Other editions of book The Christmas Stories

From "A Christmas Tree": I have been looking on, this evening, at a merry company of children assembled round that pretty German toy, a Christmas Tree. The tree was planted in the middle of a great round table, and towered high above their heads. It was brilliantly lighted by a multitude of little tapers; and everywhere sparkled and glittered with bright objects. There were rosy-cheeked dolls, hiding behind the green leaves; and there were real watches (with movable hands, at least, and an endless capacity of being wound up) dangling from innumerable twigs; there were French-polished tables, chairs, bedsteads, wardrobes, eight-day clocks, and various other articles of domestic furniture (wonderfully made, in tin, at Wolverhampton), perched among the boughs, as if in preparation for some fairy housekeeping; there were jolly, broad-faced little men, much more agreeable in appearance than many real men -- and no wonder, for their heads took off, and showed them to be full of sugar-plums; there were fiddles and drums. . . .

A selection of Christmas stories by Charles Dickens, the most widely read English novelist. The stories featured in this collection were written in early Victorian era Britain when it was experiencing a nostalgic interest in its forgotten Christmas traditions, and at the time when new customs such as the Christmas tree and greeting cards were being introduced.

Christmas Stories consists of two pieces: “The Holly-Tree” (1855) and “Nobody’s Story” (1853). Both pieces were originally published in the Christmas section of the journal Household Words (1850–1859). Household Words, of which Dickens was both editor and a contributor, served as a platform apart from his novels in which he could express his ideas and sentiments in a somewhat less-formalized manner and with greater immediacy. The reader will find that both pieces in this collection, like his novels, are vintage Dickens.

No writer is more identified with the modern idea of Christmas than Charles Dickens. In some ways, Dickens helped define the holiday that we now celebrate by immortalizing it as a time of warmth and sharing, with an emphasis on family and friends. Dickens wrote all the stories presented here during the 1850s as contributions to the special Christmas issues of Household Words, the weekly magazine he founded and edited. Included are fictional sketches verging on the autobiographical, recollections of childhood, reflections on past holidays and old friends, as well as tales of misunderstandings and lost opportunities. They reaffirm the virtue of nurturing our traditions and offer a master storyteller's vision of the real meaning of Christmas.

Charles Dickens has probably had more influence on the way that we celebrate Christmas today than any single individual in human history... In this volume, along with his classic novella "A Christmas Carol" are six more of his short stories that revolve around the season: A Christmas Carol A Christmas Tree What Christmas Is As We Grow Older The Poor Relation’s Story The Child’s Story The Schoolboy’s Story Nobody’s Story

“God bless Us, Every One!” In 1843, Charles Dickens released the most famous Christmas story of all time, his classic A Christmas Carol. The book was an immediate success and spurred Dickens into writing four more short Christmas novels during the course of the 1840s. Those books are not as widely acclaimed as A Christmas Carol, and are considered among his lesser-known works but they all remain worthy of renewed interest. All five books appear in this volume. A Christmas Carol The Chimes The Cricket on the Hearth The Battle of Life The Haunted Man and the Ghost’s Bargain