Spiritual Readings

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Goodness and Light: Readings for Advent and Christmas, edited by Michael Leach, James Keane, and Doris Goodnough
Watch for the Light: Readings for Advent and Christmas, no editors listed
These are two books of spiritual readings that begin on November 21 and November 24, respectively, and end January 7, covering Advent and then Christmastide. There are some fiction entries, but most of them are written by religious writers or lay people who also write inspirational or spiritual material, like Madeleine L'Engle and Kathleen Norris.

I truly meant to read one entry from each book each day, but as always Christmas prep caught up with me, and sometimes I had to read three or four entries at a time to catch up. Like most writings, some of these are memorable, some aren't, but I'm glad I put the effort in.

The Christmas Classic

A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens

"Oh, I love A Christmas Carol! Which is your favorite movie of the story?" I'd have to say "Mr. Magoo." But my favorite version is still the book. For a small book it is filled with the most beautiful imagery, especially Dickens' description of the marketplace at Christmastime. Scrooge's transformation is more gradually done compared to how it's portrayed in most of the films and seems more realistic. There's also a charming scene at nephew Fred's house where they play the traditional Christmas games like blindman's buff.

This year I read this little version, which I found in Five Below, and which is an exact reproduction (down to size) of the first edition (except the four hand-colored illustrations aren't hand-colored anymore). I also have the wonderful Candlewick Press edition as well as the annotated edition.

See and love any movie version you can! But do read the book!

Old-Fashioned Christmases

Old Christmas, Washington Irving
These are the five Christmas chapters from Irving's famous Sketchbook of Geoffrey Crayon (which also includes the short stories "Rip Van Winkle" and "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow"). "Crayon" takes a trip to England during the Christmas season and runs into an old friend on the way home to the family country house. He spends Christmas with them and finds that his friend's father celebrates in the old medieval style. Nostalgia infused with Irving's sly humor about dad's real motive.

The Little Book of the Nativity, Dominique Foufelle
This is a cute little mini volume filled with minute print and old-fashioned postcards and missal cards that tell the story of the Nativity from the Annunciation through the the visit of the Magi, and the representations of it that we use today. Several pages talk about "santons," the special figures that the French use in their crechè scenes, portraying typical French villagers like the blind man and the Romany couple. The vintage chromolithographs are mostly French with a few German representations tossed in.

 

Bring Hankies

The Eight Heartbreaks of Hanukkah, Jean Meltzer

This book made me cry, and not just at the end.

Evelyn Schwartz has one goal in life: to be the best TV producer. To achieve that, she will work through punishing migraines, always driven to get ahead. As she is buckling down to direct a live television performance of A Christmas Carol, starring a famous pop star/actor in the Scrooge role, her migraines return with a vengeance, but now they seem to contain hallucinations: the ghost of her late mentor appears, urging her to live more of her life rather than sacrificing it all for her career. In order to learn what's important, she's going to be haunted by eight Hanukkah spirits.

This sounds like it might be silly, but it truly isn't. One of the casualties of Evelyn's career resolutions was her marriage to Daniel, a lifelong friend and supporter who willingly gave up his own career goals to support her. But two years earlier, their marriage ended in divorce after Daniel walked out on her.

Or did he? Because as the spirits show, Evelyn isn't remembering things quite as they were. But now Daniel is the temporary doctor at her production studio and he's worried about her sudden fainting spells and talking about hallucinations. He's also still in love with her (and her with him, despite his leaving).

Despite the spirits occasionally being funny, this is a tearjerker. And no, Evelyn is not berated for her ambition. The pop star actor is really weird; reminds me of the dude in the "Icarus" episode of Law & Order: Criminal Intent, only he truly can act.

Inspirational Reads

The Joys of Christmas 2013 - Guideposts
Ideals Christmas 2024
Ideals Christmas 2025

I've been buying Ideals for years now, once they began using beautiful photographs. The photos will always give me a Christmas "mood." Last year I hadn't the opportunity to read the issue, so I read this and last year's, and the Guideposts magazine, in one fell swoop.

I did like the inclusion of more Christmas stories in the Guideposts issue. Several of them were very nostalgic and touching, especially the Vietnam story—all the military stories were heart-tugging. Also was happy to see an Apollo 8 story!

Ideals, of course, is as always a feast of lovely images. The sunset image on page 38 of the 2025 issue is particularly beautiful.

A Historic Christmas

One Christmas in Washington, David Bercuson and Holger Herwig

This isn't particularly a "Christmas book," but it takes place mostly during December and the end of the Christmas season in January. It's the story of Winston Churchill's historic visit to Washington, DC in December 1941 in order to make a more firm alliance with the United States in the war against Nazism.

For two years, Great Britain had "gone it alone," trying to hold on as the German army marched across Europe, swallowing Belgium, the Netherlands, Czechoslovakia, Austria, and more, and finally France. The next step, the British knew, would be the invasion of the British Isles. So far Franklin Delano Roosevelt had managed to persuade a war-wary Congress (all of them having remembered "the Great War" of 1914-1917) to at least approve his "Lend-Lease" program so that the British would have arms to fight with. But no way, the American public vowed, would we get drawn into another European war.

Pearl Harbor changed everything, especially when Adolf Hitler allied himself with the Empire of Japan. This is the story of the buildup to the event, of Churchill's clandestine visit to the United States and his stirring Christmas Eve message, and the eventual results.

If you are a history buff, especially one with an interest in World War II, this volume is recommended.