Twelve Terrific Things to Read at Christmas

1.	THE ORIGINAL (Matthew Chapter 1:18-25, 2:1-18, Luke Chapter 1:5-80, 2:1-52):  The best Christmas story ever. This one's got everything you could ask for in a story: adventure, excitement, love, betrayal, special effects. Good guys, bad guys, narrow escapes, reversals, mysterious strangers, and a great chase scene. And the promise of a great sequel.

2.	A CHRISTMAS CAROL by Charles Dickens:  The perfect Christmas story, which proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that the only way to begin a Christmas story is with, "Marley was dead: to begin with." And just because you know it all by heart-Scrooge and Tiny Tim and the Ghost of Christmas Past, "I forged these chains in life," and the bedcurtains and the turkey and "God bless us, one and all!"-is no reason not to read it again.

3.	THE BEST CHRISTMAS PAGEANT EVER by Barbara Robinson: This modest children's story of a church Nativity pageant invaded by the horrible Herdman kids, who steal and swear and smoke cigars (even the girls), accomplishes the nearly impossible-the creation of a new classic-and makes the reader look at the story of Mary and Joseph and the baby "wrapped in wadded-up clothes," as the Herdmans do, with new eyes.
4.	"JOURNEY OF THE MAGI" by T. S. Eliot:   The Bible doesn't tell us anything about what the wise men's journey to Bethlehem was like, or how much it must have cost them to make it. Or what happened to them afterwards, when it
was time to go back home.
5.	"THE TREE THAT DIDN'T GET TRIMMED" by Christopher Morley: Obviously inspired by Hans Christian Andersen's sickeningly sentimental "The Fir Tree," this story of a tree that doesn't get bought by anyone and instead gets thrown away not only avoids all the sins of its antecedent, but ends by telling a touching parable of those ultimate Christmas themes, suffering and redemption.
6.	"THE STAR" by Arthur C. Clarke: One of the classics of science fiction by one of the masters in the field, this tells the troubling story behind the star that guided the wise men to Bethlehem.
7.	"DANCING DAN'S CHRISTMAS" by Damon Runyon: When the dust settles on the twentieth century, it's my belief that Damon Runyon will finally be appreciated for his clever plots, his unerring ear for language, and his cast of guys, dolls, gangsters, bookies, chorus girls, crapshooters, Salvation Army soul-savers, high rollers, lowlifes, louts, and lovable losers. I chose "Dancing Dan's Christmas," a story involving a mean mobster, a Santa Claus suit, a diamond vanity case, and a few too many Tom and Jerrys, but it was a tough call. "Palm Beach Santa Claus" and "The Three Wise Guys" were both a close second.
8.	"THE GIFT OF THE MAGI" by O. Henry: O. Henry is another underappreciated author, as witness the fact that dozens of stories, screenplays, and sitcoms have copied the plot of this story. But none of them have ever managed to copy the charm or the style of this simple little tale of a watch fob and a set of tortoiseshell combs.
9.	"RUMPOLE AND THE SPIRIT OF CHRISTMAS" by John Mortimer: If you've encountered the irascible Old Bailey hack, Horace Rumpole, on PBS's Mystery, he seems like the last person to have any Christmas spirit. And he is. Which is why this story works so well. Leave it to John Mortimer to teach us a new meaning of "the Christmas spirit."
10. "THE SANTA CLAUS COMPROMISE" by Thomas Disch: This story of a future in which six- and seven-year-olds have finally gotten their political rights and have exercised them by exposing the Santa scandal could have been written in today's group-rights-activism climate. The fact that it was written back in 1975, when satire was still possible, makes it chilling as well as funny.

11.	"ANOTHER CHRISTMAS CAROL" by P. G. Wodehouse: There's no way to describe a P. G. Wodehouse story, so I won't even try. I'll just say that this is the only Christmas story I know of that involves the bubonic plague and tofu, and that, if you've never read him, there could be no better Christmas gift than discovering P. G. Wodehouse.
12. "FOR THE TIME BEING: A CHRISTMAS ORATORIO"  by W.  H. Auden:  Part play, part poem, part masterpiece, this long work is what you should read in January, when you're taking down the Christmas decorations and your sense of goodwill toward men and putting them away for another year, and then facing the bleak post-Bethlehem world we all find ourselves living in