Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories - Christmas Stories

Which Christmas story to choose from? To be honest I can't because I love them all. So I am just going to list my favorite stories (not in any particular order) and why I remember them.
 

As a child growing up I remember my Mom and Dad reading "Twas the Night Before Christmas" by Clement C. Moore. They would read this to us on Christmas Eve before we went to bed. We would gather altogether on the couch vying to be close enough to help turn the pages. "Twas the Night Before Christmas is the story of how a man hears Santa and his reindeer flying in his sleigh towards his home while he is preparing to go to bed on Christmas Eve. After opening our family gifts on Christmas Eve my Mom would sit on the couch with my boys and read this book to them before I could take them home. It has now become a family tradition.

Another favorite Christmas story for me is "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" by Dr Suess. It also happens to be my husband's all time favorite Christmas show along with "The Christmas Story" movie. It doesn't matter who old or young you are everyone loves the Grinch! 

Originally published in 1957, the story of the Grinch who lives in a cave above the town of Whoville. He is tired of the  Who's joyous Christmas celebrations and decides to stop Christmas from happening. He does this by disguising himself as Santa Claus and goes to Whoville and steals all the Christmas trees, ornaments and presents. 

As I understand it, Dr. Suess wrote this book because of the commercialism of Christmas which is true today as well.

Next on my list is "The Gift of the Magi" by O. Henry. I read this book in high school as part of study on the works of O. Henry, a pen name for William Sydney Porter, a native North Carolinian. 

"The Gift of the Magi" is a short story. Originally published in The New York Sunday World on December 10, 1905 and was originally titled "Gifts of the Magi". In 1906, O. Henry published a short story collection titled, Four Million and the title was changed to "The Gift of the Magi".  

It is a story about a couple who make personal sacrifices in order to buy each other a Christmas gift. For me the moral of this story is that love is truly a priceless gift.

These are a few of my favorite Christmas stories. When I searched for "magical Christmas stories" I found this list of "20 Magical Christmas Stories" at http://www.buzzfeed.com/ellievhall/20-childrens-christmas-books-to-read-aloud.  Of the 20 books listed I have only read three. I also found a list of "20 Famous Christmas Stories" at http://osr.org/christmas/20-famous-christmas-stories/. 
I now have a list of books to buy and I am looking forward to starting a tradition of reading these Christmas stories to our sweet little grandson, Easton.


Sources:

"20 Famous Christmas Stories" at http://osr.org/christmas/20-famous-christmas-stories/

"20 Magical Christmas Stories" at http://www.buzzfeed.com/ellievhall/20-childrens-christmas-books-to-read-aloud
 
Image of "Twas the Night Before Christmas" by Clement C. Moore,  http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=Classic+Night+Before+Christmas+Book&Form=IQFRDR#a

Image of "How the Grinch Stole Christmas by Dr. Suess, http://www.bing.com/images/search?pq=free+images+of+how+the+grinch+stole+christmas&sc=0-37&sp=-1&sk=&sid=D187D43FF2D9494D8A22B37ED3CECB2D&jsoncbid=1&q=free+images+of+how+the+grinch+stole+christmas&qft=+filterui:license-L2_L3_L4_L5_L6_L7&FORM=R5IR39#view=detail&id=ED139B4DFE97C4C50F0433ECBB7DFB45E538E26C&selectedIndex=0

Image of "The Gift of the Maji" by O. Henry, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Gift_of_the_Magi#mediaviewer/File:The_Gift_of_the_Magi.jpg