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Ta-ra! ta-ra! ta-ra-ra-ra! ta-rat! Professor Krenner took the silver bugle from his lips while the strain echoed flatly from the opposite, wooded hill. That hill was the Isle of Hope, a small island of a single eminence lying half a mile off the mainland, and not far north of Freeling. Make sure you check the other books from the Golden Deer Classics' Christmas Shelf or our '50 Classic Christmas Stories' Compilation

Golden Deer Classics' Christmas Shelf

Nan Sherwood's Winter Holidays

Alice Duer Miller (July 28, 1874 – August 22, 1942) was an American writer whose poetry actively influenced political opinion. Her feminist verses impacted on the suffrage issue, while her verse-play The White Cliffs encouraged US entry into World War II. She also wrote novels and screenplays.

The Burglar And The Wizard

Berthold Auerbach (28 February 1812 – 8 February 1882) was a German-Jewish poet and author. He was the founder of the German "tendency novel", in which fiction is used as a means of influencing public opinion on social, political, moral, and religious questions.

Christian Gellert's Last Christmas

Francis Bret Harte (August 25, 1836 – May 5, 1902) was an American short story writer and poet, best remembered for his short fiction featuring miners, gamblers, and other romantic figures of the California Gold Rush. In a career spanning more than four decades, he wrote poetry, fiction, plays, lectures, book reviews, editorials, and magazine sketches in addition to fiction. As he moved from California to the eastern U.S. to Europe, he incorporated new subjects and characters into his stories, but his Gold Rush tales have been most often reprinted, adapted, and admired.

How Santa Claus Came to Simpson's Bar

Christmas Eve—the night of joy, wonder, and magic. But what if the heart of Christmas itself was stolen? In this enchanting yet unexpected tale, L. Frank Baum dares to ask: what happens when Santa Claus disappears? Hidden away in his ice-bound Laughing Valley, Santa has made it his life's work to bring happiness to children across the world. But not everyone welcomes his kindness. Dark forces lurk beyond the cheerful glow of Christmas, and when Santa is taken captive, the very spirit of the holiday hangs in the balance. With a touch of mischief, a sprinkle of suspense, and a heartwarming conclusion, Baum crafts a story that challenges the idea of good and evil, reminding us that even the purest intentions can face opposition. It's a tale of courage, cleverness, and the unstoppable force of joy—a Christmas adventure unlike any other. A hidden gem from the author of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, A Kidnapped Santa Claus blends festive charm with unexpected depth. It is a holiday tale not just about presents and merriment, but about the true meaning of giving, the resilience of kindness, and the magic that no chains can contain.

A Kidnapped Santa Claus

One of Charles Dickens' Christmas Stories (Golden Deer Classics)

A Christmas Tree

The Chimes: A Goblin Story of Some Bells that Rang an Old Year Out and a New Year In, a short novel by Charles Dickens, was written and published in 1844, one year after A Christmas Carol and one year before The Cricket on the Hearth. It is the second in his series of "Christmas books": five short books with strong social and moral messages that he published during the 1840s. In addition to A Christmas Carol and The Cricket on the Hearth, the Christmas books include The Battle of Life (1846) and The Haunted Man and the Ghost's Bargain (1848).

The Chimes

John Peerybingle, a carrier, lives with his young wife Dot, their baby boy and their nanny Tilly Slowboy. A cricket chirps on the hearth and acts as a guardian angel to the family. One day a mysterious elderly stranger comes to visit and takes up lodging at Peerybingle's house for a few days. The life of the Peerybingles intersects with that of Caleb Plummer, a poor toymaker employed by the miser Mr. Tackleton. Caleb has a blind daughter Bertha, and a son Edward, who travelled to South America and is thought to be dead. The miser Tackleton is now on the eve of marrying Edward's sweetheart, May, but she does not love Tackleton. Tackleton tells John Peerybingle that his wife Dot has cheated on him, and shows him a clandestine scene in which Dot embraces the mysterious lodger; the latter, who is in disguise, is actually a much younger man than he seems. John is cut to the heart over this as he loves his wife dearly, but decides after some deliberations to relieve his wife of their marriage contract. In the end, the mysterious lodger is revealed to be none other than Edward who has returned home in disguise. Dot shows that she has indeed been faithful to John. Edward marries May hours before she is scheduled to marry Tackleton. However, Tackleton's heart is melted by the festive cheer (in a manner reminiscent of Ebenezer Scrooge), and he surrenders May to her true love.

