Stories for Christmastime!
And some excellent Christmas non-fiction As Well!
The STGB edition of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol is now Available!
A Christmas Carol, by Charles Dickens is, without a doubt, the best Christmas story ever written (outside the Gospels themselves). You certainly know something about it already, you’ve probably seen more than one movie or theater adaptation, but if you haven’t read the book itself, then you are still missing out on a life-changing experience. A Christian story, through and through, a story of sin, grace, repentance, and redemption…you have to read the book to really experience the story at its best!
Study The Great Books is proud to present a brand new edition of this fantastic book as one of our unique Annotation Editions. Now you can read this great book in a format that beckons you to add your thoughts, make notes, ask questions of the text, and talk to Scrooge and Marley and Fred and all the other characters of the story. Never annotated a book before? Here is how to do it! Our Annotation Editions are perfect for active readers and those who want to become more engaged in the books they are reading. You can order your new copy of A Christmas Carol today by clicking HERE and, while you’re at it, you can get our new print edition of the companion Study Guide by clicking HERE! You might just find a few other great books, guides, and resources you’d like to have (or give) when you head over to www.studythegreatbooks.com!
(Paid Subscribers here on Substack can also access the STGB study guide for this book as a PDF)
Looking for more great books and stories to read at Christmastime? We have compiled a great list for you below!
Novels & Novellas
Once you’ve finished up A Christmas Carol you might be interested to know that Charles Dickens also wrote several other short Christmas stories. Why not read those also?:
The Chimes (Read Here), The Cricket on the Hearth (Read Here), The Battle of Life (Read Here), and The Haunted Man and The Ghost’s Bargain (Read Here).
Letters From Father Christmas, by J. R. R. Tolkien (Buy the Book)
From the imagination of the man who brought us The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings comes this collection of letters which he wrote, as Father Christmas, and mailed to his own home to his children. Full of fancy and fun, this is a great book to read with the family at Christmastime.
The Lord of the Rings, by J. R. R. Tolkien (Buy the Book)
Okay, okay, but hear me out. Did you know that the Fellowship leaves from Rivendell on December 25 (a.k.a. Christmas Day)? You have to pay attention, but it’s absolutely true. And hey, any excuse to read The Lord of the Rings is a good one!
Hercule Poirot’s Christmas, by Agatha Christie (Buy the Book)
A classic murder mystery by one of the greatest mystery writers of the last century. When Hercule Poirot is invited to Gorston Hall on Christmas Eve, he finds his particular set of skills become necessary once again because someone has been murdered at the party!
The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe, C. S. Lewis (Buy the Book)
It’s winter in Narnia, but never Christmas. At least that’s how it’s been for a very long time, but when four children find their way into Narnia through a magical wardrobe in a mansion in the English country side that all begins to change. Aslan is on the move! (Paid Subscribers can access the STGB study guide for this book, designed for children in 4-6 grade)
The Giver, by Lois Lowry (Buy the book)
In the first book of this wonderful quartet of stories, you’ll meet young Jonas who lives in “the community.” There is no war, no starvation, almost no pain at all in the community, but there is also some other things missing. Those other things that are missing might just be worth risking everything to bring back. In this powerful little story Christmas plays a kind of surprising and mystical role in Jonas’ experience as he tries to figure out what has been lost by living in “the Community.” (Paid Subscribers can access the STGB study guide for this book)
Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott (Buy the Book)
Though the story takes place across many years, and not just at Christmastime, many readers deeply associate the book with Christmas due to a few particularly powerful Christmas moments in the book and because it is a story about family that sometimes has to be apart but which always longs to be back together. One of the greatest stories written in, and about, the 1800’s in America.
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Author Unknown (But J. R. R. Tolkien did a beautiful translation) (Buy the Book)
It’s Christmastime in King Arthur’s court.
Merry are the men as they make play!
Lightheartedly laugh the ladies all!
Fun, fellowship and frivolity abound
‘til, behold, boldly a brave knight comes.
With a challenge most churlish he chills the room.
A Powerful and Perilous parlor game is proffered.
Who will harken and hasten to the Green Knights
game?
Who will take the axe from this wight?
Gawain! Gawain! The man of great fame!
He is, in Arthur’s realm, an incomparable knight!
But after this Christmastide he’ll never be the same.
A tale told completely in alliterative verse, it begins and ends at Christmastime and it is a story of Christian faith, knight’s chivalry, and temptation. What a tale to tell at Christmas! (Paid Subscribers can access the STGB study guide for this book)
Christmas Devotion
The Bible (Buy a Bible) or (Read online for Free)
Okay, this one is obvious, but let me make some specific recommendations for Christmas reading. Try reading any, or all, of the Four Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John). Matthew and Luke contain narratives of Jesus’ miraculous entrance into the world, John waxes eloquently about the eternal nature of the Word become Flesh, all four give us a witness to what Jesus came to say and do and how he conquered death and darkness so that we might have life and light!
You could also read Paul’s letter to the Romans where he articulates the incredible need mankind had for a Savior to come into this world and set us free from our bondage to sin. Likewise, the biblical book of Hebrews explains why it was absolutely necessary that Jesus come and how he is greater than all who came before, whether prophets, priests, of kings, of fathers of the faith, Jesus is greater than all and the one we cannot do without!
On The Incarnation, by Athanasius (Buy the Book)
Outside of the Bible itself, this may be the most important work ever written on why God had to become a man in order to save and redeem humanity from the power of sin and the very real threat of complete destruction. Written shortly after the Council of Nicaea in 325 A.D., this book is a master-class in the art of rhetoric as well as Christian theology. It’s an incredible masterpiece that every believer should read again and again. (Paid Subscribers can access the STGB study guide for this book)
Cur Deus Homo (Why God Became Man), by Anselm of Canterbury (Buy the Book)
Written c. 1095 A.D., Anselm explains the absolute necessity of Christ becoming man to satisfy divine justice. An incredibly important and influential work on the doctrine of the incarnation and the atonement. It’s a must read in the realm of Christian theology.
Short Stories
They’re short stories, I wont describe them, you should just read them. They won’t take that long and I found a way for you to read most of them for free!
The Fir-Tree, by Hans Christian Anderson (Read Here)
Papa Panov’s Special Christmas, by Leo Tolstoy (Read Here)
The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (Read Here)
A Christmas Dream, and How It Came To Be True, by Louisa May Alcott (Read Here)
The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding, by Agatha Christie (Buy the Book)
A Christmas Tragedy, by Agatha Christie (Buy the Book)
A Christmas Tree and a Wedding, by Fyodor Dostoevsky (Read Here)
The Gift of the Magi, by O. Henry (Read Here)
My bookclub is reading David Jack's collection of Christmas stories by George MacDonald https://a.co/d/84x2wfN. It has such an otherworldly feel too it. I'm really enjoying it.
Excellent list. I read A Christmas Carol every Christmas and always discover something new. I may have to add The Lord of the Rings to the rotation, though lol.