Christmas With Charles Dickens

“Each story made me realize how much Christmas must have meant to Charles Dickens.”

Review by Rayleigh Setser

This paperback will feature three Christmas-themed stories by the author, led by “The Story of the Goblins Who Stole a Sexton,” a tale acknowledged as a precursor to Dickens’s beloved classic A Christmas Carol. Other featured stories include “What Christmas Is as We Grow Older” and “A Christmas Dinner.”

It’s difficult for me to rate books that have more than one story within the pages because where I may have liked one story and hated another, I have no idea how to rate the entire book.

Christmas With Charles Dickens is a book club read that I was excited to read. I typically enjoy classics around Christmastime, so this one is exactly what I hoped we’d read going into the Christmas season.

This tiny book has 3 of Dickens’s short stories within: The Story of the Goblins Who Stole a Sexton, A Christmas Dinner, and What Christmas Is As We Grow Older. Each story made me realize how much Christmas must have meant to Charles Dickens. All of his stories, including A Christmas Carol, point to Christmas being a time of mercy, care, love, hope, joy, life, remembrance, and so many things are often taken for granted throughout the rest of the year. Christmas was a very special season to Dickens, and I love how much of his writing is dedicated to my favorite holiday.

While I don’t “love” these stories individually, I do love Dickens’s exuberant passion for Christmas and the imagery he includes in his storytelling. The Story of the Goblins Who Stole a Sexton was odd, but it reminded me a lot of A Christmas Carol in how it highlighted the repentance of an old, bitter man after a supernatural experience. A Christmas Dinner captivated me immediately, but as it went on, it felt like the direction was lost. I did really enjoy What Christmas Is As We Grow Older!

Overall, I relate to Dickens’s feelings of Christmas. The heartbreak intertwined with joy. The remembering paired with time’s inevitable forgetfulness. And the intentional effort it takes to make Christmas the most wonderful time of the year. Here’s my favorite quote from What Christmas Is As We Grow Older:

“Lost friend, lost child, lost parent, sister, brother, husband, wife, we will not discard you! You shall hold your cherished places in our Christmas hearts, and by our Christmas fires; and in the season of immortal hope, and on the birthday of immortal mercy, we will shut out Nothing!”