The Christmas Spirit Reading Challenge - Finished

The Christmas Spirit Reading Challenge

I chose the level of Christmas Tree to read 5 or 6 books and I  also chose the additional level of Fa La La La Films to watch a bunch or a few of Christmas films.

I ended up reading 14 books / tales

1.  Twas the Night Before Christmas by Clement C. Moore
2. A Christmas Greeting, A Series of Stories by H.C. Andersen
3. Christmas Eve by Robert Browning
4. The Father Christmas Letters by J.R.R. Tolkien
5. Father Christmas by Raymond Briggs
6. The Polar Express by Chris Van Allsburg
7. Christmas at Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibson
8. Twelve Days of Christmas by Trisha Ashley
9. The Spirit of Christmas by Henry Van Dyke
10. A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
11. The Magic of Christmas by Trisha Ashley
12. Holiday Tales: Christmas in the Adirondacks by W.H.H. Murre
13. Mr. Kris Kringle by Silas Weir Mitchell
14. Old Christmas by Washington Irving

I know it looks like quite a lot but at least half of them are rather short. I am still sure I passed my level.

I also ended up watching a lot of films.

1. Jack Frost
2. The Littlest light on the Christmas tree
3. White Christmas
4. The Christmas shoes
5. The Bear
6. A Christmas Carol (Patrick Stewart)
7. Nativity
8.  The Light Before Christmas
9. A Christmas Carol (Jim Carrey)
10. Christmas Story
11. It is a Wonderful Life ( I need to watch this every year and I did)

The Christmas Spirit Reading Challenge

Old Christmas by Washington Irving

Of all the old festivals, however, that of Christmas awakens the strongest and most heartfelt associations. There is a tone of solemn and sacred feeling that blends with our conviviality, and lifts the spirit to a state of hallowed and elevated enjoyment. The services of the church about this season are extremely tender and inspiring. They dwell on the beautiful story of the origin of our faith, and the pastoral scenes that accompanied its announcement. They gradually increase in fervour and pathos during the season of Advent, until they break forth in full jubilee on the morning that brought peace and good-will to men. I do not know a grander effect of music on the moral
feelings than to hear the full choir and the pealing organ performing a Christmas anthem in a cathedral, and filling every part of the vast pile with triumphant harmony.An excerpt from Goodreads
  

Not my kind of book, the story was okay and could maybe have been interesting but it felt long winded and boring.
  
 The last two Christmas films I saw were:


Christmas Story
Discover the secret of the greatest story ever told! A long long time ago in the frozen North Pole the greatest legend of them all was born. Little Nicholas is an orphan who is looked after by a different family every Christmas. To repay their kindness Nicholas spends his days carving wooden toys which he secretly leaves on their doorstep every Christmas Eve. Over the years, after so much kindness, almost every home in the village gets a gift and so the legend of Father Christmas is born. But one day Nicholas is forced to live with an evil carpenter who bans him from making toys. Suddenly, the whole tradition of Christmas is threatened and it will take a miracle to save it. 

This film was absolutely wonderful and has made it to the list of films that has to be watched again next year. I would love to find it in Finnish with English subtitles as the version I saw was the dubbed one. As with any good Christmas film I cried more than once.

It's a Wonderful Life.
The best Christmas film ever. Everything goes bad on the day of Christmas Eve but of course everything turns out brilliantly. A must see Christmas film.

