1| Last Christmas of the War - Primo Levi
As recommended by : ID7688790
Holocaust survivor Primo Levi wrote a collection of short stories called Moments of Reprieve, which described his experiences of the end of the war from inside one of Auschwitz’s sub-camps. Our reader’s favourite passage described how the arrival of a food package from Levi’s Italian family allowed him and his friend Alberto the chance of relative luxury for a few weeks at least. When it was stolen by a fellow camp-mate while Levi showered on the 25th December, he explains that he was glad at least that “some other famished man was celebrating Christmas at our expense, maybe even blessing us”. Our reader sums up perfectly: “Even in the worst place on Earth he finds light and hope. A true miracle.”
2| Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix – JK Rowling
As recommended by : Spideyclaire
The fifth of the seven Harry Potter books features Voldemort’s return to strength and the creation of Dumbledore’s army set up to face him. What stood out for Spideyclaire though, excluded from the film version, is the moment that Harry and co bump into Neville Longbottom visiting his parents for Christmas at the hospital they have inhabited since being tortured to insanity during Voldemort’s last reign of terror. “The description of Neville’s mentally destroyed mum shuffling over and giving him a sweet wrapper was one of the most poignant and saddest moments in the whole series.”
3| A Christmas Carol – Charles Dickens
As recommended by : Aprilsue and Graeme Alston
Still one of the most well known Christmas tales and considered among Dickens’s best work, AlexJones called A Christmas Carol “a perfect fable”, while Aprilsue described her astonishment at Dickens’s wisdom and genre-defying multi-layered writing: “As well as being the ultimate Christmas story, it is a ghost story, a weepie, a tale of redemption, a family story, a parable, a socialist political plea and a slice of social history. There is so much human insight in this unique tale of Dickens’s ‘wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous old sinner’, that you could use it as a self-help manual!” It’s easy to understand why robbo100 holds Dickens responsible for inventing the modern Christmas!
4| A Christmas Memory – Truman Capote
As recommended by : Retropian and oenonejones
Best known for Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Truman Capote produced a largely autobiographical and little-known short story called A Christmas Memory in 1956, which only rose to fame after it was reprinted in his Selected Writings in 1963. Now a holiday classic that has been adapted for award-winning screen or stage productions on five separate occasions, the tale describes two relatives’ Christmas tradition of making whiskey fruitcakes and sending them to barely known acquaintances or people they have never met at all, including President Franklin Roosevelt! Retropian most enjoys the 1966 film version, starring Geraldine Page (above) and narrated by Capote himself: “It is simply a must watch, but be prepared to cry buckets.”
5| Journey of the Magi – TS Eliot
As recommended by: newhousehaugh
Written shortly after Eliot’s conversion to Anglo-Catholocism, the religious nature of his writings had become more prominent than ever by the time this 43-line poem was published in 1927. It is a narrative from the point of view of a magus on his pilgrimage to Palestine to visit the newborn baby Jesus, as told in the Gospel of Matthew. Newhousehaugh says it “captures some of the magic and mystery” of Christmas.
6| Natale in casa Cupiello – Edoardo de Filippo
As recommended by: Enheduanna
Observer reader Enhedunna imagines that lots of other Italians would include this famous dark comedy on their list. Translated as “Christmas in the home of Cupiello”, the three-part play revolves around Luca Cupiello’s struggle to put together a successful Christmas for his wife and children. Certainly not a classic in the UK, but it has been reproduced twice for modern Italian audiences, most successfully in 1977 (above).
7| A Prayer for Owen Meany – John Irving
As recommended by: sorryforlaughing and Yasuda
A coming-of-age novel that follows two friends growing up in New Hampshire. sorryforlaughing and Yasuda think that a hilarious church nativity scene, in which protagonist Owen Meany plays the baby Jesus, “trumps any other literary Christmas moment”. Besides this comic note, sorryforlaughing describes a later scene, featuring Meany as the Ghost of Christmas Future in a performance of A Christmas Carol, as “wonderful”.
8| Monsieur – Laurence Durrell
As recommended by: WenlockonEdge and BillyMills
Also known as The Prince of Darkness, WenlockonEdge and BillyMills appreciate the beautifully written beginning to the book, describing Christmas in Provence. The description tragically occurs as the protagonist reminisces over the early days of love with his wife, having returned to Provence after learning of her suicide in a pact with her brother.
9| The Birds of the Air – Alice Thomas Ellis
Dedicated to Ellis’s late son Joshua, who died in his teens in an accident, the popular novel takes the form of a social comedy in which a standard narrative of one family’s seasonal festivities are pitted against a backdrop of a mother’s grief over the death of her son. Proust says the book is “a gem” and “something of a classic in its witty evocation of the edges of dysfunctionality at the festive season”.
10| Wind in the Willows – Kenneth Grahame
As recommended by Tullothy
Episode 5 of Wind in the Willows, describing Mole’s emotional return home for Christmas, is a Christmas Eve fixture for Tullothy who calls it “almost impossibly heartwarming”. The story begins with descriptions of happy human families and follows an initially oblivious Rat learning to understand and help a sensitive Mole missing home. Rat praises the charm and efficiency of Mole’s humble home and scrapes together a Christmas feast for the pair and some field mice who have stopped by after carolling.
