24 Christmas Tales

A beloved, bestselling classic of humorous and nostalgic Americana—the book that inspired the equally classic Yuletide film and the live musical on Fox. The holiday film A Christmas Story, first released in 1983, has become a bona fide Christmas perennial, gaining in stature and fame with each succeeding year. Its affectionate, wacky, and wryly realistic portrayal of an American family’s typical Christmas joys and travails in small-town Depression-era Indiana has entered our imagination and our hearts with a force equal to It’s a Wonderful Life and Miracle on 34th Street. This edition of A Christmas Story gathers together in one hilarious volume the gems of autobiographical humor that Jean Shepherd drew upon to create this enduring film. Here is young Ralphie Parker’s shocking discovery that his decoder ring is really a device to promote Ovaltine; his mother and father’s pitched battle over the fate of a lascivious leg lamp; the unleashed and unnerving savagery of Ralphie’s duel in the show with the odious bullies Scut Farkas and Grover Dill; and, most crucially, Ralphie’s unstoppable campaign to get Santa—or anyone else—to give him a Red Ryder carbine action 200-shot range model air rifle. Who cares that the whole adult world is telling him, “You’ll shoot your eye out, kid”? The pieces that comprise A Christmas Story, previously published in the larger collections In God We Trust, All Others Pay Cash and Wanda Hickey’s Night of Golden Memories, coalesce in a magical fashion to become an irresistible piece of Americana, quite the equal of the film in its ability to warm the heart and tickle the funny bone.

Every day in December, discover with this Advent Calendar Storybook a wonderful Christmas tale! Written by the greatest storytellers (Charles Dickens, Hans Christian Andersen, The Brothers Grimm, Louisa May Alcott, O. Henry...), these 24 traditional stories will keep you waiting until D-day. This collection ends with one of Charles Dickens' most beautiful Christmas tales, the story of Scrooge and the three spirits. Contents: 1st December The Gift of the Magi by O.Henry 2nd December A Christmas Dream, and How It Came to Be True by Louisa May Alcott 3rd December The Fir-Tree by Hans Christian Andersen 4th December Christmas Every Day by William Dean Howells 5th December Papa Panov's Special Christmas by Leo Tolstoy 6th December A Kidnapped Santa Claus by L. Frank Baum 7th December Merry Christmas by Stephen Leacock 8th December A Stolen Christmas by Mary E. Wilkins Freeman 9th December A Christmas Tree by Charles Dickens 10th December How the Captain Made Christmas by Thomas Nelson Page 11th December At Christmas Time by Anton Chekhov 12th December A Christmas Sermon by Robert Louis Stevenson 13th December What Christmas is As We Grow Older by Charles Dickens 14th December What the Bell Saw and Said by Louisa May Alcott 15th December How Christmas Came to the Santa Maria Flats by Elia W. Peattie 16th December Christmas; or, The Good Fairy by Harriet Beecher Stowe 17th December Christmas at Red Butte by Lucy Maud Montgomery 18th December Christmas by Washington Irving 19th December The Last Dream of Old Oak by Hans Christian Andersen 20th December Christmas Jenny by Mary E. Wilkins Free 21st December The Elves and The Shoemaker by The Brothers Grimm 22nd December The Little Match Girl by Hans Christian Andersen 23rd December The Night Before Christmas: A Morality by William Dean Howells 24th December A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

Original title: 24 histoires de Noel pour attendre Jesus.

A story for every night of the season of Advent.

Discover the magic of the very first Christmas with this classic picture book. From the author of Owl Babies and Can't You Sleep Little Bear? It's a cold winter's night, and Kind Ox is in his stable. One by one, the animals come, and Kind Ox gives each of them a bed for the night. Until eventually, Tired Donkey arrives with some very special passengers... Retold from the perspective of the animals in the stable, this beautiful book will bring the Christmas story to life for even the youngest children. A true Christmas classic, with a universal message about kindness, this is a book to be treasured and shared by every family. Martin Waddell is one of the greatest living writers of books for children. He has won multiple awards for his work, including the prestigious Hans Christian Andersen Award.

Retells the story of the birth of Jesus Christ, beginning with the visit of an angel to Mary and concluding with the adoration of the wise men.