Retro Reads discussion

We’d like to continue our annual tradition of reading 4 or 5 holiday-themed short stories in December. Please use this thread to nominate any stories you’d like to suggest!

Reminders:
* This group focuses on works written between 1920-1980. A little earlier than that is okay, but generally the Victorian era is too early.
* Stories that are free online are great but it’s not a requirement.

Thanks for helping to make this a fun group!

And what's your page count for "short stories"?

No set rule. I think one or two novella length stories would be fine, we just wouldn’t want all of them to be that long.

I've never read them, but I have a friend who annually re-reads Truman Capote's "A Christmas Memory" (GR says 48 pages) and "The Thanksgiving Visitor" (37 pages).

Previous Christmas Short Stories:

Dec 2017
#1: "A Kidnapped Santa Claus"
#2: The Star
#3: "The Burglar's Christmas"
#4: "The Gift of the Magi"
#5: I Saw Three Ships
#6: "A Child's Christmas in Wales"

Dec 2018
#1: "The Tailor of Gloucester"
#2: "On Christmas Day in the Morning"
#3: "Dancing Dan's Christmas"
#4: "The Greatest Gift"

How about

The Father Christmas Letters by J.R.R. Tolkien
Every December an envelope bearing a stamp from the North Pole would arrive for J.R.R. Tolkien’s children. Inside would be a letter in a strange, spidery handwriting and a beautiful colored drawing or painting from Father Christmas.
111 pages *Originally written between 1920 and 1942*
(Currently on kindle unlimited)

This one might be too long

Peace On Earth, Good Will To Dogs by Eleanor Hallowell Abbott
Whimsical Christmas Tale featuring dogs!
107 pages, published 1920
*free print online through Project Gutenberg, free audio through LibriVox*

Merry Christmas by Stephen Leacock
A man struggling to write a Christmas story gets a visit from Father Time to discuss what's wrong with Christmas, then is treated to Father Christmas' arrival, rekindling his true belief in the season's magic.
25 pages, published 1914
*free print online through Project Gutenberg, in these two collections:
Christmas Short Works Collection 2006 (Short Christmas works by various authors)
and
Frenzied Fiction (a collection of Leacock's short stories)

Christmas at Red Butte by L.M. Montgomery
A delightful tale of a Christmas sacrifice by renowned storyteller Lucy Maud Montgomery.
*free print online through Project Gutenberg and free audio through LibriVox*
15 pages, published 1909

We’ve had a nomination in another thread for Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas! (written in 1957) that I’ll add here for the sake of keeping everything together.

I also ran a search on Gutenberg.org for ”Christmas” and found a whole slew of short stories. I’ll dig through them to see if I can find any that I like that aren’t too old.

How the Grinch Stole Christmas! - what a classic!

Kathryn wrote: "I've never read them, but I have a friend who annually re-reads Truman Capote's "A Christmas Memory" (GR says 48 pages) and "The Thanksgiving Visitor" (37 pages)."

A Christmas Day in the Morning is on You Tube - narrated by Capote! Total running time 8.46minutes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G0vjT...

There's also at least one YouTube video of someone reading How the Grinch Stole Christmas aloud, with Dr. Seuss's original illustrations, in case anyone doesn't have access to the book.

I also highly recommend the 1966 25-minute animated version narrated by Boris Karloff, with the classic song as sung by Thurl Ravenscroft (which can also be found on YouTube). I love it far more than the later movies. We used to watch it on TV every December when I was a kid.

Interesting trivia: Ravenscroft's name was accidentally left off the credits in the TV animated version, leading many (including me!) to think that Boris Karloff sang the song "You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch", until Ravenscroft was finally publicly credited. And although the lyrics to the song are not in the original book, they were in fact written by Dr. Seuss, for the TV special.

Tadiana ✩Night Owl☽ wrote: "There's also at least one YouTube video of someone reading How the Grinch Stole Christmas aloud, with Dr. Seuss's original illustrations, in case anyone doesn't have access to the book.

I also hig..."
Oh, my, I didn’t know that - I thought that was Karloff singing, also!

I have never seen a filmed version of the Grinch - if we read it, I will def check it out!

How about this? Written in 1899/1900.

At Christmas Time by Anton Chekhov

https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Wi...

The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams (1922 story, free on Gutenberg). It’s only a Christmas story in the broader sense, but it’s a sweet story and it does begin on Christmas morning. :)

Tadiana ✩Night Owl☽ wrote: "The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams (1922 story, free on Gutenberg). It’s only a Christmas story in the broader sense, but it’s a sweet story and it does begin on Christmas morni..."
I would vote for that, it's been a long time since I read it. decades! but I think I remember I cried.

Tadiana ✩Night Owl☽ wrote: "The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams (1922 story, free on Gutenberg). It’s only a Christmas story in the broader sense, but it’s a sweet story and it does begin on Christmas morni..."

Ooh I have never read that! Seconded! Seconded, I say!

A couple of comments on Truman Capote’s “A Christmas Memory”: The YouTube version with him reading it is an abridged version. The full text is online and you can find it with a quick Google search (I just went and checked) but I would guess it’s not authorized because the story is still copyrighted (I assume). You can also buy a used hard copy for about $4 on AbeBooks (my favorite source for cheap used books because the price almost always includes the cost of shipping).

Tadiana ✩Night Owl☽ wrote: "A couple of comments on Truman Capote’s “A Christmas Memory”: The YouTube version with him reading it is an abridged version. The full text is online and you can find it with a quick Google search ..."

