It’s that time again for either a nice long break or the busiest two weeks of the year. Either way, I have some book suggestions to get you through the holidays. Let’s start today with my list of classic Christmas reads (a more modern list is coming in a day or so).
OK, some of these are obvious, and Tolkien (kinda) appears twice on here, but that doesn’t mean these books aren’t worth adding to your Christmas traditions. In fact, these three are classics because of their status as Christmas traditions in some (probably British) households.
So, let’s dive in and start with the oldest of the three:
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
The oldest written account of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight dates from 1400 CE (a contemporary of Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales) and was authored by someone whose name is long forgotten. There are a few good translations in print today (shut up and stop pretending you could actually read the Middle English of the original text!) but the edition I’m presenting for you here comes from Mr. Linguistics himself, J.R.R. Tolkien.
Brace yourself for the bloodiest party game until the creation of Monopoly. Beginning with a dare at a Christmas dinner that ends in a beheading, this story only gets weirder as the tale goes on. After winning the fight while also losing a bet, King Arthur’s nephew, Sir Gawain, must spend the following Christmas on an epic quest to throw down with the Green Knight. It’s a tale of chivalry, romance, adventure, and all the weirdness we can expect from a writer imagining the wider world from their home in medieval England.
And it’s all the better if you saw David Lowery’s visually hypnotic film The Green Knight before reading the original tale like I did. The movie’s visuals were so intense in my imagination when I read the text, even though the movie takes many liberties with the source material. They make for a wonderful pairing of interpretations.
So, don your helm along with some cloaks of ermine fur and pick up your sword and shield! This Christmas you are going to test your brave, fight a Fae, and enjoy the second-best epic poem 15th century England has to offer!
A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
Reigning supreme over the genre, A Christmas Carol is the template all modern Christmas pop culture is built on. Every yuletide movie, book, sitcom holiday episode, and Hallmark movie has embraced the idea that for some reason the holidays are the time to reevaluate your life choices and try to be better. No other season, though, just Christmas.
Should you read it? You’ve seen every movie adaption (the Mickey Mouse one is my nostalgic fav) and you know the story verbatim, but does that mean you actually need to read it? I vote: sure, why not. If you love the story you should try listening to it in Dicken’s own voice. The opening line, “Marley was dead,” is nearly as famous as his opener from A Tale of Two Cities. Plus, it’s a deeply odd and kinda scary story that leans into the Victorian traditions of telling ghost stories at the holidays (There’s also the history of how the novella reinvigorated interest in Christmas in England after a long period of being somewhat passe).
So, give it a try! it’s a quick read with all the familiar cozy feelings of a warm fire, mug of coco, and/or comfy throw blanket.
Letters from Father Christmas by J.R.R. Tolkien
These collected letters were not made for you and me. This was the deeply personal tradition of the Tolkien family, and we are just fortunate enough to be granted a peek. These letters are and will always be for the Tolkien children, a gift from one of the greatest authors of the 20th century written for an audience of four, then three, then two, and finally one.
The letters are very Tolkien. Father Christmas speaks directly to each child like he is an old friend. He’s also magical, with quirky sidekicks, and he’s got an occasionally grumpy demeanor coupled with a healthy appetite. What I’m saying is he’s proto-Gandalf.
Sometimes the letters are short, made with apologies about their lack of detail. Sometimes the letters are long, filled with tales of adventure. Sometimes Father Christmas is just complaining about getting old. At some point in the mid-1930s, Father Christmas begins to worry about goblins, perhaps echoing other European anxieties of the decade (those goblins are even more troublesome in the letters from the 1940s). Most of the letters come with paintings of a fantastical north pole, each a tiny masterwork of illustration.
The letters span twenty years, from the time Tolkien’s oldest was three until his youngest moved on from the magic in 1943. But, thankfully, the family treasured and preserved them and made them available to us. If you believe that there is magic to this season, you will probably find Letters from Father Christmas quite endearing.
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