Charles Dickens: The Christmas Books

by Charles Dickens

Here you will find all the Christmas books and stories written by Dickens.

The Christmas Books:
- A Christmas Carol
- The Chimes
- The Cricket on the Hearth
- The Battle of Life
- The Haunted Man and the Ghost's Bargain

The Christmas Stories:
- A Christmas Tree
- What Christmas is as we Grow Older
- The Poor Relation's Story
- The Child's Story
- The Schoolboy's Story
- Nobody's Story
- The Seven Poor Travellers
- The Holly-Tree
- Wreck of the Golden Mary
- The Perils of Certain English Prisoners
- Going into Society
- A Message From the Sea
- Tom Tiddler's Ground
- Somebody's Luggage
- Mrs. Lirriper's Lodgings
- Mrs. Lirriper's Legacy
- Doctor Marigold
- Mugby Junction
- No Thoroughfare

Genres: Fiction, Classics, Christmas

852 pages, Kindle Edition

Published December 22, 2025

About the author

Charles John Huffam Dickens (1812-1870) was a writer and social critic who created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded as the greatest novelist of the Victorian era. His works enjoyed unprecedented popularity during his lifetime, and by the twentieth century critics and scholars had recognised him as a literary genius. His novels and short stories enjoy lasting popularity.

Dickens left school to work in a factory when his father was incarcerated in a debtors' prison. Despite his lack of formal education, he edited a weekly journal for 20 years, wrote 15 novels, five novellas, hundreds of short stories and non-fiction articles, lectured and performed extensively, was an indefatigable letter writer, and campaigned vigorously for children's rights, education, and other social reforms.

Dickens was regarded as the literary colossus of his age. His 1843 novella, A Christmas Carol, remains popular and continues to inspire adaptations in every artistic genre. Oliver Twist and Great Expectations are also frequently adapted, and, like many of his novels, evoke images of early Victorian London. His 1859 novel, A Tale of Two Cities, set in London and Paris, is his best-known work of historical fiction. Dickens's creative genius has been praised by fellow writers—from Leo Tolstoy to George Orwell and G. K. Chesterton—for its realism, comedy, prose style, unique characterisations, and social criticism. On the other hand, Oscar Wilde, Henry James, and Virginia Woolf complained of a lack of psychological depth, loose writing, and a vein of saccharine sentimentalism. The term Dickensian is used to describe something that is reminiscent of Dickens and his writings, such as poor social conditions or comically repulsive characters.

On 8 June 1870, Dickens suffered another stroke at his home after a full day's work on Edwin Drood. He never regained consciousness, and the next day he died at Gad's Hill Place. Contrary to his wish to be buried at Rochester Cathedral "in an inexpensive, unostentatious, and strictly private manner," he was laid to rest in the Poets' Corner of Westminster Abbey. A printed epitaph circulated at the time of the funeral reads: "To the Memory of Charles Dickens (England's most popular author) who died at his residence, Higham, near Rochester, Kent, 9 June 1870, aged 58 years. He was a sympathiser with the poor, the suffering, and the oppressed; and by his death, one of England's greatest writers is lost to the world." His last words were: "On the ground", in response to his sister-in-law Georgina's request that he lie down.

(from Wikipedia)

