a community theater production will rule the day and I will hear all my fellow cast members' voices in my head.

By the way, I came up with that little gallery of Christmas book covers by searching for the tag "Christmas" on LibraryThing.com. I'm not sure I would have thought immediately of The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey if it weren't for that ... but it's a lovely book, both in terms of the story and the illustrations. In fact, it may be my favorite Christmas picture book, although there's certainly a lot of competition!

I love A Christmas Carol, but my favorite of those is probably The Best Christmas Pageant Ever. It is absolutely hilarious! I try to read both of them every Christmas.

Please note that our Christmas Countdown threads will be closing on Monday, January 9...but never fear! We look forward to having them again next December.