This is the favorite time of the year of many people, including me, simply because it is a time to be with your loved ones, eat a lot, share and feel the peace and love that tends to surround this season. And even though as I grow up my perspective about it changes, there is something that always makes me come back to feel like I used to, with hope and excitement to get to December: Christmas stories. They can be as movies, cartoons, music or books, the important thing is to be able to remember those feelings and to celebrate all the best qualitites of human beings, including the capacity to love and to trascend through art, so I've decided to share my traditional Christmas reads with the world. I hope you enjoy them!

Various short tales by J. R. R. Tolkien

Not only did I receive this book from someone I love -someone, I must add, loves books as much as I do-, it was also given to me on Christmas 3 years ago, so it's easy to see why I relate it to the season. It is a collection of short stories and an essay on fairy tales, written by Tolkien, best known as the writer of the Lord of the Rings. My favorite one: Roverandom, about the adventures of a dog.

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

This is a classic story of this season and one I've loved since I was little, as even before reading it I knew the story because.of cartoons, movies or songs that adapted it to their format. In case, for some random reason, you don't know what it is about: it is the story of greedy and selfish Mr. Scrooge who is visited one night by three ghosts: one for Past Christmas, one for Present and one for Future, giving him a lesson in time to redeem his soul.  

Where love is, God is by Leo Tolstoy

I'm not a religious person at all, but when I was little someone gave me a little yellow book of tales by Tolstoy and this one was my favorite. It is the story of a poor shoemaker that dreams that God will visit him the next day, so from his tiny windo he watches people come and go and waits for him, but throughout the day he receives the visit of various characters that need his help and he does it, even if he has practically nothing. I lost the original book I read the story in, but I got one afterwards that has the most beautiful and detailed illustrations and that's where I got the tradition of reading it each Christmas. 

The Nutcracker, The Little Matchgirl and The Elves and the Shoemaker.

All these stories are compiled in a book of Christmas Stories and Songs that I have since I was very little, and from all the ones included those three are my favorites. The Nutcracker is based on the story The Nutcracker and the Mouse King de E. T. A. Hoffmann, who inspired Alexander Dumas to adapt it and who then inspired Tchaikovsky who popularized it through his musical composition for the ballet; to this date, it is a classic Christmas presentation. The Little Matchgirl is the saddest story I've read in my entire life, it was written by  Hans Christian Andersen, and I only read it every year because of the message of empathy and compassion it transmits, and that reminds me of the reality of this beautiful times. Finally, The Elves and the Shoemaker, a story by the Grimm brothers, tells us about a poor shoemaker that has no clients and receives the nocturnal help of some really handy elves. 

Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone by J. K. Rowling

The very first time I read this book was on Christmas, a month after watching the movie for the first time. What can I say about this story? I re-read it each year to not forget everything it taught me, and in particular this book reminds me of my childhood and how I ate butter cookies till I passed out.

Is there any story you re-read each year just because it's Christmas time? Recommend me one in the comments and... Have a Merry Christmas!!

Love, thebooktaught.