The Christmas storybook was published in 1907.
Excerpts from the book's Introduction:
SINCE his first writing of Christmas in
Pickwick, Charles Dickens has forever be-
come associated with that season. No other
writer ever succeeded better than he in covering
the earth with a mantle of snow. To the hearth
he brought the good-will and wholesome cheer of
the Christmas Tide, and his Christmas books and
short stories, alike, are forceful expressions of our
own feelings because, full of life and spirit, humor
and pathos, he made the fancies of the season his
own. The charity of diffusing good cheer among
both rich and poor has never been taught by a
more seasonable and thoughtful writer.
Dickens was very fond of the old nursery tales
and believed he was giving expression to them in
a higher form in these Christmas writings. The
virtues, manly and social, which he desired to teach,
were to him the ghosts and goblins of his child-
hood's fairy fancies. The more formidable drag-
ons and giants to be conquered were aggressively
assembled in the shadow of the hearth. So it is
not to be wondered at, that with such source of
inspiration these writings should carry to numer-
ous firesides a sense of the obligations of Christ-
mas with its claim upon our better natures.
The childhood and early manhood of Dickens
were years of great importance with respect to
changes wrought in social history, and may be
said to mark the parting of the ways between the
ages, past and present. His life began when the
stage coach was the only means of quick travel,
but he lived to cross the Atlantic in a steamship,
and his writings are filled with charming and vivid
descriptions of these bygone manners and customs,
known so well because of his experience as a re-
porter, in which capacity he travelled extensively
and met the celebrated people of his time. He
was most successful in casting a charm upon the
wayside inn and because of him the doors are ever
open to the weary traveller and the bright light of
the fire casts its welcome on the snow.
The Holly-Tree Inn, which comprises the main,
text of this volume, was written between the crea-
tion of "Hard Times" and "Little Dorrit." It
was Dickens's contribution to "Household Words"
for Christmas, 1855, and gained great popularity
by being included in his readings. Writing from
Boston, Dickens states, — "Another extraordinary
success has been 'Nickleby' and 'Boots at the
Holly-Tree Inn' (appreciated here at Boston, by
the by, even more than Copperfield)," And what
wonder when we consider the delightful character
of the Boots and know the two wholesome, childish
children who live in this chapter!
From the moment we step out of the coach
with the traveller designated as "myself" on that
snowy Christmas Eve, and the waiter "whose
head became as white as King Lear's in a single
moment," replies to our question, "What Inn is
this?" "The Holly-Tree, Sir," we follow the
magician into its homely atmosphere. Our cu-
riosity is like that of the women of the house, who,
that they might get a glimpse of those dear chil-
dren, were "seven deep at the key hole." And this
curiosity is not the least abated as, thought after
thought, scene after scene relating to old inns, are
brought to the traveller's hearth.
With our mind aglow with visions of Inns —
their romances and their tragedies — we eagerly
welcome — "A Christmas Tree," included in
this volume. Here is, indeed, a Christmas tree
to cheer the souls of all men. For each a gift
hangs in its branches; a message in its light, and
our imagination is so inspired that "all common
things become uncommon and enchanted. . . .
But, far above, I see the raiser of the dead girl,
and the widow's son; and God is good! If age
be hiding for me in the unseen portions of thy
downward growth, O may I, with a grey head,
turn a child's heart to that figure yet, and a child's
trustfulness and confidence!
Excerpts from the book's Introduction:
SINCE his first writing of Christmas in
Pickwick, Charles Dickens has forever be-
come associated with that season. No other
writer ever succeeded better than he in covering
the earth with a mantle of snow. To the hearth
he brought the good-will and wholesome cheer of
the Christmas Tide, and his Christmas books and
short stories, alike, are forceful expressions of our
own feelings because, full of life and spirit, humor
and pathos, he made the fancies of the season his
own. The charity of diffusing good cheer among
both rich and poor has never been taught by a
more seasonable and thoughtful writer.
Dickens was very fond of the old nursery tales
and believed he was giving expression to them in
a higher form in these Christmas writings. The
virtues, manly and social, which he desired to teach,
were to him the ghosts and goblins of his child-
hood's fairy fancies. The more formidable drag-
ons and giants to be conquered were aggressively
assembled in the shadow of the hearth. So it is
not to be wondered at, that with such source of
inspiration these writings should carry to numer-
ous firesides a sense of the obligations of Christ-
mas with its claim upon our better natures.
The childhood and early manhood of Dickens
were years of great importance with respect to
changes wrought in social history, and may be
said to mark the parting of the ways between the
ages, past and present. His life began when the
stage coach was the only means of quick travel,
but he lived to cross the Atlantic in a steamship,
and his writings are filled with charming and vivid
descriptions of these bygone manners and customs,
known so well because of his experience as a re-
porter, in which capacity he travelled extensively
and met the celebrated people of his time. He
was most successful in casting a charm upon the
wayside inn and because of him the doors are ever
open to the weary traveller and the bright light of
the fire casts its welcome on the snow.
The Holly-Tree Inn, which comprises the main,
text of this volume, was written between the crea-
tion of "Hard Times" and "Little Dorrit." It
was Dickens's contribution to "Household Words"
for Christmas, 1855, and gained great popularity
by being included in his readings. Writing from
Boston, Dickens states, — "Another extraordinary
success has been 'Nickleby' and 'Boots at the
Holly-Tree Inn' (appreciated here at Boston, by
the by, even more than Copperfield)," And what
wonder when we consider the delightful character
of the Boots and know the two wholesome, childish
children who live in this chapter!
From the moment we step out of the coach
with the traveller designated as "myself" on that
snowy Christmas Eve, and the waiter "whose
head became as white as King Lear's in a single
moment," replies to our question, "What Inn is
this?" "The Holly-Tree, Sir," we follow the
magician into its homely atmosphere. Our cu-
riosity is like that of the women of the house, who,
that they might get a glimpse of those dear chil-
dren, were "seven deep at the key hole." And this
curiosity is not the least abated as, thought after
thought, scene after scene relating to old inns, are
brought to the traveller's hearth.
With our mind aglow with visions of Inns —
their romances and their tragedies — we eagerly
welcome — "A Christmas Tree," included in
this volume. Here is, indeed, a Christmas tree
to cheer the souls of all men. For each a gift
hangs in its branches; a message in its light, and
our imagination is so inspired that "all common
things become uncommon and enchanted. . . .
But, far above, I see the raiser of the dead girl,
and the widow's son; and God is good! If age
be hiding for me in the unseen portions of thy
downward growth, O may I, with a grey head,
turn a child's heart to that figure yet, and a child's
trustfulness and confidence!
