Enchanting, tragic, and hilarious fairy tales for adults and children grace these pages. An initial glance might lead you to assume that these are satirical versions of classic Christmas ghost stories. However, beneath the humorous stories involving ghosts, repentant sinners, miracles, and good peasants who find well-deserved happiness, lies a psychological undercurrent that sharpens the sense of intrigue and plot movement. Often this is aided by the unrelenting social exposure of the authors who always understood how intangible the “bourgeois paradise” truly was. Even today, idyllic dreams of tolerance, equality, and the triumph of justice have failed to materialize.

Perhaps that is why people continue to read these classic stories while the snow falls outside and the lights glow on the Christmas tree.

Contents

Charles Dickens

•  A Christmas Carol
•  The Chimes

G.K. Chesterton

•  A Christmas Carol

L.M. Montgomery

•  The Red Room
•  A Christmas Mistake
•  A Christmas Inspiration
•  The Josephs' Christmas
•  Aunt Cyrilla's Christmas Basket
•  The Osbornes' Christmas
•  Bertie's New Year
•  Ida's New Year Cake
•  The Christmas Surprise at Enderly Road
•  Clorinda's Gifts
•  The Falsoms' Christmas Dinner
•  The Unforgotten One
•  Christmas at Red Butte
•  Uncle Richard's New Year's Dinner

L. Frank Baum

•  A Kidnapped Santa Claus
•  Little Bun Rabbit

Mark Twain

•  A Letter from Santa Claus

Louisa May Alcott

•  A Merry Christmas

Leo Tolstoy

•  A Russian Christmas Party

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

•  Christmas Bells
•  The Three Kings

Nikolay Gogol

•  Christmas Eve

William Dean Howells

•  Christmas Everyday
•  The Pony Engine and the Pacific Express

Joseph Rudyard Kipling

•  Christmas in India

Elizabeth Harrison

•  Little Gretchen and the Wooden Shoe

John Milton

•  On the Morning of Christ's Nativity

Hans Christian Andersen

•  The Fir Tree

Selma Lagerlof

•  The Holy Night

Hans Christian Andersen

•  The Little Match Girl

Clement Moore

•  The Night Before Christmas

Henry van Dyke

•  The Other Wise Man

Beatrix Potter

•  The Tailor of Gloucester

Anton Chehov

•  Vanka