A Tale at Christmas

As the days reach their shortest, and the weather its coldest – and perhaps wettest – how can we support children and families to read together at home? The Christmas holidays are almost upon us, and the bookshops are full to the rafters with titles, old and new, but it’s a challenge to know where to start. So, here’s a quick guide to some brilliant winter tales.

There’s value in mixing it up, making time for the classics while enjoying the latest releases, and celebrating traditional themes as well as exploring the more gnarly aspects of Christmas. Shirley Hughes’ Lucy and Tom’s Christmas, is a wonderful (if rather conventional) portrayal of the excitement and magic of the festive period. The baking, music, gift-buying, wrapping are all so beautifully conveyed, that when the day itself arrives and Lucy and Tom wake to see their stockings full, it’s enough to fill the heart of Scrooge himself. Indeed, the essence of Christmas is so evocative that we feel Tom’s frustration when it all gets too much, and there’s a reassuring familiarity in that emotion too – as thoughtfully and gently explored as the joyfulness.

Christmas at Bullerby by Astrid Lindgren has a similar effect – it’s the Christmas spirit that is somehow so perfectly painted. With pictures in mind, surely no festive season is complete without a look back over Raymond Briggs’ classics The Snowman and Father Christmas, for the feelings of warmth and familiarity have become entirely synonymous with the festive season.

But beyond the classics, which arguably tell one Christmas tale, there’s more thought-provoking material out there, which explores some of the trickier, more complex themes around Christmas. Richard Curtis’ The Empty Stocking looks at the binary concept of ‘good’ and ‘bad’ and the idea of good being rewarded (with a full stocking on Christmas morning) and bad being punished (with an empty one). It’s the age-old threat to instil in children a sense of being watched, monitored, tracked – a frightening concept, so stark and unforgiving, and wonderfully portrayed in The Empty Stocking by the ‘Good Bad Ometer’ that leaves no margin for nuance. Yet, it’s that very nuance – the grey between good and bad – that is delved into here.

Because, the reality is that there’s both good and bad in all of us. The Empty Stocking takes that idea one step further, highlighting how muddy the waters can be when we discover that Charlie (the ‘bad’ twin) does naughty things to be nice to her sister Sam, because she loves her so very much. So the behaviour we thought was bad was borne out of goodness and Father Christmas – like us the reader – almost makes an awful, judgemental mistake.

Julia Donaldson’s Stick Man considers the separation of families and the importance of being together at this time of year. It’s not about the presents or food for Stick Man, his Stick Lady Love or his three stick children, it’s about sticking together and the magic of finding your way back home – the ultimate Christmas gift. But perhaps even more importantly, it’s about almost impossible journeys and horrible hardship, of being apart from those we love most in the world and everything we know and trust. It works as a useful reminder to cherish those around us – not the things that we think we need.

But Christmas isn’t a festival celebrated by everyone, for some this is just a season much like any other – it can still be magical and exciting, comforting and joyful, but perhaps for other reasons. The delight of fresh snowfall and the desperation to be first out in it is humorously explored in Snow by Sam Usher. The sense of a winter wonderland, where the magic is almost tangible is entrenched in the very essence of Tove Jansson’s Moominvalley. But the winter season in Moomin and the Winter Snow brings with it some mixed feelings, which are worth a closer look. There’s a sadness associated with this time of year – it’s a time of goodbyes, where much (including Moomin’s best friend Sufkin) disappears until Spring. Indeed, the Moomin family themselves must prepare for their long winter sleep. Although this initially feels unsettling and perhaps a little lonely, once this goodbye is accepted there’s much to enjoy in the readying – snow, lanterns, friendship and hot chocolate. Plus, the prospect of “the first day warm day in Spring” is already on the horizon, and the awakening it shall bring brings more magic and much to look forward to.