Reviews

[J.M. Giovine · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’ve already reviewed ‘A Christmas Carol’, so I’ll be limiting myself to only commenting about the rest of these Christmas-novellas. All in all, ‘Christmas Carol’ is one of the most important literary works, universally; it’s purely a Christmas tale- obviously-, but its message and the way it is executed have no equal, even talking about Dickens’ works. His second tale collected in this is ‘The Chimes: A Goblin Story of Some Bells that Rang an Old Year Out and a New Year In’, or, as it is best known for, ‘The Chimes’, and it was published one year after ‘Carol…’. The story follows Trotty Veck, an elderly "ticket-porter", who plies his trade from the steps of a church, whose Chimes have for many years cheered and encouraged him as he trots around delivering letters. On New Year’s Eve, he’s filled with gloom at reports in the newspapers of working-class crime and immorality and concludes that the poor must be incorrigibly bad by nature. The main core of the story lays about the illusions of how morality is exclusively accommodated for the richer class, diminishing the virtues of the lower ones. The chimes represent time, and the main themes of the story are summarized in the wrongs they accuse Trotty of committing: Harking back to a golden age that never was, instead of striving to improve conditions here and now. Believing that individual human joys and sorrows do not matter to a higher power. Just like ‘A Christmas Carol’, ‘The Chimes’ is divided into four parts, named “quarters", after the quarter chimes of a striking clock. The story also has a similar feeling to Dickens’ previous story; an old man who’s blinded by the illusions of his own superficiality, in this case, being the misinformation Trotty acquires, until a supernatural force is pretty much making him go to an odyssey of eye-opening revelations, which is to say, Trotty Veck is another Dickens-character who’ll go through an important development. Granted, the book is pretty sincere, and some of the themes can feel familiar, compared to the previous story, but the dialogues are more in the likes of what Dickens accomplished in things like ‘Great Expectations’, or ‘A Tale of Two Cities’- both works which would come later in the author’s career-, so, the familiarity should feel more on point for the readers who’d prefer classic-dramatic Dickens. As for the fantastic elements, they are present but not really there, in terms of how the story is presented. However, the message and theme of the story, once again, focuses on the commentary towards poverty, and the illusions of higher society, but surprisingly, Christmas isn’t necessarily the story’s core, or even the scenery. It kind of works as a sort of “spiritual sequel” to ‘A Christmas Carol’, and the essence of Dickens is perhaps stronger in dialogue, and character interactions, but of course, it lacks the authenticity, and uniqueness of Ebenezer’s tale.
The third tale is titled “The Cricket on the Heart”, and just like the previous two, this one is divided into “Chirps”, in a total of three. The story in between chapters offers the different points of view of each one of the several characters here presented, starting with John Peerybingle, a slow but honest carrier, who lives contentedly with his beloved wife Dot and their infant son. Dot is a joyfully attractive woman, and considerably younger than John, but she’s in love with him, and her son, being generally content with her life at her home. The cricket’s chirping- which the story alludes- reflects on the happiness of the family. The plot begins once John gives a lift to a mysterious old man, who invites himself to lodge with the family for a few days. John is surprised at the alacrity with which Dot agrees. In the second “chirping”, we’re introduced to the Peerybingle’s friend, Caleb Plummer, a poor toymaker who lives with his blind daughter Bertha. Caleb is employed by the stern and ill-natured toy merchant Tackleton who announces that he intends to marry one of Dot's old school friends, May Fielding. Some years earlier, May had been the sweetheart of Caleb's son, Edward, before his presumed death in South America, but now with few prospects May has little option but to concede to her mother's insistence that she should marry the wealthy Tackleton. In the third part of this tale, the connection between these characters is presented as a sort of “dramatic comedy”, once the lodger is revealed to be a young man in disguise, and Tackleton draws John's attention to an assignation between Dot and the lodger, and they watch unobserved through a window as the lodger clasps Dot around the waist, making John believe his wife has committed adultery, which makes him speculate that, perhaps, he’s no good to his wife. Suddenly, the cricket on the hearth begins to chip, and in fairy shape shows John visions of his wife's history from her school days onwards, always emphasizing her goodness and loyalty. After a sleepless night, John's desire for revenge fades, and he convinces himself that Dot could never have been truly happy with him, and that he must for her own sake release her from her marriage vows. As expected, everything is resolved once we get to see who the lodger is, making this story a little of a misunderstanding, becoming quite charming on its resolution, making this perhaps Dickens’ most oriented romantic tale, at least, for what the main plot offers from the very start. Compared to the first two Christmas tales, this one isn’t that powerful in its universal message, perhaps because of the kind of motivations these characters had, and the fantastical element doesn’t go as far as what Dickens often works. But as a complementary tale in the book, this one delivers a charmingly warm feeling to it, when you see it as the story of a man who has doubts but has the opportunity to reflect on his wife’ story to reinforce his marriage.
