The Books of Christmas Past

Susanna here. (And yes, dear copy editors, I know the rules of grammar say the title should read: “Christmases”, but if Charles Dickens could slide around the rules, I’ll happily slide alongside him).

I can’t recall a Christmas when I didn’t get a book.

There was always a special feeling of anticipation when I picked up a flat, rectangular gift and felt the telltale indentations along bottom, top, and one long side. In childhood, it meant I’d be spending long, happy hours wrapped in my blankets in bed, with no interruptions save mealtimes, and even then, if it were a really exceptional story, my parents would give me a pass on the meals and just let me come down and grab food from the fridge when I wanted to.

It’s an inherited thing. I remember once asking my mother what her favourite gifts were when she was a little girl, and she replied without needing to ponder. “A pair of pajamas,” she said, “and a book.”

So I think, in my case, it’s genetic.

I still have every book I ever found under the Christmas tree. Here are a few of them.

Mary Stewart’s Madam, Will You Talk came as part of a three-book set of reprints that my sister ordered from her book club to replace my scruffier-looking copies (which I never did get rid of, since I hate disposing of books I love, so I’ve ended up with multiple copies of my Mary Stewarts—never a bad thing).

The entire ten volumes of Journeys Through Bookland came when I was twelve, I think—wrapped in one long and enticing gift. I still remember my fingers tracing book spine after book spine through the wrapping paper, to my growing excitement. These books had belonged to my aunt when she was a girl, and I had found them in the bookcase of my grandparents and loved them, so my aunt decided she would let me have them for a Christmas gift. They were—and still are—the most beautiful things. A collection of stories and poems and plays, bound in lovely rich leather with an embossed ship on the cover to stand as a symbol of all of the voyages we take when reading.

The Stand—Stephen King’s epic masterpiece—came from my husband, who then didn’t see very much of me for the next three days because I was lost in the story and only emerged when I needed more coffee, so it was a good thing my husband had turkey and leftovers to keep from starving.

Louis L’Amour’s Education of a Wandering Man came from my parents the Christmas I moved back home with them, after years spent on my own. I’d just finished writing my very first novel, had left a successful job as a museum curator, and was starting work as a waitress to give me the time to write while I tried finding a publisher. This book—the autobiography of one of my mother’s favourite writers—was one of the many ways my parents showed me their support, a tangible way of letting me know they valued my goals and my dreams.

And Kurt Vonnegut’s Hocus Pocus was my sister’s gift to me that same year—the then-newest book by one of my favourite authors, with an inscription I treasured then, and treasure even more now: “Next year,” my sister wrote, “you can give me an autographed copy of your own book.”

It would be another few years before I’d be able to do that, but her belief in me was—and continues to be—a vital force behind my writing, and although I lost her to lymphoma years ago, these little messages she left me in the books she gave at Christmas are like hugs of warm encouragement and love.

I could go on and on and on just listing all the books I’ve found under my Christmas trees, but I’d much rather hear what books you’ve found—whether under a Christmas tree or as gifts at another time of year—and what they mean to you…

Comments

[Saundra Callender]

Good books! (Not as good as yours, though! "The Winter Sea" is an amazing book! Probably in the top three of all the books I've ever read!) "The Stand" is my favorite Stephen King book. I've read it several times. I've read many of Mary Stewart's books though not that one. My grandmother had the "Journeys Through Bookland" set. I've read them all. They're lost now but they entertained me many days growing up.

[Susanna Kearsley]

Aw, thanks, Saundra. I think The Stand is my favourite of King's novels, too. I'm not much of a horror fan so I just assumed The Stand was going to be like his other books, but it completely blew me away. Just so good. I think if he'd written that one before he wrote Carrie, he might have been known as simply a great novelist instead of a great horror writer.

I hope you get a chance to read Madam, Will You Talk. It's Mary Stewart's first novel, and one of the first of hers I ever read. So much action and story packed into such a short book!

[Mary Jo Putney]

Ah, Susanna, now that's what I call a properly stocked writer's library! Or at least one wall of one. *G* Yours is a little neater than mind. I don't really remember many specific Christmas books, but there was a child version of the the Arthurian legends that I much enjoyed. Many years later, I realized how the stories had been sanitized, but they were still a great read.

[Kareni]

What a lovely post, Susanna; thank you! I too love to receive books (the right books!) for Christmas and other occasions.

I moved so much as a child and young adult that many of my childhood books were regularly purged. I do still have a few on my shelves ~ Heidi, My Friend Flicka, a collection of fairytales; now I'm motivated to go look at them to read the inscriptions. If I'm remembering correctly, most of them were given to me by my maternal grandmother.

[Mary M.]

Susanna, this post is like a warm mug of chocolate on a chilly winter night. Thank you for the walk down memory lane.

