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Bertie's Christmas Eve
Saki's short stories are famous for their brevity, wit, a light and clever sarcasm, and droll humour. One can expect more of the same, even when a party gathers for Christmas festivities.
This version of Saki’s Bertie’s Christmas Eve includes a table of contents and several Christmas related pictures.
This version of Saki’s Bertie’s Christmas Eve includes a table of contents and several Christmas related pictures.
8 pages, Kindle Edition
First published October 7, 2012
1 person is currently reading
50 people want to read
About the author
Saki
1,668 books588 followersBritish writer Hector Hugh Munro under pen name Saki published his witty and sometimes bitter short stories in collections, such as
The Chronicles of Clovis
(1911).
His sometimes macabre satirized Edwardian society and culture. People consider him a master and often compare him to William Sydney Porter and Dorothy Rothschild Parker. His tales feature delicately drawn characters and finely judged narratives. "The Open Window," perhaps his most famous, closes with the line, "Romance at short notice was her specialty," which thus entered the lexicon. Newspapers first and then several volumes published him as the custom of the time.
His works include
* a full-length play, The Watched Pot , in collaboration with Charles Maude;
* two one-act plays;
* a historical study, The Rise of the Russian Empire , the only book under his own name;
* a short novel, The Unbearable Bassington ;
* the episodic The Westminster Alice , a parliamentary parody of Alice in Wonderland ;
* and When William Came: A Story of London under the Hohenzollerns , an early alternate history.
Oscar Wilde, Lewis Carroll, and Joseph Rudyard Kipling, influenced Munro, who in turn influenced A. A. Milne, and Pelham Grenville Wodehouse.
His sometimes macabre satirized Edwardian society and culture. People consider him a master and often compare him to William Sydney Porter and Dorothy Rothschild Parker. His tales feature delicately drawn characters and finely judged narratives. "The Open Window," perhaps his most famous, closes with the line, "Romance at short notice was her specialty," which thus entered the lexicon. Newspapers first and then several volumes published him as the custom of the time.
His works include
* a full-length play, The Watched Pot , in collaboration with Charles Maude;
* two one-act plays;
* a historical study, The Rise of the Russian Empire , the only book under his own name;
* a short novel, The Unbearable Bassington ;
* the episodic The Westminster Alice , a parliamentary parody of Alice in Wonderland ;
* and When William Came: A Story of London under the Hohenzollerns , an early alternate history.
Oscar Wilde, Lewis Carroll, and Joseph Rudyard Kipling, influenced Munro, who in turn influenced A. A. Milne, and Pelham Grenville Wodehouse.
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
December 29, 2019
Did you know cows can talk on Christmas Eve? This is a pretty amusing Christmas story, but, if there are any moral lessons contained, they are rather displaced and difficult to locate!
December 22, 2023
Bertie is the ne'er-do-well nephew, and in the general glow of the family circle gathered for Christmas he is the "one black unkindled cinder."
Having been sent off to grow tea in Ceylon, and grow fruit in British Columbia, and "to help sheep grow wool in Australia," he is now once again returned from Canada, seen as a burden and a failure by his crusty imperious family. He fears being sent "to a distant corner of Rhodesia, whence return would be a difficult matter."
What does our young unappreciated fun-loving Bertie have to lose by acting up on Christmas Eve?
Featuring a Russian legend, a cow-house, a motor-load of youthful intoxicated bloods, and the aggrieved guardian/uncle who "uncorked an expletive which, like brandy in a temperance household, was only used on rare emergencies."
Despite the brevity of his short stories, Saki always manages to pack in a wealth of sly observations and backhanded social commentary.
Having been sent off to grow tea in Ceylon, and grow fruit in British Columbia, and "to help sheep grow wool in Australia," he is now once again returned from Canada, seen as a burden and a failure by his crusty imperious family. He fears being sent "to a distant corner of Rhodesia, whence return would be a difficult matter."
What does our young unappreciated fun-loving Bertie have to lose by acting up on Christmas Eve?
