Books for My Holiday Season Ritual

I have a holiday ritual I engage in every year after I submit final grades for my Fall semester classes. I do this roughly on December 17 or so, give or take a few days.

I know that mid-December is really late to start thinking about the holidays. But the truth is that every year it gets a little easier to ignore the frenzy, and with submission of final grades (not the Thanksgiving Day Macy's Parade), I pass through my own private gateway to the Christmas season. Then I begin my holiday ritual: I start rereading a favorite book for the holidays. Yes, rereading a book during the holiday season is my ritual. It doesn’t take away from family time, at least from what I've heard. It does take away from Internet use. But that’s okay. And the books I’ve read in my ritual have given a definite feeling to my holiday season. In the same way that a friend of mine looks forward to the November Novel Writing Month with joy, I look forward to this time of personal retreat, reflection, and seeing things in an old book that I didn’t see before. 

My Criteria

My holiday book choice has simple criteria, at least that I'm aware of. The book has to be one I’ve read and enjoyed in the past, or at least thought at the time of first reading that it might deserve rereading someday, should I live long enough. I may have taught it in a class or been taught about it in a class, or it may be a book a friend recommended.

As a tangent, I should add that many of my favorite books have come from a friend’s suggestion. This brings part of my enjoyment when I reread during the holidays: I will also think about the friend who recommended it, about their influence on my life, and where they might be right now. I will think about other friends from the season in my life when I first read the book.

It usually is also a book I've owned for a while, is somewhat used, dog-eared even, and has my own previous annotations. It may have to do with Christmas or the Christian faith, but it doesn’t have to.

These criteria can be considered quirky, even sentimental. But here are a few of the books I've reread over the years: Various Sherlock Holmes stories; most of the Narnia tales, or Lewis’s Out of the Silent Planet; Emily Dickinson's poetry; Chekov stories; Tolstoi; Wonderful Flight to the Mushroom Planet (a book I read in fifth grade); Dostoyevski’s Notes from Underground. 

This isn't a complete list, and it isn't a scientific sample. In looking at it, I realize that it involves mostly reading for pleasure. It seems to suggest I favor male authors. And it reminds me of one last criterion I can think of for it: The book should hold out a world I’d like to enter again. 

I find the English fantasy writers and the nineteenth century Russian novelists especially good at this last standard and highly conducive to holiday reading.

This year, I’m rereading a Charles Williams novel called War in Heaven. It’s not brilliantly written. But as it is based on the premise that the Graal of Authurian legend has been discovered residing in a small country church outside London, the "what would happen if" possibilities are inviting. 

Home for the Holidays 
This is my own private ritual, reading. Over the years, I’ve come to feel about the authors and books I reread during the holidays the way that some feel about Scrooge, Charles Dickens, James Stewart, and the Peanuts gang.

I would love to hear of other books you might enjoy, but also of other holiday rituals you might have.  

Happy holidays. May you have rest, recreation, and good reading.