[Kathy K]

I've been a voracious reader since early childhood. I loved getting books for Christmas, but I think my parents were cautious about them because they would be devoured so quickly. My favorites were horse books, like "Black Beauty" and "Misty of Chincoteague" and books about nurses and nursing, such as "Cherry Ames, Student Nurse." I read and reread those nursing books and thought I knew what nursing would be when I started school in 1970. It was a great surprise when I discovered that nursing had advanced from the 1940s and wasn't like that at all. But I learned about how nurses think and some of the things that they do, so it was not wasted time.

[Karin]

I was notorious for getting lost in books as a child, and reading in class instead of listening to the teacher.
My parents did a really great job of selecting Christmas gift books for me, and I still have several of them: The Diary of Anne Frank, Rascal(by Sterling North) and Kon-Tiki. All great classics.

[Faith Freewoman]

Books have been my favorite gifts since I was about 5, and this post made me all weepy as I remembered the ones still so precious to me.

The Stand is still a favorite book, and I FINALLY got to read "Madam, Will You Talk" just this past month. And everything else Mary Stewart wrote. What an orgy of wonderful stories!

My fondest memory of locking myself away with a book was when I was 15 or so, and my youngest sister (who was 3 or 4) barged into my room, plopped down on my bed next to me, and demanded "why you always reading bookies?!?!?"

Lovely, nostalgic post, Susannah! Thanks so much.

Cheers, Faith

[Sue McCormick]

Our family also gave books every Christmas and I have loved them and still do.

I had "Journeys through Bookland" but I don't think they were a present; I think they were just there.

Specific presents I loved were The Prince and the Pauper (Mark Twain) one year and Kipling's "Kim" another. I also remember my sister getting "And to Think That It Happened on Mulberry Street" when it first came out and "Roller Skates" much later.

I got my first cookbook when I was five (it had illustrated recipes) and my mother's oldest sister gave me Patty Pans (a much more "grown up" cookbook. It is so well used that it has lost it's inscription page but it came in 1930 or in 1940.

I still have all those books except for Journeys through Bookland. Most of those volumes were lost due to a plumber's error, but one or two have survived and are in our collection.

[Teresa Broderick]

I have a pinterest board called 'Reading is my Life's Blood' and that's what books are to me. Even though my parents knew I loved and devoured books I can't ever remember getting them as a child. My godmother sent me a ten shilling note every Christmas for my birthday and I couldn't wait to get it so I could buy books. There was never much money at home and I suppose they were looked on as expensive so that's why I probably didn't get any from Santa or otherwise. I have many favorites from childhood and (looks sheepish) still revisit some of them today.
Lovely post.

[Margaret]

What a nice post, Susanna, and what a beautiful photo. I adore built-in bookshelves and covet them shamefully! When I was young, my sister always humored me and bought me a new Nancy Drew book since my library refused to stock them. This year I was given a copy of Isaacson's Da Vinci book and a novel that looks wonderful called The Revolution of Marina M. They both look so inviting! A very wise colleague of mine with two young children recently told me about a family tradition she and her husband are continuing: her kids are permitted/encouraged to ask for four things: "something I want, something I need, something to share, and something to read." How I wish I had thought of something similar when my own children were young. Happy reading to all in the New Year!

[Jana]

I only occasionally got books as gifts as a child or adolescent. my mother felt that having my nose in a book meant I had time to do chores! However there were a few special books: From Anna by Jean Little the Christmas I was 8- a wonderful story of learning to find your own gifts- I read it to my third graders e Rey year, and they love it as much as did (do). The other that the only decision stands out is the first 3 in the Anne of Green Gables series from my grandparents when I was 10. I read those books to tatters. Now it's my husband who buys me books, or at the very least gift cards for books. Being a different sort of animal than my own mom, I buy my kids a book each Christmas. Now, while they are young, it's picture books wrapped with pajamas to be opened Christmas Eve, but my son has begun to read chapter books...next year I'm certain there will be one or two under the tree with his name on them.
The only decision is whether they will be for Christmas Eve or Christmas Day.

[Jana]

Typing with my baby on my knee always leads to interesting typos. I should have read it through before posting. The sentence should read: I read it to my 3rd graders every year.
And
The only other time that stands out is the first three books of the Anne of Green Gables series from my grandparents when I was 10.

[Anne Gracie]

Kareni, this happened to me as well, so many books and childhood toys purged as we moved from place to place. When I grew up, I rebought quite a few of them from secondhand bookshops. I did manage to keep a few of my childhood books, and I think they' were mostly the hardbacks and the ones with inscriptions.

[Patricia Franzino]

When I was growing up, one of the dance forms I studied was ballet. I loved a book called, "The Royal Book of Ballet." I took it out of the library at least twenty times. When an older cousin came to know about this, she and a friend of hers contacted the publisher to get me a pristine copy, which I treasured for years. Eventually I donated it with many other books to a local library.

[Nicola Cornick]

How wonderful that you had a reading wallow in Mary Stewart, Faith! That would truly be a treat!

[Saundra Callender]

I got "Madam, Will You Talk" today. 😊