The Penguin Book of Christmas Stories - Edited by Jessica Harrison

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EDITOR: Jessica Harrison

GENRE: Anthology, Christmas
RATING: 2.6 stars.

In a Nutshell: These are Christmas stories but these aren’t CHRISTMASSY stories! Disappointed.

I had jumped in at the collection simply because of the title. When I later saw its poor rating on Goodreads, I wondered why a Christmas anthology failed to impress readers. Now I know why. It’s a case of misleading branding.

When you see a book titled “The Penguin Book of Christmas Stories: From Hans Christian Andersen to Angela Carter”, what would you expect? I expected happy and feel-good stories full of Christmas spirit. Unfortunately, most of the stories in this anthology are set around Christmas but cannot be called Christmas stories in the true sense of the word. Most of the stories are gloomy tales. More than half don’t make use of the festive season in any sense except in passing mention. Hardly any story generates Christmas cheer. When readers pick up a collection of Christmas stories, I bet not a single one would expect to be depressed after reading it.

The tagline—“From Hans Christian Andersen to Angela Carter”—gives a clear indication that the stories are mostly classics. The range of authors is impressive, but modern readers who aren’t attuned to reading classics will find many of the stories long-winded and boring. Quite a few short story masters such as Saki, O. Henry, Anton Chekhov, Shirley Jackson, and Ray Bradbury have their stories included. Many of the stories are translated ones, so their authors also might be famous for writing in their own language. What I would have liked knowing is the language in which the story was originally written (so that we get an idea of the local culture of the author) and the year in which it was first published (so that we know the societal thinking of that era.)

(On an aside, I bet you thought the O. Henry story would be “The Gift of the Magi.” That’s such a classic Christmas tale! But no, this was some story titled “The Legend of the Christmas Rose.” A lovely story, and one of the better ones in this book.)

Had I read these 32 stories as classic short stories and not as Christmas stories, I might have enjoyed them better. So if you are a fan of classic writers and want to try out an interesting and varied collection, this is recommended. But if you are looking for a heartwarming collection of Christmas stories, do not try this one.

I hate being the Grinch for a Christmas anthology, but I need to add: I would definitely not recommended this book for holiday gifting unless you want to bestow it upon your old English teacher. I’d rather read a joyous collection during Christmas season.

2.6 stars. (1.5 stars as a Christmas collection, 3.75 stars as a classic story collection. Averaged.)

My thanks to Penguin Books and NetGalley for the DRC of “The Penguin Book of Christmas Stories”. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.

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