Classic Christmas Stories

Beth and Jean and three other girls at No. 16 Chestnut Terrace are spending a cheery Christmas together opening presents that came in the mail, since none could go home this year. Beth remarks that Miss Allen, an older woman resident of the boarding house, is apparently alone this year. Though Miss Allen is not widely liked by the girls, they agree that no one should have to spend Christmas alone. Thus, a Christmas Inspiration is born.

In Harriet Beecher Stowe's short story, Christmas in Poganuc, a young New England girl, Dolly, is left alone while the village gathers at the church to celebrate Christmas. This timeless holiday classic was first published in the collection, A Budget of Christmas Tales by Charles Dickens and Others, in 1895. It follows up on Harriet Beecher Stowe's earlier work Poganuc People: Their Loves and Lives.

When Mark Twain's daughter Susie wrote a letter to Santa Claus, her father wrote back, signing Santa's name. Charming and heartwarming, this version of the short letter includes humorous descriptions of Santa's efforts to deliver the requested toys to the Twain household, as well as instructions to meet Santa at an appointed time outside for items that can't fit down the chimney. Written in 1875, Twain's daughter would tragically die of spinal meningitis...

He drew a long sigh of rich content. The old life, with all its bitterness and useless antagonism and flimsy sophistries, its brief delights that were always tinged with fear and distrust and unfaith, that whole miserable, futile, swindled world of Bohemia seemed immeasurably distant and far away, like a dream that is over and done.' First published in 1896, The Burglar's Christmas is a short story by the great American writer Willa Cather. Set in...