A merry Solstice, Yule, Christmas, and Kwanzaa and belated happy Hanukkah to all!
If you’re in the mood for SF and fantasy holiday fiction, I recommend MIRACLE AND OTHER CHRISTMAS STORIES by the inimitable Connie Willis (author of time travel novels DOOMSDAY BOOK and TO SAY NOTHING OF THE DOG). Here’s the Amazon link; I hope it works despite its length:
Miracle
Come to think of it, this season seems to lend itself to fantasy fiction. Telling ghost stories used to be a winter tradition in England. The best-known Christmas classic, after all, is a ghost story, and another one is a film about angels and alternate realities. Sunday night we watched the George C. Scott version of A CHRISTMAS CAROL again. That was my favorite adaptation until the Patrick Stewart version came out. They’re both excellent. There are so many retellings of the story in both the original and updated settings. I’m fond of AN AMERICAN CHRISTMAS CAROL, starring Henry Winkler, with the plot transplanted to a small town in the U.S. in the early twentieth century. A DIVA’S CHRISTMAS CAROL, featuring a female “Scrooge,” a black singing superstar named Ebony, is surprisingly good, IMO.
Well, we’re off to dinner and the “midnight” service, where my husband sings in the choir. We are wimps, I guess; our Christmas Eve “midnight” starts at 11 p.m. (with preliminary singing at 10:30), which is quite late enough for me.
Margaret L. Carter
Carter's Crypt
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Thank you, Margaret. It never occurred to me before that "A Christmas Carol" is a ghost story, but you are absolutely right!
ReplyDeleteAll Hallows E'en is the time we tell the most ghost and witch stories because it is said that the veil betweeen the worlds is thinnest then.
I remember a time in the late seventies when I was a member of staff at a boarding school, and England was experiencing blackouts and brown outs.
We sat around with candles, and the Headmaster (the late Mr Booker, father of the award-winning journalist) told the best ghost stories.