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The George MacDonald Christmas Collection: An All-New Assortment of Festive Tales and Poems by the man who inspired C S Lewis
George MacDonald's Christmas stories range from the realistic to the marvelous; and from obvious "stand alones" to little gems hidden away for years in his longer works. In this new collection, six of these assorted tales are drawn together, along with ten festive each of them embracing the magic of the season, and showing the Heart to which "The Gifts of the Child Christ" point.
292 pages, Kindle Edition
Published April 27, 2023
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89 people want to read
About the author
George MacDonald
1,680 books2,488 followersGeorge MacDonald was a Scottish author, poet and Christian Congregational minister. He became a pioneering figure in the field of modern fantasy literature and the mentor of fellow-writer Lewis Carroll. In addition to his fairy tales, MacDonald wrote several works of Christian theology, including several collections of sermons.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
January 2, 2023
A meditative collection of Christmas stories that travel the roads of charity, solemn joy, and grace. They possess the gentle touch of a humor colored by a deep fondness and knowledge of humanity, and a longing for the contemplative stillness that we tend to think vanished with modernity.
January 8, 2024
A wonderful collection to take out every Christmas.
November 22, 2022
This is an amazing book of Christmas stories and poems by George MacDonald compiled by my Scottish friend David Jack, with brilliant cover art done by Amy Grimes. My favorite story from the book is Port In A Storm, and my favorite poem is That Holy Thing. I highly recommend it!
December 20, 2025
Given my fondness for MacDonald and for Christmas I was a bit suprised to find that I had not yet read or encountered his famous Christmas stories, beginning of course with The Gifts of the Child Christ which opens the collection. And also happens to be the best of the bunch along with the final story called The Shadows. The first a story that is small and intimate in scale, the second pushing into something more expansive. The first a story of a child, the second the story of a King.
The stories are earthy and human, edging gently into the fantastical. Always with his token eye on the marriage of myth and flesh and blood reality that he understood stories to uphold. A mix of emotions and experiences as well, be it the nostalgic notes of a little girl listening to her papa tell a tale unfraid to mine the darker edges, or the story of Uncle Peter that begins a line like,
"I will tell you the story of my Uncle Peter, who was born on Christmas-day. He was very anxious to die on Christmas-day as well; but I must confess that was rather ambitious."
A statment soon followed by joyous memories of trips to the local toy shop and culminates in the proclomation, "Christmas-day makes all the days of the year as sacred as itself." Or the sentiment, "He was one who believed with his whole soul in the things that make Christmas precious."
Or lines like,
"Just fancy what it might be if some flitting thoughts were to persist in staying to be looked at."
A startling contrast with the line of the next story;
"For he had filled his own mind with shadows, which we Shadows wanted to draw out of him. Those shadows are very different from us, your majesty knows.... They are but Shadows that sing thus, for a Shadow can see but Shadows. A man sees a man where a Shadow sees only a Shadow."
I loved these lines as well, just to accentuate the simple pleasure of Macdonalds prose:
"It is so nice to know that there is a long nothing to do."
"But the truth was each of the two had to become a great deal more than either was, before any approach to unity was possible."
"But his power of reading began to diminish. He became restless and irritable. Something kept gnawing at his heart. There was a sore spot in it. The spot grew larger and larger, and by degrees the centre of his consciousness came to a soreness;"
"A man may have light in the brain and darkness in the heart."
"But there are other winds in the world besides those which shake the fleeces of sheep and the beards of men, or blow ships to the bottom of the sea, or scatter the walls of cottages abroad over the hillsides. There are winds that blow up huge storms inside the hearts of men and women, and blow till the great clouds full of tears go up, and rain down from the eyes to quiet them."
The stories are earthy and human, edging gently into the fantastical. Always with his token eye on the marriage of myth and flesh and blood reality that he understood stories to uphold. A mix of emotions and experiences as well, be it the nostalgic notes of a little girl listening to her papa tell a tale unfraid to mine the darker edges, or the story of Uncle Peter that begins a line like,
"I will tell you the story of my Uncle Peter, who was born on Christmas-day. He was very anxious to die on Christmas-day as well; but I must confess that was rather ambitious."
A statment soon followed by joyous memories of trips to the local toy shop and culminates in the proclomation, "Christmas-day makes all the days of the year as sacred as itself." Or the sentiment, "He was one who believed with his whole soul in the things that make Christmas precious."
Or lines like,
"Just fancy what it might be if some flitting thoughts were to persist in staying to be looked at."
A startling contrast with the line of the next story;
"For he had filled his own mind with shadows, which we Shadows wanted to draw out of him. Those shadows are very different from us, your majesty knows.... They are but Shadows that sing thus, for a Shadow can see but Shadows. A man sees a man where a Shadow sees only a Shadow."
I loved these lines as well, just to accentuate the simple pleasure of Macdonalds prose:
"It is so nice to know that there is a long nothing to do."
"But the truth was each of the two had to become a great deal more than either was, before any approach to unity was possible."
"But his power of reading began to diminish. He became restless and irritable. Something kept gnawing at his heart. There was a sore spot in it. The spot grew larger and larger, and by degrees the centre of his consciousness came to a soreness;"
"A man may have light in the brain and darkness in the heart."
"But there are other winds in the world besides those which shake the fleeces of sheep and the beards of men, or blow ships to the bottom of the sea, or scatter the walls of cottages abroad over the hillsides. There are winds that blow up huge storms inside the hearts of men and women, and blow till the great clouds full of tears go up, and rain down from the eyes to quiet them."
January 9, 2024
It was a delightful teaser into a few of George MacDonald's worlds. I enjoyed the excerpts and poetry chosen for this collection- some were from stories I had read before and were wonderful to revisit and others introduced me to some of his writings I have yet to read. Now I am off to go read those stories in full!
December 25, 2023
E: "I liked the stories a lot. Three or four stars."
K: "Three stars. Some of the stories were sad."
L: "It was a good book. Four stars. I really liked the poems."
H: "Good. Hmph."
P: "It was very different from normal children's stories and dealt with serious topics in an unusual way."
K: "Three stars. Some of the stories were sad."
L: "It was a good book. Four stars. I really liked the poems."
H: "Good. Hmph."
P: "It was very different from normal children's stories and dealt with serious topics in an unusual way."
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews