A CHRISTMAS CAROL by Charles Dickens, illustrated by P.J. Lynch

I could have left this out, so obviously a part of Christmas it is, but Christmas without Dickens is like, I don't know, Christmas without a soul. Even people who have never read the book know the story: Scrooge, Tiny Tim, etc. What many of us may not know or may have forgotten was that Dickens wrote this book in part to remind the growing secular society of his time of the important messages of the season, messages that were frequently represented in all of Dickens's work.

We see Dickens's usual sympathy for the poor and downtrodden and his criticism of the wealthy class (the characters in the story who make rounds seeking alms for the poor are, themselves, fat and obviously privileged). This edition from Candlewick Press is especially elegant. The fine and haunting illustrations by P.J. Lynch bring the story to life for even the most Scrooge-like, Christmas naysayer. You or someone you know needs this book.

CHRISTMAS DAY IN THE MORNING by Pearl Buck and Mark Buener

"He slipped back in time, as he did so easily nowadays"—thus reads the first line of Pearl Buck's Christmas Day in the Morning. Buck's book is framed by the memories of an older narrator, specifically the memory of his father and a special Christmas long ago. This story is very simple. In its message, we are reminded that the greatest gift is the gift of love and time. I won't say much more about the lean plot. As with many Christmas editions, however, the illustrations in this book are exquisite—beautiful, wintry skies and rustic buildings lit by star and inky moonlight. Also a plus here is the illustrator's note. Some will find it too sentimental, maybe? Not at Christmas time, I think.

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BEST SHORT STORIES OF O. HENRY

I selected this book for the story "The Gift of the Magi," which, too, is a story about selfless giving. It has that delightful irony that O. Henry used so well and so often: Wife sells her hair to buy husband a watch chain; husband sells his watch to buy wife a set of combs. In addition, you will have the benefit of O. Henry's other tales to read after Christmas, including "Man about Town," "The Furnished Room," "The Passing of Black Eagle," and, of course, "The Ransom of Red Chief."

Will it ruin Christmas to discover that O. Henry (nee William Sydney Porter) began writing short stories while serving a 3-year-prison sentence for embezzling money from a bank where he clerked? No. I think writers are often tempted by ill-deeds.

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A CHRISTMAS MEMORY by Truman Capote

This classic Christmas story was authored by same man who brought us Holly Golightly (Breakfast at Tiffany's) and the killers from In Cold Blood. Capote is perhaps one of the most versatile writers of the twentieth century. In Cold Blood, in fact, established a new genre in American literature: the nonfiction novel. Even though I recognize the brilliance of that novel, my first and best recollections of Capote are based on reading Other Voices, Other Rooms in high school.

This 1948 novel, which exemplifies the best of the Southern Gothic novel, uses an autobiographical, childhood character to study the impact of the loss of a parent in a child's life. The book has several, eccentric misfits—a trademark of Capote's fiction (and possibly his life). It is a warm and sad and nostalgic look back at the world, the boyhood memory of a college student.

A Christmas Memory follows this theme and style. The seven-year-old Alabaman protagonist lives with a distant and elderly relative, Miss Sook Faulk. Miss Sook Faulk is what Sherwood Anderson might have called one of the "grotesques," people who, for whatever reason, are seen by the general population as outcasts or misfits or simply eccentrics. The book begins in October, in "fruitcake weather," and ends on Christmas day.

The Christmas preparation shared by the two unlikely friends includes sending fruitcakes to famous people (one for FDR), buying illegal whiskey (mostly, but not exclusively, for the fruitcakes), and cutting their own tree. Though their world is small—the outside world barely touches the story—their rituals are classic and moving. o

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A CHILD'S CHRISTMAS IN WALES by Dylan Thomas, illustrated by Edward Ardizzone

What happens when a great poet writes prose? The answer: poetry, naturally! This book's great achievement is its language. One of the very best of our English-language poets, Dylan Thomas writes words that are meant to be heard, whether in prose or poetry. Add to the music of his words the details of how holidays were passed long ago, and you have a Christmas treasure.

