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"The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle", the only Holmes mystery set during the Christmas season, is the seventh story of twelve in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. During the festive season, newspapers report the theft of the near priceless jewel, The "Blue Carbuncle", from the hotel suite of the Countess of Morcar. John Horner, a plumber and a previously convicted felon, is soon arrested for the theft. When the Blue Carbuncle appears in a goose's...
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He drew a long sigh of rich content. The old life, with all its bitterness and useless antagonism and flimsy sophistries, its brief delights that were always tinged with fear and distrust and unfaith, that whole miserable, futile, swindled world of Bohemia seemed immeasurably distant and far away, like a dream that is over and done.'
First published in 1896, The Burglar's Christmas is a short story by the great American writer Willa Cather. Set in...
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In Anthony Trollope's Christmas at Thompson Hall, a British matron is intent on traveling to her ancestral home for Christmas Eve in spite of her husband's sore throat. In an attempt to alleviate his symptoms, she raids the hotel pantry to make a mustard-poultice to apply to his throat. When she gets lost on the way back to her room, she makes a terrible mistake that will put a British gentleman's sense of charity to the test. This timeless holiday...
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In Harriet Beecher Stowe's short story, Christmas in Poganuc, a young New England girl, Dolly, is left alone while the village gathers at the church to celebrate Christmas. This timeless holiday classic was first published in the collection, A Budget of Christmas Tales by Charles Dickens and Others, in 1895. It follows up on Harriet Beecher Stowe's earlier work Poganuc People: Their Loves and Lives.
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Beth and Jean and three other girls at No. 16 Chestnut Terrace are spending a cheery Christmas together opening presents that came in the mail, since none could go home this year. Beth remarks that Miss Allen, an older woman resident of the boarding house, is apparently alone this year. Though Miss Allen is not widely liked by the girls, they agree that no one should have to spend Christmas alone. Thus, a Christmas Inspiration is born.
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Originally published in Harte's 1875 short-story collection The Tales of the Argonauts, How Santa Claus Came to Simpson's Bar is set in California in the early 1860s and, like the rest of the tales in that collection, features the gold-seeking Argonauts. In this tale, like many of Harte's others, the folly and grit of human existence balance any good intentions, good cheer, or hope, resulting in a more complicated and somewhat bleak ending than is...
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When Mark Twain's daughter Susie wrote a letter to Santa Claus, her father wrote back, signing Santa's name. Charming and heartwarming, this version of the short letter includes humorous descriptions of Santa's efforts to deliver the requested toys to the Twain household, as well as instructions to meet Santa at an appointed time outside for items that can't fit down the chimney. Written in 1875, Twain's daughter would tragically die of spinal meningitis...
