Blogmas Day 1: My Favourite Christmas Books
Hello! Welcome to Day 1 of Blogmas! I know I’m posting this kind of late in the day, but that’s just how I roll. I could never be accused of being a morning person.
Appropriately, December has dawned nice and snowy in my part of the world (southern Ontario, Canada). Yes, I do use “nice” and “snowy” together unironically. I could never be accused of NOT being a winter person. ❄️🥰 I haven’t quite decorated for Christmas yet, but my tree is up and covered in lights, and I’m feeling festive!
Full disclosure: I have all these plans to take Christmassy pictures of my jigsaw puzzle advent calendar and whatnot throughout the month, but cameras and I are not kindred spirits. I started trying to vlog a couple years back, but then my camera died. I got another camera a few months later, and it kept eating random photos and videos without warning (including my Christmas morning videos last year of my dog opening his presents, and he has since passed away, so… yeah). I stupidly let the warranty period lapse, and I am the last person on earth to still not own a smartphone, so now I have no camera. Anyway, I’ve borrowed my parents’ old digital camera, so we’ll see how long that lasts.
Advent Calendar – Day 1
I love getting a mini jigsaw puzzle advent calendar and doing a mini puzzle every day leading up to Christmas! Here is this year’s:
Again, I apologize for my lack of photography skills. 😅 But yeah, I got this from Amazon. It’s supposed to be 24 interlocking puzzles that create one big puzzle, but I prefer to do each one in the lid of the box and let it stand alone for a day. Maybe on Christmas Day I’ll scramble up all the pieces and assemble the whole thing, I don’t know. (I kind of get the feeling someone did that once before and then returned it, because one of the pieces in box 1 is actually from puzzle 13, but however! They seem to be out of stock already, no surprise.)
Here’s a picture of the Day 1 puzzle completed:
It was actually kind of challenging since it had so few edge pieces. I enjoyed it!
My Favourite Christmas Books
Now to get down to the real content of this post – my top 5 favourite Christmas books of all time!
Admittedly, I’m not the biggest reader of Christmassy books. I’ll have a much harder time narrowing down my favourite Christmas movies, and the hardest of all hard times narrowing down my favourite Christmas TV episodes. But there are 5 definite stand-outs among Christmas (or Christmas-adjacent) books that I feel like reaching for again and again. So in order from least to first, they are…
#5. The Haunted Man by Charles Dickens
Did you know that Ebenezer Scrooge wasn’t the only Dickens character to learn a valuable lesson on Christmas? Allow me to introduce to you Mr. Redlaw (not quite as catchy a name, I know). Redlaw is so consumed by sorrow and regret that it literally manifests as a phantom. And the phantom wants to make a deal – Redlaw can forget all of his sorrow and pain, but that forgetfulness will spread to everyone he meets.
I love this story. There are some great characters to fall in love with, gorgeous Dickensian writing, and a timeless moral: that the painful things that happen to us teach us forgiveness and empathy and bond us together with others. If nothing bad happened to us, or if we forget the bad things that happen to us, we would have no compassion and feel close to no one. Maybe The Haunted Man doesn’t have quite the enduring charisma as A Christmas Carol, but it’s still well worth a read.
#4. The Nutcracker and the Mouse King by E.T.A. Hoffmann
There are several different versions of The Nutcracker out there, but it’s the original 1816 E.T.A. Hoffman telling that I love. (Did you know that the Tchaikovsky ballet is based on an adaptation of Hoffmann’s story by Alexandre Dumas?) The story begins on Christmas Eve as young Marie and her brother Fritz are frantic with anticipation for whatever fantastic toys Godpapa Drosselmeier has made for them. But Drosselmeier doesn’t just arrive with toys – he also has a magical tale to tell that might actually be true.
The Nutcracker is a much-beloved classic for a reason. If you haven’t already, give the original tale a read!
#3. The Wombles by Elisabeth Beresford
Okay, hear me out. The Wombles isn’t actually a Christmas book. But chapter 7 (The Christmas Party and Mr. D. Smith) is one of the most delightful Christmas stories I’ve ever read. If you’re not familiar with the Wombles (I don’t think they made much impact outside of the UK, where I spent my formative years), they’re these furry creatures who live for tidying up public human spaces. They collect litter and reuse what they find, and their environmentalism was waaaaay ahead of its time in the 70s and 80s. They’re basically the reason I grew up to be a conscientious citizen of this planet who doesn’t litter and who pays attention to wildlife. But I digress.
‘The Christmas Party and Mr. D. Smith’ is a lovely little vignette showing us the Wombles’ Christmas traditions, but it’s the second half of the chapter that I love the most. Great Uncle Bulgaria (the sort of Womble chief) goes out for a stroll on Wimbledon Common (where they live), and there he meets a lonely old man, Mr. D. Smith. (Humans never seem to notice when they’re speaking to a Womble.) It turns out that the two old timers have met every Christmas Day for years, and their visit is so sweet and wholesome, and all the Wombles are so kind to him, and it always makes me want to cry. 😭
Check in on your elderly relatives and neighbours this holiday season, peeps. And read The Wombles, it’s a delightful book. 🥰
#2. The Best Christmas Pageant Ever by Barbara Robinson
I watched the televised adaptation of this children’s book every Christmas as a kid, and once I got my hands on the book I read it every Christmas, too. There’s something so magical about watching the transformation of the awful Herdman kids as they learn the true meaning of Christmas. As a kid, this story was just fun. As an adult, it took on a whole new meaning.
I used to work in a Sunday school class full of neglected and/or abused kids who were desperate for positive attention, so I knew kids like the Herdmans and saw for myself that they weren’t “bad,” they were just in pain. With that perspective, this cute little Christmas tale became a beautiful story of acceptance and healing. I can’t recommend it highly enough.
#1. A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
Dickens is my favourite author of all time, and A Christmas Carol is one of my favourites of his works. This is the one book I have to read pretty much every year. Sometimes I switch it up and try to read it in French or as a graphic novel, but mostly I want to bask in those wonderful Dickensisms.
If you don’t know the story of Ebenezer Scrooge and his ghostly visitors… how? I’m curious how you could have missed it! Seriously, if you haven’t read it, you really really should. And if you haven’t watched an adaptation of it, start with The Muppets’ Christmas Carol. It’s hands-down the best. Charles would have LOVED it, especially being played by Gonzo.
What am I saying? He watches it every year with me, standing in the spirit at my elbow. (If you know, you know!)