The next one is titled “The Battle of Life”, and as far as I’m concerned, this is one of Dickens’ lesser-known works. It’s about two sisters, living in an English village that happens to stand on the site of an historic battle, although some characters refer to it as a “metaphoric battle”, however, judging by the type of plot, there isn’t that much of a true struggle, rather than a misunderstanding. The story breaks into a 6-year gap once the younger sister, Marion, is betrothed to Alfred Heathfield, and Alfred takes both sisters, Marion, and Grace, on his care after their father’s blessing, since Alfred was his ward. The sister is believed to have left with a libertine called Michael Warden, so eventually, Alfred and Grace fell in love and got married to each other, instead of Marion, as planned. The whole story circles around the disappearance of Marion, and whether she “eloped” with the libertine. In the end, its all about forgiveness, and the pursuit of the true call of the heart. It does maintain the style and the tone of Dickens’ previous- and further- tales, however, and while its pretty much stablished its setting on Christmas season, its perhaps the only one of these tales not being pushed by a supernatural force, and the fantasy is almost null. It’s harmless, and kind of cute once you get a hold on the character’s motivations, but it’s perfectly understandable why it does have such underrated prestige amongst Dickens’ fans. I do admit I struggle with paying attention to the plot and certain dialogues, because of how detached the themes and tones were from the typical Dickens-Christmas tales. Not to say it is a bad story, at all, but given three really good prior tales that embraced the fantastical and whimsical elements of the festivity, it can be a little hard to get through this one.
And the final tale in this collection is titled “The Haunted Man and the Ghost's Bargain”, and it depicts the story of a chemistry teacher, named Redlaw, who often broods over wrongs done him and grief from his past. He is attended to by his servants William Swidger; Swidger's 87-year-old father Philip; and Swidger's wife Milly, who serves as cook and who, with the father, helps decorate Redlaw's rooms with holly. A ghost appears to him, with similar features of his own, making it a twin-ghost of his, who proposes to Redlaw that he can allow him to "forget the sorrow, wrong, and trouble you have known...to cancel their remembrance..." The Ghost also promises that Redlaw will have the power to bestow this same gift on anyone he meets. Redlaw is hesitant at first, but finally agrees. Naturally, as in any Dickens’ story, the protagonist soon discovers the consequences of his own actions, granting a certain similitude to ‘Scrooge’ compared to Redlaw, although, not entirely similar as to call him a “copycat”. Redlaw slowly realizes that his gift of making people forgetting their sorrows works more as a curse, after getting to know a poor family, the Tetterbys, so the moral is pretty much on the nose, although, I do appreciate it was saved for the finale, and delivered in a great fashion. This is perhaps the truest successor of ‘A Christmas Carol’ more in spirit than the previous ones. It did have the fantastic theme within its captivating depiction of its characters, and the overall stagging of how contrasting the poor and their suffering are in Dickens’ tales always works, perhaps as the author’s main subject of exploration. Here is more of the same, but I felt a more genuine value to how it was executed, and a rather stronger honesty, compared to the previous stories (leaving aside, of course, ‘Chirstmas Carol’), so I could say easily that this was my second favorite of the collection, and the one that capture my interest in a deeper way.
In consensus, this was a great read, with a diverse collection of stories from one of the most relevant and influential authors in universal literature, and one that has been acknowledged as the essential “Father of the Christmas Fiction” with his immortal and timeless tales. Suffice it to say, while similar in certain aspects, and kind of corny in the way they were written, these short tales, characters and plots still have the power of engagement for anyone eager to enter the Christmas spirit fashion. With great doses of fantasy, humbleness, intrigue, drama, and morals, Dickens accomplished great pieces of storytelling that happen to be set on one of the year’s most important seasons. Give it a try during the holidays, although these are that good, they work any time of the year.

[Pam McCallister · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book

[Richard Abbott · Rating 3 out of 5]

Christmas Carol 5*, others 2* each

[Beth Huntley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Short stories to whet the appetite for Victorian novella.

[Leonie Ganz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Besonders die bekannteste, verfilmte Weihnachtsgeschichte hat mir gefallen. Die Anderen waren ein bisschen schwerfällig zu lesen.

[Kat · Rating 3 out of 5]

Totally wanted to dive into this and enjoy all of it, but I found some of them super difficult to read or keep my attention on the story. 🙃 so I am dnfing it.

[Beth · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.25 ⭐ I enjoyed some of the stories in this more than others, particularly A Christmas Carol, The Cricket on the Hearth, and The Chimes. I was a bit disappointed as I hadn't realises some of the later stories were unfinished, and I also just didn't find them as interesting as the first few. But overall I still enjoyed some of the stories.