The Cricket On The Hearth

The Haunted Man and the Ghost's Bargain, A Fancy for Christmas-Time (better known as The Haunted Man and the Ghost's Bargain or simply as The Haunted Man) is a novella by Charles Dickens first published in 1848. It is the fifth and last of Dickens's Christmas novellas. The story is more about the spirit of the holidays than about the holidays themselves, harking back to the first in the series, A Christmas Carol. The tale centres on a Professor Redlaw and those close to him. Redlaw is a teacher of chemistry who often broods over wrongs done him and grief from his past. He is haunted by a spirit, who is not so much a ghost as Redlaw's phantom twin and is "an awful likeness of himself...with his features, and his bright eyes, and his grizzled hair, and dressed in the gloomy shadow of his dress..." This spectre appears and proposes to Redlaw that he can allow him to "forget the sorrow, wrong, and trouble you have known...to cancel their remembrance..." Redlaw is hesitant at first, but finally agrees. As a consequence of the ghost's intervention, Redlaw is without memories of the painful incidents from his past. He experiences a universal anger that he cannot explain. His bitterness spreads to the Swidgers, the Tetterbys and his student. All become as wrathful as Redlaw himself. The only one who is able to avoid the bitterness is Milly. With this realization, the novel concludes with everyone back to normal and Redlaw, like Ebenezer Scrooge, a changed, more loving man. Now a whole person, Redlaw learns to be humble at Christmas.

The Haunted Man and the Ghost's Bargain

A Charles Dickens short story about the perception of Christmas as we get older.

What Christmas Is As We Grow Older

An earthenware porringer, bought by a little Flemish girl of Bruges as a gift for the Christ child and stolen by Robber Hans, finally brings much happiness to her and her grandmother, the lace maker.

The Christmas Porringer

The Upas Tree, A Christmas Story for all the Year.

The Upas Tree

Henry Van Dyke was a passionate believer, and one of the greatest writers who ever lived. Van Dyke became a man of great influence. As an educator, Van Dyke was the Murray Professor of English Literature at Princeton University. As a minister he became the pastor of the famous Brick Presbyterian Church in New York City. As a public servant he served his country as Ambassador to the Netherlands and Luxembourg in 1913. But it was as a writer that Van Dyke gained his greatest stature. His books became immensely popular and were often published in eighteen or twenty editions. Van Dyke was considered to be one of the most important American short story writers of his time. Henry Van Dyke died at his home in Princeton, New Jersey on April 10, 1933. He lived a wholehearted Christian life, and a life of brilliant contribution to society.

A Dream-Story: The Christmas Angel

A popular pastor and poet at the turn of the 20th century, Henry Van Dyke sings the praises of acts of kindness and generosity, of good will and good cheer, and of the spirit of Christmas.

A Little Essay: Christmas-Giving And Christmas-Living

Henry van Dyke was a member of the clergy, this story reads like a sermon for good reason. Its full title is A Short Christmas Sermon: Keeping Christmas. Van Dyke also composed lyrics to the popular hymn, "The Hymn of Joy" sung to Beethoven's Symphony No. 9, "Ode to Joy."

A Short Christmas Sermon: Keeping Christmas

- A Christmas Prayer For Lonely Folks - A Christmas Prayer For The Home

Christmas Prayers

Christmas is the most famous holiday of the year, and the word itself evokes images of Santa Claus, reindeer, snow, Christmas trees, egg nog and more. At the same time, it represents Christianity's most important event, the birth of the baby Jesus. Instantly, well known Christmas carols ring in your ears, pictures of the Nativity Scene become ubiquitous, or maybe you even picture nutcrackers or Scrooge and Tiny Tim.

Nibsy's Christmas

What The Christmas Sun Saw In The Tenements

Skippy Of Scrabble Alley

"The Elves and the Shoemaker" is an often copied and re-made 1806 story about a poor shoemaker who receives much-needed help from elves. The original story is the first of three fairy tales, contained as entry 39 in the German Grimm's Fairy Tales under the common title "Die Wichtelmänner". In her translation of 1884 Margaret Hunt chose The Elves as title for these three stories. The Aarne–Thompson folklore classification system categorizes the story as type 503*: Helpful Elves and also as a migratory legend, type 7015.

The Elves And The Shoemaker

THE SANTA CLAUS SHOP The Nodding Donkey dated his birth from the day he received the beautiful coat of varnish in the workshop of Santa Claus at the North Pole. Before that he was just some pieces of wood, glued together.

