Christmas Stories (X-Mas)

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Over the years, Christmas has inspired many authors to write about its spirit and significance. The spirit that embodies charity, forgiveness, friendship, unselfish love and generosity. In the stories that follow, you will find many examples of what makes the Christmas Spirit so unique and special. Though most of these stories have been written for children, readers of all ages will enjoy these skillfully told tales.

1. The Little Match Girl – Hans Christian Anderson

Hans Christian Andersen (April 2, 1805 – August 4, 1875) was a Danish author and poet noted for his children’s stories. During his lifetime he was acclaimed for having delighted children worldwide, and was feted by royalty. His poetry and stories have been translated into more than 150 languages. They have inspired motion pictures, plays, ballets, and animated films. Originally published as part of Andersen’s fifth volume of Fairy Tales in 1848, The Little Match Girl is an original Andersen story inspired by a Johan Thomas Lundbye drawing and loosely based on an incident that happened to Andersen’s mother when she was a child. Written nine years after Andersen’s friend and colleague Charles Dickens finished Oliver Twist, The Little Match Girl shed a light on a very oppressed and silent group in Europe — its children.

2. A Christmas Carol – Charles Dickens

A Christmas Carol is a novella by English author Charles Dickens first released on 19 December 1843. The story tells of sour and stingy Ebenezer Scrooge’s ideological, ethical, and emotional transformation after the supernatural visitations of Jacob Marley and the Ghosts of Christmases Past, Present, and Yet to Come. The novella met with instant success and critical acclaim. With A Christmas Carol, Dickens hoped to illustrate how self-serving, insensitive people can be converted into charitable, caring, and socially conscious members of society. With each Ghost’s tale functioning as a parable, A Christmas Carol advances the Christian moral ideals associated with Christmas—generosity, kindness, and universal love for your community.

3. The Gift of the Magi – O. Henry

O. Henry was the pseudonym of the American writer William Sydney Porter (September 11, 1862 – June 5, 1910). O. Henry’s short stories are well known for their wit, wordplay, warm characterization and clever twist endings. The Gift of the Magi is one of O. Henry’s most famous stories. The story contains many of the elements for which O. Henry is widely known, including poor, working-class characters, a humorous tone, realistic detail, and a surprise ending. A major reason given for its enduring appeal is its affirmation of unselfish love. Such love, the story and its title suggest, is like the gifts given by the wise men, called the Magi, who brought gold, frankincense, and myrrh to the newborn Jesus.

4. Papa Panov’s Special Christmas – Leo Tolstoy

Leo Tolstoy, or Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy (September 9 1828 – November 20 1910), was a Russian writer widely regarded as among the greatest of novelists. Tolstoy’s further talents as essayist, dramatist, and educational reformer made him the most influential member of the aristocratic Tolstoy family. Papa Panov’s Special Christmas was originally written in French by Ruben Saillens, and then translated into English by Tolstoy. This is a very thoughtful story, based on the Bible text ‘I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me water’ which Jesus used to make us understand how we should serve him by serving each other. The story of Papa Panov is an excellent way to introduce young chldren to the principles of kindness.

5. A Letter From Santa Claus – Mark Twain

Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910), well known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American author and humorist. Twain is noted for his novels Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, which has been called “the Great American Novel”, and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. Twain was a friend to presidents, artists, industrialists, and European royalty. His elder daughter, Suzy Clemens, was born in Elmira, New York, and lived a short life, dying at the age of 23 from meningitis. In childhood, Suzy often had poor health, similar to her mother. At 13, she wrote a biography of her father, which was included as par of Twain’s Chapters From My Autobiography. Mark Twain wrote a letter to his daughter, which he sent from Santa Claus, during one of her childhood illnesses.

6. The Elves and the Shoemaker – Brothers Grimm

The Elves and the Shoemaker is part of a collection of German origin fairy tales first published in 1812 by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, the Brothers Grimm. The collection is commonly known today as Grimm’s Fairy Tales. The theme is a well-known one throughout European folklore. There are many warning stories about what should happen if the recipient of faerie help should offer clothes to his or her benefactor. According to the tales, pixies and faeries alike consider clothing to be a form of bondage, and see any kind offers or new clothes as a way to enslave the faerie.

7. The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle is one of the 56 short Sherlock Holmes stories written by British author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (22 May 1859 – 7 July 1930), and is the seventh story of twelve in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. The story was first published in Strand Magazine in January 1892. The plot revolves around a rare blue carbuncle (a type of semi precious stone) going missing. Watson visits Holmes at Christmas time and finds him contemplating a battered old hat, brought to him by the commissionaire Peterson after the hat and a Christmas goose had been dropped by a man in a scuffle with some street ruffians. Peterson takes the goose home to eat it, but comes back later with the carbuncle. His wife has found it in the bird’s throat. Holmes cannot resist a good mystery, and he and Watson set out across the city to determine exactly how the stolen jewel wound up in a Christmas goose.

8. Christmas Day in the Morning – Pearl S. Buck

Originally published in 1955, Christmas Day in the Morning is a heartwarming story about sacrifice and the spirit of giving. Pearl S. Buck (June 26, 1892 — March 6, 1973) was an award-winning American writer who spent the majority of her life in China. Her novel The Good Earth won the Pulitzer Prize in 1932. In 1938, she became the first American woman to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature for her rich and truly epic descriptions of peasant life in China and for her biographical masterpieces. In Christmas Day in the Morning, Buck has captured the spirit of Christmas in this elegant, heartwarming story about a boy’s gift of love.

9. The Snowman – Raymond Briggs

The Snowman is a children’s book by English author Raymond Briggs (born 18 January 1934), published in 1978. In 1982, this book was turned into a 26-minute animated movie by Dianne Jackson. The film was nominated for the Academy Award for Animated Short Film in 1982. The book is wordless, as is the film except for the song "Walking in the Air”. The story is told through picture, action and music. A groundbreaking publication depicting the birth and development of a beautiful but fragile friendship between a young boy, James, and the Snowman he has built in his back garden.

10. Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer – Robert L. May

Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer is a character created in a story and song by the same name. The story was created by Robert L. May in 1939 as part of his employment with Montgomery Ward. In its first year of publication, Montgomery Ward distributed 2.4 million copies of Rudolph’s story. Johnny Marks decided to adapt May’s story into a song, which through the years has been recorded by many artists. It was first sung commercially by crooner Harry Brannon on New York City radio in the latter part of 1948 before Gene Autry recorded it formally in 1949, and has since filtered into the popular consciousness.