Christmassy nostalgia recommendations

[Privatestate1]

I’m going through a phase of revisiting all my childhood books - at the moment I’m reading the box of delights by John Mansfield, so Christmassy! Any recommendations to jog my memory, if really Christmassy books like this - already thought of Lion, Witch and the Wardrobe, but stuff like that…

The Children of Green Knowe.
The Dark is Rising.

With the Box of Delights these are my essential seasonal reading.

Ooooo yes i remember children of green knowe 🥰🥰 I’ll have to get hold of that. Also reminded me of, A traveller in time

Little Women is quite Christmassy.

Charlotte Sometimes and Tom's Midnight Garden both have that lovely cosiness about them imo.

Ballet Shoes have several Christmas days in it.

The Long Winter by Laura Ingalls Wilder

Seconding The Dark Is Rising. Magical and so atmospheric. I love it.

Thanks for all the suggestions. The dark is rising passed me by as a child so I will check it out. @JaneJeffer i love Laura Ingalls Wilder and recently re read the long winter. little house in the big woods also has some fab cosy Christmas scenes! Also A Country Child…🎄

Yes, the Christmas chapter in A Country Child is essential Christmas reading, every word perfect.

@BobinogBobbleHat has my December reading list exactly! I like to start The Dark is Rising on midwinters day

@StellaOlivetti its just amazing isn’t it!
i remember thinking this exact thoughts as a child 🥰 also the description of her opening her stocking…really captures the excitement.

‘She pressed her nose to the cold windowpane until it became a flat white button, and her breath froze into feathery crystals. ‘This is Christmas Day, it’s Christmas Day, it won’t come again for a whole year. It’s Christmas, she murmured.’

A Country Child
I have that in my reading pile. I may be a bit ancient for it but I will haul it out and read the Christmassy bit.

That reminds me of the wonderful poem A Christmas Childhood by Patrick Kavanagh @Privatestate1

I know there's the obvious Narnia "The Lion the Witch..." but I also enjoy "The Silver Chair" at Christmas. The requisite characters going through terrible adversity etc etc.

Then, as I've mentioned on another thread recently, there's the hardly known Cold Christmas by Nina Beachcroft, one of my all time favourites!

Just went to see if I could download a free sample of The Box of Delights and shocked to see it's not available on kindle or Apple Books! I prefer reading physical books but fancied reading the beginning right here & now!

https://bookadventcalendaruk.wordpress.com/classic-chapter/

I had The Mouse and His Child read to us in primary school. I loved it but it was so sad.

Try Faded Page - www.fadedpage.com/showbook.php?pid=20191066

I came on to suggest Cold Christmas. What a great book.

Just seen this on another thread !!! www.theguardian.com/books/2022/dec/03/midwinter-magic-robert-macfarlane-world-service-the-dark-is-rising-susan-cooper-bbc

Winter holiday by Arthur Ransome is a Christmassy swallows and amazons

Also five go adventuring again is a Christmas famous five book

Also for the much discussed on mumsnet Chalet school there is a book with a really detailed section on a pre WW2 christmas with an Austrian family which I always thought was delightful

It’s in Jo Of The Chalet School I think. Bernhilda’s dad, Herr Mensch, is a self-proclaimed ‘gruff old giant’ serving Jo ‘buttery potato balls’ at Christmas dinner Tyrolean style because Jo is a bit skinny.

Thanks for all these recommendations! I’m definitely going to have a look at Cold Christmas, I’d never heard of that one?!

I bought a new copy of A Traveller in Time and reread it recently. My childhood copy is falling to bits because I read it so many times as a kid!

Just as magical as I remember! That nasty Arabella!

I have reserved A Box of Delights and The Dark is Rising from the library, I haven’t read either of them and they sound like perfect midwinter reading!

I’m reading The Hobbit for the first time at the moment, and though it’s not Christmassy, I’m finding it lovely and cosy and wintry.

Winter Solstice by Rosamund Pilcher is abundant with cheesy Christmas nostalgia. A festive bottle of Badedas even gets a mention.

I can’t resist dipping into Dickens at this time, either. The description of the High Street on Christmas Day in A Christmas Carol is like time travel to how Christmas should be. I adore it.