Christmas Fireside Stories is a delightful festive collection of short stories that includes delicious Christmas recipes recommended by the authors as well as extracts from your favourite saga novels. Christmas at Briar Farm by Diane Allen Christmas preparations are in full swing at Briar farm as the Bainbridge family get ready for a traditional 1960s Christmas – with all the trimmings. Kate's Miracle by Rita Bradshaw It's Christmas 1919 and things are looking bleak for Kate and her two small children in the north of England. That is until Kate discovers the strength of friendship and community at Christmas time . . . The Gift by Margaret Dickinson Christmas Eve, 1914. A moment of hope unites soldiers on both sides of the firing line as the spirit of Christmas crosses even the divides of war, and an act of generosity changes one man's life forever. Christmas at Thalstead Halt by Annie Murray At Thalstead Halt, the station master has the unexpected task of sheltering snow bound passengers in the run up to Christmas 1886. And the eclectic mix of travellers bring more than one surprise with them . . . You'll Never Know Just How Much I Love You by Pam Weaver Christmas, 1943. The post office at Goring-on-Sea is surrounded by a heavy blanket of winter snow but nothing can stop the last post, or the power of true love at Christmas time. A Wounded Christmas by Mary Wood Can friendship, humour and a Boxing Day party help to ease the sorrows of 1942? A heart-warming story featuring characters from the saga novel Proud of You.

Chapter headings are : Christmas is Christ -- Christmas is Santa Claus -- Christmas is Dickens -- Christmas is Home.

Every time their brother turned a cartwheel, golden oranges fell from his pockets, along with sugar sweets in gold and silver paper. Schnitzle, Schnotzle & Schnootzle

Presents a collection of Christmas stories, poems, and other writings by such American, British, and Canadian authors as O. Henry, Robert Louis Stevenson, and Margaret Atwood.

Ghost stories at Christmas can be traced back to pagan times - Yule and Saturnalia - when the Winter Solstice (like Hallowe'en and Wulpurgis Night) was viewed as a moment in space and time where the thinness of the boundaries between the supernatural and human worlds became remarkably plastic, and all manner of strange things were said to be seen and heard in the winter air. while we no longer have the old stories spoken in the old homes around the old fires by the old myth-keepers, let us sit around and enjoy some of the stories that would have sent shivers up the great-great-grandchildren of those little ones sitting around the Yule fire - the supernatural literature of the Victorians and Edwardians. Enclosed in this volume are tales of dark winter nights and harrowing encounters between the worlds of Man and the Hereafter. There are tales of cursed antiquities, otherworldly toy stores, possessed dolls, deals with the devil, and murderous cabin fever. I hope your Christmas is - as M. R. James put it "may be the cheerfuller for a story-book" which takes you back to a different world - one not mapped out, trending, or tweeted about, one dark, forbidding, and evocative. Perhaps I may be a luddite for saying it, but I find something strangely comforting in that. Something consoling and hushing and chilling. Perhaps you will, too.

Chapter headings are : Christmas is Christ -- Christmas is Santa Claus -- Christmas is Dickens -- Christmas is Home.

A touching collection of stories that brings gifts from the heart and joy to the soul.