Featuring a Russian legend, a cow-house, a motor-load of youthful intoxicated bloods, and the aggrieved guardian/uncle who "uncorked an expletive which, like brandy in a temperance household, was only used on rare emergencies."
Despite the brevity of his short stories, Saki always manages to pack in a wealth of sly observations and backhanded social commentary.
December 19, 2025
Naughty or Nice Christmas 2025 - nice
A very short story about a worthless nephew who ruins Christmas Eve for the rest of his family. Mildly amusing, but as usual with short stories, I didn’t see the point.
A very short story about a worthless nephew who ruins Christmas Eve for the rest of his family. Mildly amusing, but as usual with short stories, I didn’t see the point.
December 19, 2025
3.5⭐
The story Bertie's Christmas Eve by Saki is a satirical take on the Christmas celebration, focusing on the character Bertie Steffink, who is a "ne'er-do-well" and who is shortly being sent to Rhodesia. The setting is a Christmas Eve at the home of Luke Steffink, Esq., surrounded by family and guests enjoying festive cheer. The evening begins with dinner, carols, and merriment. A guest recalls a Russian folk belief that animals gain the power of speech at midnight on Christmas Eve. To indulge curiosity, the group visits the cowhouse at midnight, leaving Bertie behind having declined to come along. Bertie, resentful and mischievous, takes advantage of their absence to cause chaos. The story ends with comic disaster, exposing Bertie’s disruptive nature and the family’s misplaced trust
The story Bertie's Christmas Eve by Saki is a satirical take on the Christmas celebration, focusing on the character Bertie Steffink, who is a "ne'er-do-well" and who is shortly being sent to Rhodesia. The setting is a Christmas Eve at the home of Luke Steffink, Esq., surrounded by family and guests enjoying festive cheer. The evening begins with dinner, carols, and merriment. A guest recalls a Russian folk belief that animals gain the power of speech at midnight on Christmas Eve. To indulge curiosity, the group visits the cowhouse at midnight, leaving Bertie behind having declined to come along. Bertie, resentful and mischievous, takes advantage of their absence to cause chaos. The story ends with comic disaster, exposing Bertie’s disruptive nature and the family’s misplaced trust
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December 26, 2019Full of cow houses.
December 7, 2020
Me ha parecido un libro aburrido aunque bien escrito, la trama y los personajes no son interesantes y casi lo abandono a pesar de que es muy corto.
November 29, 2025
I would really like to
give this 10 stars.
It is beyond my comprehension
that anybody would not
like this story.
This is one of the absolute
best short stories that I have
ever read and I have read
very many.
And brilliantly
funny in that sly British way.
give this 10 stars.
It is beyond my comprehension
that anybody would not
like this story.
This is one of the absolute
best short stories that I have
ever read and I have read
very many.
And brilliantly
funny in that sly British way.
December 24, 2016
I've arranged my thoughts on this short story into a haiku:
"A Christmas Eve Lark
That wont be soon forgotten
Nor, likely, lived down."
"A Christmas Eve Lark
That wont be soon forgotten
Nor, likely, lived down."
December 19, 2025
This lesser-known Saki piece applies his signature irony to festive sentimentality. Christmas, here, becomes a setting for social hypocrisy rather than goodwill. Saki delights in exposing how ritual amplifies selfishness under the guise of virtue.
The prose is economical, cutting away excess emotion with surgical dryness. Where Wodehouse softens absurdity, Saki sharpens it. His humour bites gently but decisively.
The story critiques performative morality. Generosity becomes theatre; kindness becomes calculation. Yet Saki avoids bitterness. The laughter is knowing rather than cruel.
Bertie’s Christmas Eve works because it punctures nostalgia without deflating joy entirely. It reminds readers that sincerity, not ceremony, gives meaning to tradition.
Recommended.
The prose is economical, cutting away excess emotion with surgical dryness. Where Wodehouse softens absurdity, Saki sharpens it. His humour bites gently but decisively.
The story critiques performative morality. Generosity becomes theatre; kindness becomes calculation. Yet Saki avoids bitterness. The laughter is knowing rather than cruel.
