Short Story Connect discussion

"A Christmas Tree" by Charles Dickens. If you've not read this 40-minute story, here it is for free (free audio too) at my Reading Fiction Blog. Most folks are rereading "A Christmas Carol" or watching the film again, but this story reveals Dickens's most intimate feelings and perspectives about Christmas time, family, and of course ghosts. Because what would Christmas be without a Dickens ghost or three?

Curl up with a hot cider and a Christmas cookie and listen to the soothing voice of an immortal writer who has illuminated all our Christmases. His prose is still enthralling in the grandest of ways, making us laugh and cry and showing us who we really are.

He opens his story with . . .

"I have been looking on, this evening, at a merry company of children assembled round that pretty German toy, a Christmas Tree. The tree was planted in the middle of a great round table, and towered high above their heads. It was brilliantly lighted by a multitude of little tapers; and everywhere sparkled and glittered with bright objects . . ."

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The audio would make a fun family holiday listening adventure!