Mr. Kris Kringle by Silas Weir Mitchell

It was Christmas Eve. The snow had clad the rolling hills in white, as if in preparation for the sacred morrow. The winds, boisterous all day long, at fall of night ceased to roar amidst the naked forest, and now, the silent industry of the falling flakes made of pine and spruce tall white tents. At last, as the darkness grew, a deepening stillness came on hill and valley, and all nature seemed to wait expectant of the coming of the Christmas time.[6]
Above the broad river a long, gray stone house lay quiet; its vine and roof heavy with the softly-falling snow, and showing no sign of light or life except in a feeble, red glow through the Venetian blinds of the many windows of one large room. Within, a huge fire of mighty logs lit up with distinctness only the middle space, and fell with variable illumination on a silent group about

the hearth. On one side a mother sat with her cheek upon her hand, her elbow on the table, gazing steadily into the fire; on the other side were two children, a girl and a boy; he on a cushion, she in a low chair. Some half-felt sadness repressed for these little ones the usual gay Christmas humor of the hopeful hour, commonly so full for them[7] of that anticipative joy to which life brings shadowy sadness as the years run on. extract from Goodreads


It sounded as if it was going to be a very sad story but it was not. It starts sad but everything is solved as it should be in a Christmas tale. I enjoyed this short story very much.

Holiday Tales: Christmas in the Adirondacks

Holiday Tales: Christmas in the Adirondacks by W.H.H. Murrey

There are 2 tales in this book. They are both about the old trapper John Norton and Christmas. It was really funny, very Christmassy and also heart warming.
I thoroughly enjoyed this as part of my Christmas Spirit reading Challenge.

The Christmas Spirit Reading Challenge

And a bit more of what I have been reading and watching these last few days.

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. A must read story for Christmas. I enjoyed it as usual and will read it again next year. And with perfect timing I finished the story on Christmas Eve.

                                       The Magic of Christmas By Trisha Ashley.
                                       I bought this after reading Twelve Days
                                       of Christmas. Again I do not think there are
                                       any surprises in the book, We know what
                                       will happen and who done it.
                                       Predictable but enjoyable. A nice clean
                                       romance.

And another film:

A Christmas Carol with Jim Carrey.
I started watching this one evening but had to stop as I was falling asleep. I did finish watching it the next day but this version of A Christmas Carol will not be on my "have to watch every Christmas" list. It was boring and had sequences that I did not feel fitted in.

The Christmas Spirit Reading Challenge

I have been reading a lot and watching a few films the last few days. It has been nice and cosy.

Twelve days of Christmas by Trisha Ashley.
I received this book as one of the 25 e-books I got from my husband in my Christmas Calendar.
I really enjoyed it, there was no doubt how the story would end and who the main character would end up with. But I found the story very entertaining and her description of the elderly characters  was brilliant.

I decided that I would like to read more of this author.

                                    The Spirit of Christmas by Henry Van Dyke.
                                    It was an OK book but I was surprised by
                                    how  religious it was. Not my kind of book.

Now a couple of films.

Nativity, a British Christmas film.
Well, I do not think I always understand or appreciate the British humour! I thought the first part of this film was just too silly whereas my English husband was giggling away. The film did improve though and I thoroughly enjoyed the last half of the film.

The Light Before Christmas is a nice short Christmas animation wherein the story of  "Twas the Night Before Christmas" was told.
I enjoyed this and it was perfect viewing for the 24th of December.

The Christmas Spirit Reading Challenge

It is the 4th Sunday of Advent and I have another book and film update.

Christmas at Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibson.   

A glorious collection of stories from the author of Cold Comfort Farm. The title story tells of a typical Christmas at the farm before the coming of Flora Poste. It is a parody of the worst sort of family Christmas: Adam Lambsbreath dresses up as Father Christmas in two of Judith's red shawls. There are unsuitable presents, unpleasant insertions into the pudding and some good Starkadder table talk over. Aunt Ada Doom orders Amos to carve the turkey, adding: "Ay, would it were a vulture, 'twere more fitting!" extract from Goodreads

I looked through the list from The Christmas Challenge of Christmas books released in 2011  and decided to buy this one. The extract only describes the first of the sixteen stories whereof only two are about Christmas. And the book is from around 1940.
I think the name of the book is a bit misleading as there are only 2 Christmas stories. The one naming the book is quite special but good non the less. Despite this I really enjoyed this book. The stories often had another ending than I expected.

Now the films.

