Literary Christmas Traditions by Theresa Gauthier

Two Christmas Books I Have to Read Often

The Joy of A Peanuts Christmas 

50 Years of Holiday Comics!

By Charles Schulz

Hallmark Books

    There aren’t many characters more associated with Christmas than the Peanuts gang. Thanks to the classic animated special that first aired on December 9, 1965, generations have grown up spending the holidays with Charlie Brown and his friends.

This collection, The Joy of A Peanuts Christmas, was put together by Hallmark back in 2000, and features Peanuts comic strips with a holiday theme. You can see the evolution of Charles Schulz’s style in the way the characters change through the years. It’s fun to pick out the changes not only in the drawing, but in the content. In the earliest strips, Snoopy was far more dog-like than he became in later years. He sat in frame looking, well, like any boy’s dog would look in the 1950s. It wasn’t until the 1960s that he became more likely to decorate his doghouse and win a lights and display contest.

Each of the well-loved characters has a chance to take the spotlight in full page descriptions that give the reader a snapshot of them, their traits, their likes and dislikes. 

It’s a fun little book, and shows off the long tradition of Peanuts at Christmas.

A Classic Christmas: A Collection of Timeless Stories and Poems is a favorite collection of mine. Given to me as a Christmas present in 2019, the collection starts with the Charles Dickens classic A Christmas Carol. Those who’ve read this blog before know how much I love that beautiful story. I’ve often thought of it as the single most perfect piece of literature ever written. 

I’ve often wondered how the story came to mean so much to me, but all I can say is that I thoroughly enjoy every word, every line, and no matter how many times, I read it, listen to it, watch an adaptation of it, I enjoy it more and more. Never have I read a story where every word seemed right, and that I just wished everyone would read and take to heart.

With additional selections from Louisa May Alcott, Lucy Maud Montgomery, Hans Christian Anderson, and Harriet Beecher Stowe and poems by Clement C. Moore, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, among others, this short but beautiful collection brings together some of the most beautiful prose and poetry of the season. 

It’s easy to get lost in the beautiful phrases and lines of these classic selections and revel in the Christmas spirit.

Sit back with a cup of cocoa and enjoy these brilliant festive stories.