When you think of Charles Dickens and Christmas you probably think about one book that he wrote. We probably all have memories of seeing TV productions of  A Christmas Carol.

Last year I wrote a post about A Christmas Carol, this year I thought I would mention a few more of his Christmas writings.

I have the complete set of The Oxford Illustrated Dickens, so went and pulled down the two Christmas volumes.

The first is Christmas Books. This volume includes A Christmas Carol, The Chimes, The Cricket on the Hearth, The Battle of Life and The Haunted Man.

Each of these books were originally published as single volumes. I really like the original illustrations of this series. The picture on the front cover is Mr. Fezziwig’s Ball from A Christmas Carol.

This volume of Christmas Stories has 21 stories in it, so I am not going to list all of them. The stories come from the pages of Household Words, his twopenny weekly.

The stories all come from his later years after he wrote David Copperfield. Some of the stories are written in collaboration with Wilkie Collins, which make them an interesting read. They don’t have the pure Dickensian character to them.

I plan on reading a few of the stories this year. The illustration on the front cover comes from No Thoroughfare, so perhaps that will be one of them. I am intrigued by the picture and wonder how the story relates to Christmas.

The books are also making me think of this picture of my Grandpa. With a few wardrobe tweaks, he would fit right into a Dickens Christmas story.

Is there a Christmas story or poem that you read every year?

Steven