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A Budget of Christmas Tales
A collection of old fashioned but interesting Christmas short stories. Contents Dickens, C. A Christmas carol -- Sangster, M. E. The Christmas babe -- Corning, Mrs. W. H. A western Christmas -- Bacheller, I. Joe's search for Santa Claus -- Schayer, J. Angela's Christmas -- The first Puritan Christmas tree -- Butterworth, H. First New England Christmas -- Dickens, C. The chimes -- Redmond, C. Billy's Santa Claus experience -- Stowe, Mrs. H. B. Christmas in Poganuc -- Molesworth, Mrs. The Christmas princess -- Widow Townsend's visitor -- Wilcox, E. W. The old man's Christmas -- Dickens, C. The Christmas goblin -- Mead, C. H. The song of the star -- Collingwood, H. W. Indian Pete's Christmas gift -- My Christmas dinner -- Dickens, C. The poor traveler -- The legend of the Christmas tree -- Ewing, J. H. The peace egg.
172 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1895
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
June 21, 2022
Overall these were nice holiday stories. However, Dickens' "A Christmas Carol" is abridged and I found Collingwood's "Indian Pete's Christmas Gift" racist descriptions of Indians stuck in my craw.
January 1, 2025
Some of these stories were quite enjoyable.
March 17, 2018
This is a fascinating peek into the world of England and America in 1895 through a lens of Christmas tales and traditions. So many details of "normal" life that surprise us or reveal the beliefs of that age spill blandly through the pages -- from old-fashioned American Christians who held firmly to the belief that celebrating Christmas was wrong; to the ho-hum normality of going to school on Christmas Day after opening presents; to the discovery that the British medieval practice of mummers going from house to house to perform "plays" was still going strong in the late 1800s.
The great social weakness of the time spill blandly through the pages, too. These stories include British MPs "outlawing" destitution; the assumption that the solution to cruel, pigheaded, tyrannical misogynistic old men is not for the men to be disenfranchised of their unjust power and women given their rights, but for the women to quietly suffer for so many years that they either die of sorrow or finally soften the old SOB's heart. Oh, and there's a shocking little tale praising a Native American because it is so amazing he can do something good despite his race making him inherently "degenerate" -- that one sort of leaves you blinking with your mouth agape.
BUT... the world was what it was back then, and it's no good pretending it wasn't.
In the end, I found the uplifting parts of these Christmas tales more uplifting for the settings they lay in. Christmas is about salvation, hope, grace -- the desire to escape sin and the fulfilling of that desire. We seldom see our own weaknesses. A book like this -- in which the weakness of the characters and their world are so obvious to modern eyes -- allows us to catch a glimpse of the power of grace to change hearts. For no matter how blind these characters or their authors may be, their desire for something better impels them forward.
Several of the stories were very enjoyable, no matter what age they are read in. Dickens' tales certainly fell into this group, and several of the other authors' stories did to. (Note, though, that Dickens tales are abridged. But this was the first place I had seen several of them.)
This particular edition is an audiobook published in the public domain by Librivox. (Here it is: https://librivox.org/a-budget-of-chri... )
It uses different volunteer narrators for different stories, so there's a wide variety of narrating styles. If you don't like one, skip on to the next, because it will be totally different.
The great social weakness of the time spill blandly through the pages, too. These stories include British MPs "outlawing" destitution; the assumption that the solution to cruel, pigheaded, tyrannical misogynistic old men is not for the men to be disenfranchised of their unjust power and women given their rights, but for the women to quietly suffer for so many years that they either die of sorrow or finally soften the old SOB's heart. Oh, and there's a shocking little tale praising a Native American because it is so amazing he can do something good despite his race making him inherently "degenerate" -- that one sort of leaves you blinking with your mouth agape.
BUT... the world was what it was back then, and it's no good pretending it wasn't.
In the end, I found the uplifting parts of these Christmas tales more uplifting for the settings they lay in. Christmas is about salvation, hope, grace -- the desire to escape sin and the fulfilling of that desire. We seldom see our own weaknesses. A book like this -- in which the weakness of the characters and their world are so obvious to modern eyes -- allows us to catch a glimpse of the power of grace to change hearts. For no matter how blind these characters or their authors may be, their desire for something better impels them forward.
Several of the stories were very enjoyable, no matter what age they are read in. Dickens' tales certainly fell into this group, and several of the other authors' stories did to. (Note, though, that Dickens tales are abridged. But this was the first place I had seen several of them.)
This particular edition is an audiobook published in the public domain by Librivox. (Here it is: https://librivox.org/a-budget-of-chri... )
It uses different volunteer narrators for different stories, so there's a wide variety of narrating styles. If you don't like one, skip on to the next, because it will be totally different.
November 17, 2011
Some very old fashioned but interesting Christmas short stories of His times.
December 23, 2014
not what I expected
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews