1st December

Christmas with Dickens

A Christmas Tree

by Charles Dickens

Illustrated by HM Brock (Guild Publishing 1969, 1986). This little book has sat on the shelves for quite a while and was bought second hand in Birmingham.

What better way to begin our Advent Reading Challenge than with  a little bit of Dickens? Just for a change though, I have not chosen to feature the more obvious Christmas Carol.

Here is a Christmas tree covered in all manner of delights including, ‘tambourines, books, work-boxes, paint-boxes, sweetmeat boxes, peep-show boxes, and all kinds of boxes…humming-tops, needlecases, pen-wipers, smelling-bottles‘ and much more besides.

After describing the tree, the narrator goes on to ask what item ‘we all remember best upon the branches of the Christmas Tree of our own young Christmas days’.

Now, if you were inspired by Charles Dickens,  there is a question for you. What do you remember best of all? Drop a comment in the box…

Back cover – fireside tales