A husband and wife sacrifice treasured possessions in order to buy each other Christmas presents.

"Old Christmas" by Washington Irving is a delightful exploration of the traditional English Christmas, taking readers on a nostalgic journey to the heart of 19th-century holiday celebrations. Renowned for his ability to capture the essence of early American and English culture, Irving, in this charming series of essays and sketches, brings to life the rich, festive traditions of a bygone era. Set in the English countryside, "Old Christmas" is a vivid...

Six Christmas Stories from Charles Dickens. Some Christmas Stories by Charles Dickens is a collection of six short stories all revolving around the Christmas spirit. But these stories are first and foremost essays about life and about its struggles. Don't expect a Christmas Carol-type of atmosphere, instead expect some experimental Charles Dickens' story creation.

Charles Dickens' work The Battle of Life: A Love Story has an English village on the site of a historic battle as the setting. Some characters allude to the war as a metaphor for the struggle for life, hence the title. Charles John Huffam Dickens FRSA is an English writer and social commentator. He produced some of the world's most renowned fictional characters and is often regarded as the best author of the Victorian era. His writings achieved unparalleled...

In the 1840s, Charles Dickens wrote 5 short stories with strong social and moral messages. The Chimes: A Goblin Story of Some Bells that Rand an Old Year Out and a New Year In, is the second of these stories, whose predecessor was the famous A Christmas Carol. The Chimes focuses on Trotty, a poor elderly messenger who is filled with gloom over reports of crime and immorality in the newspapers. After losing faith in the society, Trotty follows a call...

In the 1840s, Charles Dickens wrote 5 short stories with strong social and moral messages. The Cricket on the Hearth: A Fairy Tale of Home, is the third of these stories. Following the home life of John Peerybingle, the story introduces the many people in John's family and life along with a cricket that acts as the guardian angel of the family. Like its predecessors, this story also contains heavy social and moral implications. However, it differs...

"Laid off from her department store job, Carmen has perilously little cash and few options. The prospect of spending Christmas with her perfect sister Sofia, in Sofia’s perfect house with her perfect children and her perfectly ordered yuppie life does not appeal. Frankly, Sofia doesn’t exactly want her prickly sister Carmen there either. But Sofia has yet another baby on the way, a mother desperate to see her daughters get along, and a client...

Children attempt to catch Santa Claus as he delivers their presents on Christmas Eve.

"Growing up at the Shelter Inn hotel, Natalie Shepherd envied guests who could come and go as they pleased. So when it was time to finally leave for college and put the lush green mountains around Shelter Springs -- along with the cloud of loss that seemed to follow her family -- behind her, she swore she'd never come back. But now her sister McKenna needs a favor. On pregnancy bed rest at doctor's orders, McKenna needs a helping hand with her two...

"Sunny, Arianna and Molly are having three very different but equally terrible Christmases. Sunny is a newlywed with two new stepkids who want nothing to do with her; Arianna is newly divorced and hates having to send her daughter off to spend the holiday with her dad; for Molly, nothing is new, but her job at the post office is getting very, very old. The whole Christmas season has been a bust all around. But Sunny and Arianna have a wild idea: What...