Christmas stories

Christmas Eve is just hours away. The landscape is covered with soft white snow, the lights on the tree are sparkling, and we have all snitched an extra cookie or two through the week, with the promise we will diet in the new year. Soon it will be “twas the night before Christmas when all through the house not a creature is stirring, not even a mouse.”

There are a myriad of Christmas traditions and customs, those we share and those that define our own Christmas holidays. Then there are the Christmas stories.

During the few days when we are celebrating, singing carols, baking, meeting friends and yes, dashing about to fetch a few last-minute gifts, I pull the books with Christmas stories down from my shelf.

One that is familiar to all of us is O’Henry’s “The Gift of the Magi.” Published in 1905 it is, if you haven’t read it or have forgotten, the story of a young couple with little money who want to give each other special gifts for Christmas. The young woman sells her voluminous and beautiful hair to purchase a pocket watch chain for her husband. Her husband, on the other hand, sells his watch to purchase ornamental combs for her long hair. They recognize, on Christmas morning, that what they have done signifies the deep love they have for one another. The combs and the watch chain will be stored away for another time. Their love for one another is the gift they cherish.

All of us are familiar with Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol” and recognize that we don’t want to become like Ebenezer Scrooge. “A Christmas Carol” was first published on Dec. 19, 1843, and by Christmas Eve the novella had sold out. By the end of the following year, 1844, 13 editions had been released. Somewhere in most communities around the U.S. someone is reading, performing, or watching this familiar story during the Christmas season. We all know the story of Tiny Tim and the Cratchit family.

A lesser-known prose poem is Dylan Thomas’ “A Child's Christmas in Wales,” which was first recorded in 1952. The poem describes Christmas through the eyes of a young boy when life was much simpler. For those of us who live in New Hampshire we have “Christmas at Eagle Pond,” now one of my favorite Christmas stories.

The poet and writer Donald Hall writes of the magical Christmas he spent at his grandparent’s New Hampshire farm, Eagle Pond, in the winter of 1940. He describes the local church being transformed with the addition of Christmas wreaths and a grand tree. Dinner on Christmas day is a feast of roasted chicken, mashed potato, vegetables, and sweet desserts. Many of the gifts are knitted by the female members of the family. In his poetic style, Hall pulls us into this memory as if we were there with him, seeing our breath in the cold air and wrapping the woolen scarf around our neck to stay warm. Only then to acknowledge at the end of the story in an author’s note that in fact he didn’t spend Christmas of 1940 at Eagle Brook Farm, instead what he has given us is “the thing I most wanted, a boyhood Christmas at Eagle Pond Farm.”

These Christmas stories are written by poets and authors and published for us. Each of us has our own stories and these are special within our own families.

The first Christmas in a new home. The first Christmas with a newborn child. The Christmas when everyone in the family really believes Santa Claus slips down the chimney to leave toys under the tree and does feed the cookies and carrots left near the fireplace to the reindeer holding the sleigh on the roof. Then there are those years when someone we love isn’t there to celebrate Christmas with us.

Perhaps this year you will take a few hours and write a story you can share with your family. Something nostalgic that you remember from your childhood. Or think ahead to the future, as life is transformed, will traditions remain? Only if we remember to remember.

I heard the bells on Christmas Day

Their old familiar carols play,

And wild and sweet

The words repeat

Of peace and joy, good will to men...

from “I heard the bells on Christmas Day” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

May your Christmas be merry and festive. May your new year be filled with joy, laughter, and good health.

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Listen to Elizabeth on the Short Fuse Podcast found on Apple or Spotify, follow her on Instagram @elizh24 or send her a note at elizabeth@laconiadailysun.com. She is an author and journalist. Her books include Ned O’Gorman: A Glance Back, a book she edited (Easton Studio Press, 2016), A Day with Bonefish Joe (David R. Godine, 2015) and Queen Anne’s Lace and Wild Blackberry Pie, (Thornwillow Press, 2011).