Bertie’s Christmas Eve works because it punctures nostalgia without deflating joy entirely. It reminds readers that sincerity, not ceremony, gives meaning to tradition.
Recommended.
December 24, 2025
#Natal até quando uma mulher não quer
It was the happiest Christmas Eve he had ever spent. To quote his own words, he had a rotten Christmas.
“Bertie’s Christmas Eve” é mais um dos contos que o hilariante Saki dedicou a protagonistas sem o mínimo espírito natalício. Bertie é um jovem considerado imprestável pelo seu tio Luke Steffink, um fidalgo rural, depois de ter estado em várias colónias britânicas e não ter assentado em nenhuma. Prestes a ser enviado para a Rodésia contra sua vontade, Bertie decide vingar-se da família quando alguém se lembra de uma lenda russa, segundo a qual os animais falam à meia-noite da véspera de Natal.
Oh, do let’s all go down to the cow-house and listen to what they’ve got to say! Exclaimed Beryl, to whom anything was thrilling and amusing if you did it in a troop.
E é no estábulo, esse lugar tão cheio de significado, que Bertie fecha os convidados enquanto fica a divertir-se dentro de casa até lhe apetecer soltá-los.
Must have heard everything cows got to say by this time. If you haven’t, no use waiting, After all, it’s a Russian legend, and Russian Christmas Eve not due for ‘nother fortnight. Better come out.
It was the happiest Christmas Eve he had ever spent. To quote his own words, he had a rotten Christmas.
“Bertie’s Christmas Eve” é mais um dos contos que o hilariante Saki dedicou a protagonistas sem o mínimo espírito natalício. Bertie é um jovem considerado imprestável pelo seu tio Luke Steffink, um fidalgo rural, depois de ter estado em várias colónias britânicas e não ter assentado em nenhuma. Prestes a ser enviado para a Rodésia contra sua vontade, Bertie decide vingar-se da família quando alguém se lembra de uma lenda russa, segundo a qual os animais falam à meia-noite da véspera de Natal.
Oh, do let’s all go down to the cow-house and listen to what they’ve got to say! Exclaimed Beryl, to whom anything was thrilling and amusing if you did it in a troop.
E é no estábulo, esse lugar tão cheio de significado, que Bertie fecha os convidados enquanto fica a divertir-se dentro de casa até lhe apetecer soltá-los.
Must have heard everything cows got to say by this time. If you haven’t, no use waiting, After all, it’s a Russian legend, and Russian Christmas Eve not due for ‘nother fortnight. Better come out.
December 30, 2023
One of the funniest if most irreverent Christmas stories I've ever read. Bertie, a bit of a directionless young man, is sulking during his family's Christmas party because he's being sent off in an effort to introduce him to real work. He gets his revenge on his family when they decide to go out to the barn to see if a legend they've heard — that animals talk at midnight on Christmas Day — is true.
December 16, 2020
You can find this short story online, here: http://www.eastoftheweb.com/short-sto...
December 15, 2022
A hilarious Christmas Eve short story from 1930.
December 11, 2024
I read this as a quick short story to get in for a readathon. Didn't love it haha.
February 8, 2023
This is a wonderful story by a wonderful writer - clearly it's been excerpted for its 'christmas' topicality. I adored it and I adore Saki - but it is by no means one of his really superb gems. If by any chance this story should leave wondering why Saki is probably one of the greatest and funniest writers in English I beg you to search out his stories 'Sredni Vashtar' and 'The Unrest Cure' for a sample of some of his utterly marvelous genius (I can't tell you what discipline it took to stop after recommending just two stories).
I can't think of a better author to bring delight into your reading over the holiday season then Saki. If you know him then I am stating the obvious and if you don't and my words leads you to read him for the first time then I will feel happy to have given you a really special Christmas treat.
I can't think of a better author to bring delight into your reading over the holiday season then Saki. If you know him then I am stating the obvious and if you don't and my words leads you to read him for the first time then I will feel happy to have given you a really special Christmas treat.
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews