The Penguin Book of Christmas Stories

This is a collection of the most magical, moving, chilling, and surprising Christmas stories from around the world, taking us from frozen Nordic woods to glittering Paris, a New York speakeasy to an English country house, bustling Lagos to midnight mass in Rio, and even to outer space. Here are classic tales from writers including Truman Capote, Shirley Jackson, Dylan Thomas, Saki, and Chekhov, as well as little-known treasures such as Italo Calvino’s wry, sideways look at Christmas consumerism, Wolfdietrich Schnurre’s story of festive ingenuity in Berlin, Selma Lagerlöf's enchanted forest in Sweden, and Irène Némirovsky’s dark family portrait. Featuring Santas, ghosts, trolls, unexpected guests, curmudgeons, and miracles, here is Christmas as imagined by some of the greatest short story writers of all time.