Thank you Tadiana!

Funny that the author would do an abridged version (or it seems funny to me) Still, it is a chance to hear his voice.

Since I really enjoyed on Christmas Day in the morning last year, I would like to nominate on Christmas Day in the Evening by Grace S. Richmond.

Published around 1910, free on kindle also available as a hardback or paperback. Length seems to be 40-52 pages.

For some reason I can't link to this title, sorry.

Here you go: On Christmas Day in the Evening

Thanks! :)

In fairness I should note that the reading of the Grinch that’s on YouTube, not to mention the 1966 animated version that’s also there, are presumably violating copyright as well. Not that that stopped me from watching the animated show last night on YouTube. But that’s on me. (Somewhere in my house there’s an old videocassette of that show that we bought, so I don’t really feel guilty.)

Boris Karloff’s narration is brilliant, btw.

Tadiana ✩Night Owl☽ wrote: "In fairness I should note that the reading of the Grinch that’s on YouTube, not to mention the 1966 animated version that’s also there, are presumably violating copyright as well. Not that that sto..."

Oh, my gosh, we watched it every year growing up, and I still try to catch it even though my son has outgrown it! Karloff is excellent- my younger (taller) sister still refers to me as “Suzie-Lou Who” (I’m the shortest in the family!)

I looked for the animated version but didn't find a free option.

Here's the link to the 1966 animated version: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list...-

It's in 6 parts (which play automatically in succession) and gets interrupted in odd places to play YouTube ads, but they're pretty brief and not too obnoxious.

Tadiana ✩Night Owl☽ wrote: "Here's the link to the 1966 animated version: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list...-

It's in 6 parts (which play automatically in succession) and gets interrupted..."

the link didn't work for me - it said invalid parameters. :(

Hmm, it doesn’t work now for me either. Try this: go to YouTube and run a search for “how the grinch stole christmas 1966”. Then look for the videos posted by Dave deBlecourt. If you see it described as “6 videos,” that’s it.

I found it searching on deBlecourt. thank you! although, now I think I should save it until a week from today: I have a strict no Christmas music until after Thanksgiving rule, I might extend it to all media.

but what if someone makes it disappear? that can happen on youtube: copyright, you know.

One more nomination?

Christmas with Ida Early by Robert Burch - it's actually a small book, but it's a quick, funny and heart-warming book which takes place at the end of the Depression.

Thanks Karlyne! I'll try to set up a poll tonight.

Did you finish the poll, Karlyne? Or the noms? I just realized the date (I guess I'm used to an earlier Thanksgiving). I didn't see the poll up yet, but I'm only throwing this out if you need more.
Just came across the 125-page The Abbot's Ghost: A Christmas Story by A.M. Barnard (aka Louisa May Alcott). She seems to write a lot of Christmas stories, but if you need more nominations, this might be fun.

It’s my bad, I got absent-minded and forgot to put up a poll. (Can I blame the holidays?) 😎 Since December is now upon us, per a suggestion Carol made to me, I’m just going to make an executive decision and put out a list this weekend. Preference will be given to online freebies or otherwise easily accessible stories (like the Grinch, which will definitely be on the list). If there’s a story you feel strongly about, let me know ASAP!

Sounds fine to me :D

Here's the final list, per moderatorial fiat. Hope you like it!

Dec. 2-8: How the Grinch Stole Christmas! by Dr. Seuss.
Dec. 9-15: A Christmas Memory by Truman Capote.
Dec. 16-22: The Velveteen Rabbit.
Dec. 23-29: On Christmas Day in the Evening.

Thanks so much for the nominations! I really wanted to fit in more, especially Chekhov's "At Christmas Time" (which is SAD but thought-provoking) and Montgomery's "Christmas at Red Butte." Check them out on your own!

My daughters performed in a ballet of The Velveteen Rabbit, way back when, so I'll try to find a copy of it and revisit it. And I also think I have the Grinch and A Christmas Memory in an anthology somewhere? But I've never heard of On Christmas Day in the Evening!

Karlyne wrote: "My daughters performed in a ballet of The Velveteen Rabbit, way back when, so I'll try to find a copy of it and revisit it. And I also think I have the Grinch and A Christmas Memory in an anthology..."

We did On Christmas Day in the Morning by the same author. It was a really sweet story. Anyone who didn't read it last year should check it out!

Karlyne, do you do ebooks? Gutenberg has The Velveteen Rabbit, as well as the two stories by Grace Richmond.

Looks good. I've had Velveteen on my phone for years, so now I have no excuses on that one.
As for Grinch, I could read that one again and again. A fave for over #% years!

Tadiana ✩Night Owl☽ wrote: "Karlyne, do you do ebooks? Gutenberg has The Velveteen Rabbit, as well as the two stories by Grace Richmond."

Very rarely! Too hard on my extremely myopic eyes!

Bummer! Have you tried changing the font size, color or type in the Kindle app? If not, it would be worth a shot. It's a lot easier to read ebooks now than it used to be. If you've already tried that, I'm sorry!

Tadiana ✩Night Owl☽ wrote: "Bummer! Have you tried changing the font size, color or type in the Kindle app? If not, it would be worth a shot. It's a lot easier to read ebooks now than it used to be. If you've already tried th..."

The problem is that I read mostly during the early morning hours, before I put my contacts in (I've had hard lenses for most of my life, although I'm thinking of transitioning back to glasses - less maintenance, but also less sharp vision, still waffling). Anyhow, I can hold a book up to my nose, but holding a screen that close is not recommended!