This book portrays Christmas as envisioned by some of the greatest short story writers ever. Truman Capote bakes whisky-soaked fruitcake in Alabama; Laurie Lee glides across a frozen pond in Gloucestershire; and a cunning Santa Claus outwits Shirley Jackson at the bank. Ghosts haunt the Christmases of Muriel Spark and Elizabeth Bowen, while Dostoyevsky, Daphne du Maurier, and Italo Calvino take a cynical view of the season. Selma Lagerlof and Angela Carter celebrate its miracles.

This book portrays Christmas as envisioned by some of the greatest short story writers ever. Truman Capote bakes whisky-soaked fruitcake in Alabama; Laurie Lee glides across a frozen pond in Gloucestershire; and a cunning Santa Claus outwits Shirley Jackson at the bank. Ghosts haunt the Christmases of Muriel Spark and Elizabeth Bowen, while Dostoyevsky, Daphne du Maurier, and Italo Calvino take a cynical view of the season. Selma Lagerlof and Angela Carter celebrate its miracles.