I have wanted, for a long time, to gather the Christmas stories that feel like they belong around a fire, the kind you can read aloud and feel the room grow quieter. In "Fables from Christmas" you will find baby cradles and barn lanterns, crooked alleys and crowded parlors, cowboys on lonely ranges and children peeking from stairways past their bedtime. Some of the tales are as gentle as candlelight, others carry just enough mischief to make you smile, and together they sketch a wide circle around what this season can mean.

These pages gather beloved classics and half forgotten gems from Christmases long ago, retold with extra room to breathe. A poor traveler knocking on a stranger’s door, a princess escaping her own palace to find real laughter, a little girl who thinks the nativity baby might be cold, an old man who is sure joy has passed him by, each carries a different facet of hope, mercy, or second chances. I wanted the settings to feel vivid and lived in, with snow that crunches underfoot, fires that smoke and crackle, and kitchens that smell of bread and oranges. My hope is that each time you open to a new story, it feels like walking into a house where someone has been waiting for you.

The book moves back and forth between sacred and ordinary spaces, because most of our lives do the same. One night you may be with shepherds under a strange sky or standing near the first evergreen shining with light, the next you are in a cramped city room where children make a feast from whatever is on hand. Santa appears in a few corners, delighted, puzzled, or even surprised with gifts of his own, but just as often the focus is on quiet, unnamed people doing something kind when no one is watching. There are goblins with lessons to teach, scarecrows who find a purpose in winter, and even a family of mice who discover that Christmas has room for them too.

I hope readers will use this collection like an advent of stories, choosing one for each night when the days grow short and the air feels sharp and clean. Some pieces are short enough to slip between chores or bedtime routines, others invite you to settle in and linger. However you read them, my wish is that they will become part of your own family’s mix of carols, recipes, and traditions, resurfacing year after year as familiar friends in a changing season. If these fables can help even a little to keep kindness, wonder, and courage close at hand, then they will have done their work well.