The Story Of A Nodding Donkey

The Story of a Stuffed Elephant is… well, the story of a Stuffed Elephant and the little boy who owns him, and his sister, and all their adventures. A delightful children's book by the author of The Bobbsey Twins series.

The Story of a Stuffed Elephant

Santa Claus, as a baby, is found in the Forest of Burzee by Ak, the Master Woodsman of the World (a supreme immortal), and placed in the care of the lioness Shiegra; but thereupon adopted by the Wood Nymph, Necile. Upon reaching young adulthood, Claus is introduced by Ak to human society, wherein he sees war, brutality, poverty, child neglect, and child abuse. Because he cannot reside in Burzee as an adult, he settles in the nearby Laughing Valley of Hohaho, where the immortals regularly assist him, and Necile gives him a little cat named Blinky.

Life and Adventures of Santa Claus

Martha Finley (April 26, 1828 – January 30, 1909) was a teacher and author of numerous works, the most well known being the 28 volume Elsie Dinsmore series which was published over a span of 38 years. The daughter of Presbyterian minister Dr. James Brown Finley and his wife and cousin Maria Theresa Brown Finley, she was born on April 26, 1828, in Chillicothe, Ohio. Finley wrote many of her books under the pseudonym Martha Farquharson. She died in 1909 in Elkton, Maryland, where she moved in 1876.

Christmas with Grandma Elsie

A humorous and exciting story of a burglar who reformed on Christmas Eve and returned the things he had stolen, told in Mr. Nicholson's best vein.

A Reversible Santa Claus

Every year the ten most miserable people in town are invited to a Christmas banquet. Their misery is shared alongside the holiday feast, and every year, an increasingly wretched Gervayse Hastings makes his appearance. Over time, all the other guests seem to have grown in character and risen above their sad condition, except of course, Mr. Hastings.

Christmas Banquet

An extended account of a New England snow storm.(Golden Deer Classics)

Snow flakes

A young newspaperman who has just moved to a new town overhears the wealthy politician in the house next door talking aloud to nonexistent figures. Has David Beasley gone mad, or is his imagination simply greater than his friends and ex-fiancée believe?

Beasley's Christmas Party

A Chaparral Christmas Gift

Christmas by Injunction O. Henry , american writer (1862-1910) This ebook presents "Christmas by Injunction", from O. Henry . A dynamic table of contents enables to jump directly to the chapter selected.

Christmas By Injunction

Jim Dillingham Young and his wife Della are a young couple who are very much in love with each other, but can barely afford their one-room apartment opposite the elevated train due to their very bad economic condition. For Christmas, Della decides to buy Jim a chain which costs twenty dollars for his prized pocket watch given to him by his father. To raise the funds, she has her prized long hair cut off and sold to make a wig. Meanwhile, Jim decides to sell his watch to buy Della a beautiful set of combs made out of tortoise shell for her lovely, knee-length brown hair. Although each is disappointed to find the gift they chose rendered useless, each is pleased with the gift they received, because it represents their love for one another. The true unselfish love that the characters, Jim and Della, share is greater than their possessions.

The Gift of the Magi

This story was the first which William Sydney Poerter published under the pseudonym O. Henry, and appeared in the December 1899 issue of McClure's Magazine. It was later collected in Roads of Destiny, of which the earliest edition in the Library of Congress catalog was in 1913.

Whistling Dick's Christmas Stocking

A Christmas Sermon by Robert Louis Stevenson written while he convalesced from a lung ailment at Lake Sarnac in the winter of 1887. In the short text he meditates on the questions of death, morality and man's main task in life which he concludes is "To be honest, to be kind — to earn a little and to spend a little less, to make upon the whole a family happier for his presence." The piece was to be published in Scribner's magazine the following December.

A Christmas Sermon

A great many years ago, Augustus Cæsar, then Emperor of Rome, ordered his mighty realm to be taxed; and so, in Judea, it is said, men went to the towns where their families belonged, to be registered for assessment. From Nazareth, a little town in the north of Judea, to Bethlehem, another little but more famous town in the south, there went one Joseph, the carpenter, and his wife Mary, - obscure and poor people, both of them, as the story goes. At Bethlehem they lodged in a stable; for there were many persons in the town, and the tavern was full. Then and there a little boy was born, the son of this Joseph and Mary; they named him Jehoshua, a common Hebrew name, which we commonly call Joshua; but, in his case, we pronounce it Jesus.

