Current Contributing Editor and Wheaton College Professor Timothy Larsen is, in effect, our in-house Christmas expert! He is, after all, the editor of The Oxford Handbook of Christmas. But I personally am particularly grateful that his most recent book on Christmas is not for academics but for families–in fact, my kids and I are reading this one aloud this month. It is Twelve Classic Christmas Stories. Today he answers some questions about this project.
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I just love the concept for this book: Twelve Classic Christmas Stories to go with Twelve Days of Christmas (or, as my kids and I are treating them, as Advent season reading). How did you make the decision about which stories to include in this book? Why these twelve, essentially?Â
I read stacks and stacks of wonderful stories and therefore there were lots of strong runners-up for sure. I wanted the book to be suitable for family reading aloud. That goal actually pulls in opposite directions. First, it means that, of course, no story can be too adult in its themes. On the other hand, however, I wanted a variety pack, so that there would be stories here for a family member who, for example, did not want a sweet, sentimental tale. Twelve Classic Christmas Stories includes a Sherlock Holmes detective story (“The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle”), and Charles Dickens’ “The Goblins Who Stole a Sexton.” The goblins are not at all sentimental, I can promise you. One more criterion was that I was hoping to include a fair number of beloved authors. I knew, for instance, that I hoped to have a story by Lousia May Alcott (the author of Little Women) in the book, before I had selected one (it ended up being “Tilly’s Christmas”). One can also find G. K. Chesterton, Lucy Maud Montgomery, Washington Irving, O. Henry, and more.
It is sort of like asking someone which of their children they love best, but is there one or two among the stories in this book that is a particular favorite of yours?
I’m a fierce champion of George MacDonald’s “The Gifts of the Child Christ.” Most people have never heard of it, but I think it is one of the greatest Christmas stories every written. There is a tragic event in it, so – fair warning – that sadness might be more than some people want in a Christmas story, but it is also a story that jingles with hope, faith, love, and renewal. “The Burglar’s Christmas” by Willa Cather is a gem, and should satisfy even very high hopes for a thoroughly happy story, especially a thoroughly happy ending.
What are some Larsen family Christmas traditions? Is there something in particular that you read or watch together around this time every single year? Or anything else that really has to happen during this season, else it just doesn’t feel like Christmas?
The Benedictine monks at Marmian Abbey, Aurora, have a Christmas tree farm, and we go there every year to cut down our own tree. It is a tradition everyone in the family loves. I obsessively and systematically hunt out Christmas movies–and my family cheerfully joins in on watching them. I have my core favorites. I have made the case in Current for The Bishop’s Wife (1947): I Believe in Christmas Angels. I enjoy continuing to track down obscure ones year by year. This holiday season so far, just to stay in the 1940s, we have watched Beyond Tomorrow (1940) and Cover Up (1949). Then there are the culinary traditions. I have let Current readers know in the past that I roast a goose every year for Christmas Day, and never at any other time (see FORUM: The War on Book Reviews). My wife, Jane, is British, and she makes a crowd-pleasing sherry trifle.Â
To move closer to the sacred heart of the holiday, I have preached a Christmas-themed sermon for our home church every year for over twenty years now. Our founding pastor said from the beginning that I could not repeat a theme, and therefore what new angle on the Nativity story I will come up with is a kind of running joke in the congregation. I have preached on Herod, on Ceasar Augustus, on the swaddling clothes, on the gift of myrrh, and so on. Some people’s favorite was a sermon from Esther chapter 9 (not at all considered a Christmas text) titled, “A Biblical Guide to Partying” (the key is verse 22: “to observe the days as days of feasting and joy and giving presents of food to one another and gifts to the poor.”)