Everybody loves a Christmas story. The tradition of the Twelve Days of Christmas is a tradition of celebration, sharing and giving. And what better way to do that than with a story?

Book blurb

Read these stories by the fire, in the snow, travelling home for the holidays. Give them to friends, wrap them up for someone you love, read them aloud, read them alone, read them together. Enjoy the season of peace and goodwill, mystery, and a little bit of magic.

There are ghosts here and jovial spirits. Chances at love and tricks with time.

There is frost and icicles, mistletoe and sledges. There’s a cat and a dog and a solid silver frog. There’s a Christmas cracker with a surprising gift inside.

There’s a haunted house and a SnowMama. There are Yuletides and holly wreaths. Three Kings. And a merry little Christmas time.

And for the icing on the Christmas cake, there are twelve festive recipes from Yuletides past and present. Red cabbage, gravlax, turkey biryani, sherry trifle, Mrs Winterson’s mince pies and more.

My thoughts

My second read of the year is from one of my favourite authors Jeanette Winterson. This is a great mix of stories, recipes and the thoughts of the author.

The book opens with Christmas-Tide an introduction from Jeanette Winterson about how Christmas was born, how Santa Claus came about, the symbolism and popularisation of the Christmas tree and along with cards and carols – it’s in the 19th century that ‘Christmas becomes the Christmas we celebrate now’. Although not without some opposition from the Puritans both in the UK and USA. So cards, carols, trees and Santa Claus but what about ghost stories? With the horrors industrialisation brought – ‘Visitors to Manchester called it the Inferno’ – of poverty, filth and degradation it wasn’t surprising that this also became a time of philanthropy, organised charity and ‘the season of goodwill’. It is this backdrop that brings the phenomenon of ghost stories such as A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens ‘a story so powerful it can survive the Muppets’. Lastly, the author writes on how Christmas has been hijacked by those wanting to make money but makes the valid point that we – as individuals and communities – need to reject that. Christmas is celebrated around the world, in many faiths and cultures, as a time to come together in peace, love – charity – and joy. ‘Whatever we make of Christmas, it should be ours, not something we buy off the shelf’. For Winterson that means feasting with friends, hence the recipes, recipes that have personal stories behind them nevertheless ‘Stories are where I live’ she says ‘I write for the delight of it’.

And so she has written twelve wonderful stories – one for each of the twelve days of Christmas, if you wish – to bring joy to the season. Stories of ghosts, stories that are magical, of small miracles, extraordinary encounters and that nod to the ‘coming of the light’.

The stories – with recipes

Spirit of Christmas – Mrs Winterson’s Mince Pies | A couple on their way to a country cottage for Christmas, the car packed with presents and food, find a spirit and have an unexpected encounter. Will the Spirit of Christmas triumph?

The SnowMama – Ruth Rendell’s Red Cabbage | A story of how kindness, some practical help and a bit of magic can turn life around.

Dark Christmas – Kathy Acker’s New York Custard |A young woman arrives at the Christmas destination to gather with friends who she will collect from the station the next day. When noises from the attic and other unexpected things happen this becomes a scary, unwelcome experience.

Christmas in New York – My Christmas Eve Smoked Salmon and Champagne | A guy who doesn’t do Christmas, a colleague who does keep bumping into each other as the big day gets nearer.

The Mistletoe Bride – Susie’s Christmas Eve Gravlax | A young woman leaves home with her soon to be husband. They wed on Christmas Eve but a game of hide and seek brings forth secrets that change everything and as is said ‘revenge is a dish best served cold’.

O’Brien’s First Christmas – Dad’s Sherry Trifle | Christmas in Cork with family or in London alone? O’Brien works in the pet department of a store, she has brown hair, wears shades of brown, she would like someone in her life but hasn’t found anyone yet. When she wakes up during the night to find a fairy at the foot of her bed asking her to make a wish, not really believing, she asks for blond hair. In this amusing tale will O’Brien find romance?

The Second-Best Bed – Shakespeare and Company’s Chinese Dumplings | Well here’s a spooky tale with a little twist at the end.

Christmas Cracker – My Mulled Wine (Or: No More Fruit in Main Courses) | What would you expect to find in a cracker? A charming, funny and mindful story about greed, chaos and what is really needed.

A Ghost Story – Kamila Shamsie’s Turkey Biryani | Here’s a terrific, spooky tale set in Mürren.

The Silver Frog – My New Year’s Eve Cheese Crispies | A wonderful story of how the silver frog helps the orphans of Mrs Reckitt’s orphanage repay her this Christmas.

The Lion, the Unicorn and Me – My New Year’s Day Steak Sandwich | The Christmas story retold in this charming and thoughtful tale. (Note: this story is also available in a standalone version illustrated by Rosalind MacCurrach)

The Glow-Heart – My Twelfth Night Fishcakes | It’s New Year’s Eve, it’s been three years – a story of love, loss and not wanting but needing to let go – accepting that moving on doesn’t mean forgetting.

Closing with Christmas Greetings from the Author.

I loved the authors notes that accompanied the recipes in this book especially on Ruth Rendell, on making time, on the author’s last Christmas with her father, on Shakespeare and Company, on Kamila Shamsie’s turkey and more they are all well worth reading.

Perhaps this should have been read over Christmas but I so enjoyed reading this in January. As you would expect, I did, this is glorious festive storytelling with a serious message at its heart, always enjoyable.

Book: Purchased

Information

Publisher: Imprint: Vintage – Penguin.co.uk | 01/11/2018 | pp 304 | ISBN: 9781784709020 |

ebook: Imprint: Vintage Digital | 10/11/2016 | 304 pp |
ISBN: 9781473546950

Buy: Amazon | Bookshop.org (affiliate link) | Hive | Your local bookshop | Your local library

Author

Jeanette Winterson CBE was born in Manchester. Adopted by Pentecostal parents she was raised to be a missionary. This did and didn’t work out.

Discovering early the power of books she left home at 16 to live in a Mini and get on with her education. After graduating from Oxford University she worked for a while in the theatre and published her first novel at 25. Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit is based on her own upbringing but using herself as a fictional character. She scripted the novel into a BAFTA-winning BBC drama. 27 years later she re-visited that material in the bestselling memoir Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?

Winterson has written thirteen novels for adults and two previous collections of short stories, as well as children’s books, non-fiction and screenplays. She is Professor of New Writing at the University of Manchester. She writes regularly for the Guardian. She lives in the Cotswolds in a wood and in Spitalfields, London.

She believes that art is for everyone and it is her mission to prove it.

Books

Novels

Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit | The Passion | Sexing the Cherry | Written on the Body | Art & Lies | Gut Symmetries | The Powerbook | Lighthousekeeping | The Stone Gods | The Gap of Time | Frankisstein | Night Side of the River

Comic Books

Boating for Beginners

Short Stories

The World and Other Places | Midsummer Nights (ed.)

Novellas

Weight (Myth) | The Daylight Gate (Horror)

Non-fiction

Art Objects: Essays in Ecstasy and Effrontery | 12 Bytes |One Aladdin, Two Lamps

Memoir

Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?

Collaborations

LAND (with Antony Gormley and Clare Richardson)

Children’s Books

Tanglewreck | The Lion, the Unicorn and Me | The King of Capri | The Battle of the Sun