The Two Christmas Celebrations, A.D. I. and MDCCCLV

Thomas Hill (January 7, 1818 – November 21, 1891) was an American Unitarian clergyman, mathematician, scientist, philosopher, and educator. Taught to read at an early age, Hill read voraciously and was well regarded for his capacious and accurate memory. His father taught him botany, and he took a delight in nature and devised scientific instruments, one of calculated eclipses and was subsequently awarded the Scott Medal by the Franklin Institute. Though not formally educated in his youth, Hill briefly attended the Lower Dublin Academy in Holmesburg, Pennsylvania and the Leicester Academy in Massachusetts, now the Leicester campus of Becker College, leaving in 1837. He earned his A.B. and D.Div. from Harvard University in 1843 and 1845 respectively. He was later made an honorary member of the Hasty Pudding. Hill was president of Antioch College from 1860 to 1862 until the Civil War forced the college to shut down; he then held the presidency of Harvard University from 1862 to 1868. Ill health caused his retirement from Harvard, and from 1873, he was head of the Unitarian parish in Portland, Maine. Thomas Hill claimed to have injured his testicle while gardening, an incident that made him wary of laboratory instruction at Harvard, warning students not to exert themselves too much in their studies. His home in Waltham, Massachusetts, where he began his career, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Christmas

A story from the 'Old Christmas' collection (Golden Deer Classics)

Christmas Eve

Maid Marian, an orphaned heiress, struggles against scheming, duplicitous relatives for the right to her own lands. A medieval romance featuring Robin Hood, Maid Marian, Friar Tuck, and Prince John. Lampoons institutions such as the monarchy and the church in the post-Napoleonic era.

Little Maid Marian

From the Six Little Bunkers series: "Oh, Daddy, come and take him off! He's a terrible big one, and he's winkin' one of his claws at me! Come and take him off!" "All right, Mun Bun. I'll be there in just a second. Hold him under water so he won't let go, and I'll get him for you." Daddy Bunker, who had been reading the paper on the porch of Cousin Tom's bungalow at Seaview, hurried down to the little pier that was built out into Clam River. On the end of the pier stood a little boy, who was called Mun Bun, but whose real name was Munroe Ford Bunker. However, he was almost always called Mun Bun.

Six Little Bunkers at Grandpa Ford's

Christmas Day is from the  book by Washington Irving the'Old Christmas' collection.

Christmas Day

Christmas is from the S book by Washington Irving the'Old Christmas' collection.

Christmas (Golden Deer Classics)

The Christmas dinner,: From the Sketch book by Washington Irving hardcover, 1st edition, 1st printing

The Christmas Dinner

The Stage-coach,: From the Sketch book by Washington Irving hardcover, 1st edition, 1st printing

The Stage-coach (Golden Deer Classics)

Twelfth Night, Or What You Will is a comedy by William Shakespeare, based on the short story "Of Apolonius and Silla" by Barnabe Rich. It is named after the Twelfth Night holiday of the Christmas season. It was written around 1601 and first published in the First Folio in 1623. The main title is believed to be an afterthought, created after John Marston premiered a play titled What You Will during the course of the writing.

William Shakespeare - Twelfth Night

Christmas, by Zona Gale, is a tender little study of the intricacies of human nature, done with that clear-eyed understanding that made the Friendship Village stories memorable. This new story has its scene laid in Old Trail Town, a town which is undergoing a temporary period of financial depression, because the Ebenezer Rule Factory Company has been obliged to shut clown for the time being, and Abel Ames's Granger Company Merchandise Emporium is in straitened circumstances, owing to the failure of about half the towns-folk to settle their bills for last year's Christmas presents. So the church committees and the town meeting and other official bodies get together and vote that this year, for the good of the community at large, no one shall give presents,—and despite a few feeble protests from mothers who foresee heart-aches and tears for the little ones, the measure is carried with general approval. But it happens that a certain maiden lady, Mary Chavah, receives word that her sister has died, leaving a little orphaned boy, who is to be sent on to her, and will arrive just before Christmas. And it is the Christmas spirit brought by the advent of this little child into the house of Mary Chavah that sets at nought all the wise economical forethought of the worldly minded Abels and Simeons and Ebenezers. There is a good deal of symbolism lurking behind the simple surface narrative, making an effective little parable, embodying much indulgent criticism of human frailty and shortsightedness.

Golden Deer Classics' Christmas Shelf

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