The Bear, an animation from the book of the same name by Raymond Briggs.
A cute, excellent animation which I truly enjoyed. If you have the chance, see it. I now want the book!

 
A Christmas Carol with Patrick Stewart.
At the moment this is my favourite edition of A Christmas Carol 

The Christmas Spirit Reading Challenge

After reading Christmas Eve by Robert Browning I needed to read something that would bring back the Christmas Spirit. I selected 3 short Christmas stories that was sitting on my bookshelf.

Ever since being introduced to this book of letters from Father Christmas, I think I have read it once every year. It is absolutely brilliant and I will recommend it to everyone.

                                                                        

                                     
Father Christmas by Raymond Briggs is another brilliant book about how hard the  night of Christmas is for Father Christmas. I also love this one and read it every year.

Another must have Christmas book. I saw the film first and then bought the book. And the film is on the to watch this Christmas list. Again, a book I can recommend to everyone.

Three very good books and just right for bringing back the Christmas Spirit

I have also watched a Christmas film over the weekend.

A heart warming very sad film about 2 families. One with a workaholic father, the other a dying mother. Reading the reviews before buying this some people just hate it. I am not one of them, I quite liked it and cried all the way through. This film will be put back in the Christmas box to be watched again next year.

The Christmas Spirit Reading Challenge

It is about time I update my Christmas reading and film watching.

I have read 3 books or rather book might be a rather large word to use for them.

I started by reading Twas the Night Before Christmas by
Clement C. Moore. I have actually never read this poem before but it was a great start to my Christmas reading

Christmas Greeting, A Series of Stories by H.C. Andersen. That sounds like a Christmas book, does it not?
It was not, it is as it says: A Series of Stories. Of the 13 stories only one is close to Christmas and that is "The Little Match-Girl" which takes place on New Years eve.
But that said, I absolutely love H.C. Andersen's short stories and fairy tales. Here I read them in English but I will quite often read them in Danish as that was his and is my native language.

Today I read this short story.
"Christmas-Eve" is an account of a vision in which the narrator is taken to a Nonconformist church, to St. Peter's in Rome, to a Göttingen lecture theatre where a practitioner of the Higher criticism is discoursing on the Christian myth, and back to the Nonconformist church. extract from wikipedia
After I read the story I had to go hunting on the net for the above description as I had no clue what I had just read! I think that says it all and no I did not like this one.

I did actually finish it but only because it was only about 40 pages, much longer and I would not have, I was struggling as it was.



I have also started to watch Christmas films.

Jack Frost.
I liked it, it was of course  sad in places but also funny and heart-warming.

The Littlest Light on the Christmas Tree.
Cute and sweet. Make sure you watch it with small kids

 White Christmas.
  One of the classics and I of course enjoyed it.

The Christmas Spirit Reading Challenge

I have chosen to take part in The Christmas Spirit Reading Challenge, it just sounds so cosy and again my husband within a minute gave me loads of suggestions. This time he just brought his Kindle out which already had a folder called Christmas Tales containing 18 Christmas books / tales.

I have chosen the level of Christmas Tree to read 5 or 6 books and I have also chosen the additional level of Fa La La La Films to watch a bunch of Christmas films.

My list of books (or list of suggested books)

1. The Christmas Books by William M. Thackery
2. Twas the Night before Christmas by Clement C: Moore
3. Christmas Tales and Christmas Verse by Eugene Field
4. A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
5. A Christmas Greeting: A Series of Stories by Hans Christian Andersen
6. Old Christmas by Washington Irving
7. Christmas Eve by Robert Browning

These are all quite old Christmas books so I think I will take a look at the list of new Christmas books as well. We will see.

My list of films (I will only mention a few as I have a huge list on the to watch list)

1. Jack Frost
2. The Littlest light on the Christmas tree
3. Christmas shoes
4. A Christmas Carol: several different versions
5. Polar Express
6. It is a Wonderful Life ( I need to watch this every year)

I am so looking forward to this challenge.