Let the words speak: "All the Christmases roll down to the two-tongued sea, like a cold and headlong moon bundling down the sky that was our street; and they stop at the rim of the ice-edged, fish-freezing waves, and I plunge my hands into the snow and bring out whatever I can find." If possible, Edward Ardizzone's watercolor and ink illustrations have improved a nearly flawless piece of prose. Another priceless gift.

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The fascination of this book for me was that it was written by John Grisham—not his usual criminal and legal material, for sure. Furthermore, it has a theme that everyone who has suffered through the garish and greedy days of Christmas can appreciate. (And who hasn't?) Yes, we have lost the true spirit of Christmas—or maybe we haven't. I am pretty psyched up for the holidays this year, looking for the special gifts for the special people (and also the mailman and my dentist and my veterinarian who are, after all, pretty special people, too) and loving the crowds. I mean if you don't want to lose the true meaning of Christmas, you don't have to, right?

Grisham's story concerns the Kranks, Luther and Nora. While reviewing the previous year's Christmas expenses, they are appalled to discover they spent over $6000 on Christmas. (Are they crazy?) As a result, they decide to forego this Christmas and use the money for a cruise (oh, yeah, that will put the "C" back into Christmas). Skipping Christmas, however, is not as easy as they had hoped: this decision involves neighbors, friends, and especially their daughter Blair, a Peace Corps volunteer in Peru.

This Grisham book is typically well-written, and I recommend it to anyone who may have felt reluctant to read his more intense work. For me, however, this story is less than genuine: Who are these people anyway?

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My first encounter with The Snow Goose was in the fall of 1967. My friend Frances Rogers (oh, where are you now, Frances?) gave a dramatic presentation of this short and very compelling story at our Friday afternoon high school assembly. Perhaps Frances's talent for telling a story was in her genes: her aunt, she once told me, was the author Harper Lee (To Kill a Mockingbird). I was moved by both the story by Gallico and my friend's interpretation. Even now, forty years later, I can hear the stillness in that auditorium when Frances finished. Applause would have seemed as inappropriate as whistling through midnight mass.

The Snow Goose is not a Christmas story. It takes place during World War II. It concerns a deformed and reclusive artist who lives in a lighthouse, the young maiden who befriends him, an off-course snow goose, and the battle of Dunkirk. These props—the alienated artist, the virgin who redeems him, an injured animal, and war—are ancient themes and perhaps too warn for some of us. However, I believe they recur in literature for a reason: to remind us of love, honor, kindness, and sacrifice. These qualities make The Snow Goose probably the most important "Christmas" book on this list. Get this book for someone you really love or for someone who really needs it.

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Housekeeping is another book on this list that is not about Christmas. I chose it for two reasons. As with Dylan Thomas's A Child's Christmas in Wales, Housekeeping is beautiful and important for the sheer delight of its sounds and images. Here are words that bend and flow and images that open as wide as the sky. In this book are vast numbers of perfectly rendered images of nature that are huge and intoxicating. I swear, as I read the book again, I am lost sometimes in the words; I don't even care (or know?) what the author is saying.

The second reason I chose this book at Christmas is that, in fact, I know no other book that says the meaning of family as much as this strangely bizarre story. Again, the author has used misfits, much like Capote's misfits. A very eccentric—perhaps correctly labeled "unstable"—woman comes back home to take care of her two orphaned nieces (the mother has committed suicide). Sylvie, the aunt, is a hobo, a homeless transient by choice. She is perhaps as close to a feral human as ever rendered in fiction. Living inside—"housekeeping"—is as antithetical to her lifestyle as living in a tree would be for most "normal" people.

This book has a cumulative power. Little by little, it calls into question everything normal; it strips away pretense, greed, self-righteousness, conformity, and all ulterior motives. What we are finally left with are love and responsibility and, of course, family, however we care to define it.

Have a good Christmas. I will see you next year.

Mjt