Happy Christmas! Life has slowed down for me, strangely, so I’ve been able to read much more this month and it feels wonderful to be able to do so! I hope that you’ve been able to read stories that warm your heart during this traditionally busy time of year.

Below are some of the books I’ve been reading this month; note that the following may contain spoilers:

A Christmas Carol, by Charles Dickens – Dickens’ wit opens this short story and from the first sentence I decided it will be one of my yearly rereads. There are so many adaptations of this little story into movie form but I don’t think any of them that I have seen do it justice. There could be some scary bits (it is partly a ghost story after all), but nevertheless, I would say this is a fun family read aloud.

Nutcracker and Mouse King, by E. T. A. Hoffman; The Tale of the Nutcracker, by Alexander Dumas; both translated by Joachim Neugroschel – Nutcracker and Mouse King is the original work and, I think, rather stoic and dark, happy ending and a bit of wittiness notwithstanding. The Tale of the Nutcracker is much lighter and witty, extremely similar to the original, but with added bits, and some character changes. They are fascinating to read back to back. The book I have that contains them both is a Penguin Classics edition with an interesting introduction which focuses mainly on Hoffman’s background. These would be fun to read aloud, but I would preview them first.

The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, by Barbara Robinson – The first in The Herdmans trilogy, this hilarious novel is a great read aloud and reminds those who have grown up in the Christian church about the ‘realness’ of the Nativity; this book also touches subtly on other theological truths. One of the young characters does take the Lord’s name in vain a couple of times, but other than that the story should be appropriate for most ages. I think that even though it is considered a junior fiction book adults will get quite a bit out of it.

The Princess and the Goblin, by George MacDonald – Have you ever finished a book, held it to your chest, and thought to yourself, ‘Now that was a pleasant read!’? That’s what happened after I finished The Princess and the Goblin. This story reawakened my imagination and was like a breath of fresh air. This is the first of two books about Princess Irene and her friend, Curdie. It is full of adventure, wit, and moments to ponder over. If you are familiar with some of C. S. Lewis’s background, you will remember that George MacDonald’s writings had a heavy influence on him and after reading this book I understand better that influence (which, of course, makes me want to read The Chronicles of Narnia again!). I think this would make a good read aloud.