This festive season is very special for many people. The time we spend with our families and friends is precious, the feast of food we eat is delightful, the Christmas movies on T.V are so entertaining and the Christmas carol singers in the streets awaken our senses to the wonder of Christmas. Reading Christmas stories is another way of getting into the spirit of the season and there are so many amazing stories readily available for you to download or read online to get you into the Christmas spirit. In this article, I would like to share with you an overview of some of the most famous Christmas stories ever written.
A Christmas Carol – Charles Dickens (1843)
The main character of this book is a mean-spirited old man called Ebenezer Scrooge. Scrooge has never shared his money with other people, even though he is quite rich, and spends his days counting his profits. One Christmas Eve, Scrooge’s life changes forever, when he is visited by four ghosts. The first one is Scrooge’s old business partner, Jacob Marley. Jacob is a tormented ghost, damned to wander the Earth alone forever because he was greedy and selfish when he was alive. Marley roams around, watching other people suffering and is filled with remorse because he cannot do anything to help them now that he is dead. The rest of the ghosts who visit Scrooge are sent by Jacob Marley, in the hope that Scrooge will change his ways and become a good person before it is too late. The second ghost, the Ghost of Christmas Past, transports Scrooge to many Christmases gone by, including one Christmas when his past love, Belle, broke off their engagement because of his greedy ways and mean behaviour. Scrooge gets very upset when he is taken to a more recent Christmas scene where Belle, now a middle- aged woman, speaks about Scrooge to her husband, reflecting on her time spent with him, and her husband comments that Scrooge is ‘quite alone in the World.’ Scrooge becomes very upset and begs to be taken back to the present time, back to his home. The other ghosts, The Ghost of Christmas Present and Christmas Yet to Come, show Scrooge how his mean behaviour has affected people around him, including a poor man who works for him, called Bob Cratchit. At the end of the story, he realises that he must change and we see him transform into a caring, generous person. When Charles Dickens wrote this story in 1843, there was a tradition for telling Ghost Stories at Christmas time, hence the numerous ghosts in his story. Also, during this time in England there was a big divide between the rich and poor people and one of the main themes of this story is social injustice, highlighted by Scrooge’s refusal to give money to the poor.
The Tailor of Gloucester – Beatrix Potter (1903)
This children’s story is about a poor tailor struggling to survive in his freezing cold workshop in Gloucester. He makes clothes for rich people but has no nice clothes of his own because he has no money. One winter, the tailor is asked to make a wedding waistcoat for the Town Mayor. Selling the waistcoat would bring him career-making commission, however, the tailor gets really sick and is unable to complete the waistcoat in time for the wedding on Christmas Day. The tailor is very unwell and goes home to rest. However, unknown to the tailor, the little brown mice in his workshop finish sewing his waistcoat during the night because they are so grateful to him for saving them from his cat who tried to eat them. On Christmas morning, the tailor enters his workshop to see the completed waistcoat and the success of the waistcoat makes the tailor his fortune. This story is actually based on a real- life incident involving a tailor and his assistants and the book is complimented by beautiful illustrations drawn by the author.
The Gift of the Magi – O. Henry (1906)
This is a short story about a young, married couple, Jim and Della, who are very poor. One Christmas, they decide to secretly buy each other a gift for Christmas but they have very little money. Della knows that Jim’s most valued possession is his shiny, gold pocket watch, which had belonged to his father and grandfather before him. Della’s only valuable possession is her long, flowing hair, which falls to her knees. In the story, Della sells her hair to a local hairdresser and buys Jim a platinum pocket watch chain for his watch. Jim, in the meantime, sells his precious pocket watch to buy Della expensive accessories for her hair, which is pointless because Della no longer has hair to decorate. The theme of the story is the gift of love and the sacrifices that people in love make for each other and this theme is demonstrated through the selfless actions of the main characters.
Summary
Many Christmas stories are inspirational pieces of literature and I find that reading them at this time of the year is a wonderful way of getting into the holiday spirit. Most Christmas stories have a happy ending and are written to warm the coldest of hearts. For you, as an English language student, reading is one of the most fun and effective ways to improve your English language skills. It can also expand your vocabulary as well as expose you to different sentence structures. Here are links to the stories I have introduced you to today:
http://read.gov/books/christmas-carol.html
http://familychristmasonline.com/stories_other/potter/tailor/tailor.htm
http://www.eastoftheweb.com/short-stories/UBooks/GifMag.shtml
I hope you take the time to read at least one of them! Merry Christmas!
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