Traditions and Resolutions and Little Christmas

welve days of Christmas. No, I won't start singing about a partridge. This is a literary twelve days!

The final task in the Literary Resolutions for 2011 is to: Buy books, give books, talk about books, and spread your love of literature throughout the holidays.

I can't think of anything more fun, and actually, it fits right in with my own goals, as seen in the post below.

Also, Nadja's hosting a Twelve Days of Christmas gift list starting on 10 December. Be sure to stop by!

One of my favourite Christmas stories, besides the Christmas story itself, is Agnes Sligh Turnbull's Little Christmas.

I read it for the first time ages ago in an issue of Reader's Digest from the 1960s, and only recently found out that it's actually a longer novel. The story as I read it (I have a feeling Reader's Digest excised quite a bit) is very sweet, about a couple and their two children who come together for the holidays and the family dramas that ensue - until the mother recreates the Christmas traditions from when the kids were younger, and they work through their problems.

Aw, I know it sounds cheesy when told like that (I can't even write my own books' blurbs!). But now you have a chance to read it for yourself - I've found a copy printed in the Australian Women's Weekly!

"Suddenly a soft, startled flush rose in Margaret's cheeks. She sat there thinking intently, and then she spoke aloud. 'Little Christmas!' she repeated over and over again. 'Little Christmas; now, today, and mine if I want it!'"

(There's a weird quote about Englishwomen as wives in the margins of the newspaper; I can't tell if it's meant to be a joke or not.)

Which are your favourite Christmas tales?