Christmas Days: 12 Stories and 12 Feasts for 12 Days

Product Information

Christmas Days: 12 Stories and 12 Feasts for 12 Days by Jeanette Winterson is published by Jonathan Cape. In fact, interspersed between the short stories are Winterson's recipes and short vignettes relating to Winterson's personal life and thoughts. The twelve stories which follow are a wonderful mixture, incorporating magic, love, ghosts and Christmas gatherings.

CHRISTMAS DAYS | Kirkus Reviews CHRISTMAS DAYS | Kirkus Reviews

Yet the inconsistency feels significant, because this book is as much about healing and forgiveness as it is about fairytale cruelty to children. She was raised to become a Pentecostal Christian missionary, and she began evangelising and writing sermons at the age of six. But, for me, most of the stories are just okay; and the musings preceding the recipes are too meandering and sometimes repetitive, hence the three stars. This was a lovely story, a nativity story that Winterson would later have illustrated and made into a children’s book. According to Winterson, “she’d sing a bit, usually country and western, sometimes Handel … ‘Jolene’ medley’d with hits from Messiah”.Nothing to do with Shakespeare’s will, but an apparently formulaic ghost story - until the grand reveal, which was a total surprise, though perhaps shouldn’t have been, as it touches on issues Winterson cares about. I need to keep this in mind every year when I drag out the cookbooks and laptop for far more recipes than is necessary. A traditional spooky-house story, clichés and all, but with many echoes of madonna and child, and lost children. My mother had thrown out the old upright piano and got herself an electronic organ with double keyboard, orchestra stops, drum and bass. Little did Jerry expect that a huge SnowMama to which she had given bright green jewels for eyes would come alive!

Christmas Days: 12 Stories and 12 Feasts for 12 Days Christmas Days: 12 Stories and 12 Feasts for 12 Days

The Lion, The Unicorn and Me is a rather plain retelling of the Christmas through the eyes of the donkey while The Glow-heart story kind of ripped my heart out. It is whimsical and charming and worked better for me than Christmas Cracker though the two are somewhat similar in tone. A miracle is a benign intervention, yes, but miracles are like the genie in the bottle – let them out and there’s a riot. One story, simply titled ‘A Ghost Story’, immediately transported me to Switzerland where I became completely immersed in this eerie tale.

That night, when Vicky went to bed, she found that her pillow had been removed and the pillowcase stuffed with warning leaflets about the Apocalypse. The volume opens with ‘Christmas Tide’ an introductory essay by the author, ruminating on what Christmas is and where it, and all those traditions we take for granted come from. It was lovely for Jerry and for me as well to be immersed for a few magical moments in the mystery of the SnowPeople.

Christmas Days: 12 Stories and 12 Feasts for 12 Days - Goodreads

This is the children’s charity party,' Winterson tells us, ' rich parents have paid a lot so that their children can help children in need without having to meet any of them. It is a lovely meditation on the Dylan Thomas, Bob Dylan and, of course, New York City and now I want to eat some custard. Winterson's subsequent novels explore the boundaries of physicality and the imagination, gender polarities, and sexual identities, and have won several literary awards. My favorite short stories were those about a snowperson come to life and restoring hope for a young girl and her mother (‘The Snowmama’); a nativity story told from the point of view of a very special animal (‘The Lion, the Unicorn and Me’); and a touching story about the bereavement of a loved one at Christmastime (‘The Glow-Heart’).

And now that I’m full of holiday cheer I need to go shovel my driveway because we are getting pounded with snow for the second day in a row. My mother had given me the ultimatum to leave home long since, when I fell in love with a girl, and in a religious house like ours I might as well have married a goat. The essay is one of the best too, diving into Christmas as a midwinter festival and a time to think about community. An eclectic mix of stories, recipes, and memories, Christmas Days brings together a series of imaginative holiday writings. When I am climbing I understand that gravity exists to protect us from our lightness of being, in the same way that time is what shields us from eternity… It’s not death that’s to be feared.