Celebrate the Christmas season with That Artsy Reader Girl and her bookish friends!
Celebrate #ChristmasWithJana: Instagram ✦ Twitter ✦ Event Schedule
I’m so happy to welcome Harker, book blogger at The Hermit Librarian, to the blog today to talk about some of her favorite bookish Christmases! I really, really love reading Christmas scenes in books and I couldn’t agree more with some of the magical Christmases she has chosen to feature today.
Harker’s Favorite Bookish Christmases
Christmas is a magical time of the year when you focus on the lights and the good food and adamantly force yourself to ignore the rampant consumerism of the real world. I work retail, this is hard, trust me. So what to do in the face of that? Think about what bookish worlds I’d like to spend the holidays in. When everything is crashing down around them, whether it be an evil witch or something more real world like, the characters in a book seem to be able to enjoy a little bit of time with each other, whether it be a whole day or an hour or two.
I’m going to share with you my picks for the worlds I’d spend my Christmas holidays in, whether they take place just on the other side of a brick wall in London or through a wardrobe in the countryside estate of an old professor. Thank you for joining me today, and a happy Christmas to you.
Narnia, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis
This might sound like an odd choice, given that for half the novel Christmas doesn’t exist because the White Witch has forbidden it, but with the arrival of the Pevensie children her curse begins to break and life begins to return to Narnia. With it, the figure known as Father Christmas is able to travel to this land again and even brings them presents that aide them in the rest of their adventures this time around. There are many trials while in Narnia, but there are also good times, such as tea with the Beavers and being welcomed at Aslan’s camp. Christmas in Narnia, with eternal winter banished, is sure to be a wonderful thing indeed.
Hogwarts/The Burrow, The Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling
Harry’s first Christmas in the series is my favorite because I think it has the most impact on him. While arguably his 11th birthday, on which he learned that he was a wizard, is more monumental overall, his first Christmas at Hogwarts was a holiday he had the ability to share with friends. By that point, he had friends to share the wonder of the place with: the decorated trees, the enchanted crackers, the feast. Later on in the series he is welcomed to the Burrow for the holiday and, while this is usually overshadowed by something dark happening at school, there is still the overwhelming happiness made by friends that have become something like family.
I would love to be in the midst of all that magic and mystical wonder. I think it would take a very long time, if ever, before it wore off. The crackers alone sound like a lot of fun. Imagine all the little things that would pop out: enchanted hats, toys that play back, etc. The mice would make great pets because I’d rescue them. At the Burrow, Mrs. Weasley would no doubt have a ton of family traditions that she’d include any guests in. Any guests are family, from what I’ve seen, and that’s touching.
The Enchanted Forest, Dealing With Dragons by Patricia C. Wrede
Cimorene, the protagonist of most of the Enchanted Forest books, was the first princess I can remember reading who was not the usual sort of princess. She wasn’t satisfied with being taught to sew or to curtsy or how to scream while being carried off by giants. She wanted to fence and speak Latin and learn magic. What she eventually did was leave her father’s castle and become a dragon’s princess, willingly, and thus found her own story in the Enchanted Forest.
The cast of characters she meets, most important of which is Kazul the dragon, would be so much fun to spend Christmas with. Not only does Kazul have a magic pot that can cook amazing food for large groups and a cavern of caves to explore, but the friends that Cimorene makes include a witch and another princess who learns to come out of her shell.
Explaining the customs of a human holiday might be a bit odd with a host of dragons as guests, but I think it would be a lot of fun trying to play Christmas games with them and the feast would certainly be something to behold. Imagine, if only they would be kind enough, the snowy flight over the Enchanted Forest. Cold but breathtaking, I’d wager, if your dragon is a kind one.
The Carnegie Library, In the House of the Seven Librarians by Ellen Klages
A short story in Firebirds Rising, In the House of the Seven Librarians tells the story of seven librarians at the Carnegie Library, an old-fashioned library at the edge of a forest that is abandoned when a newer one is built closer to the town’s mall and main road. Rather than leave their books, the seven librarians stock up on supplies and stay. Soon they are forgotten by the town and make their lives within the walls of the library, which takes care of them in turn by leaving little treats and, I assume, keeping their food stocked up. It has its own sort of magic, it seems.
One day, as payment for an extremely overdue book of Grimms fairy tales, someone leaves a basket in the drop box containing a first born child. This child’s upbringing shows the reader more about the power of the library and about the librarians from the day she is left to the day she grows up and decides to see what the world outside is like, knowing that her librarians will always be there for her.
I think this would be a splendid place to spend the holidays. While time is fluid within the library (the child’s birthday, which is decided to be July 5th and is celebrated in the middle of a snowstorm) and holidays might not be celebrated on quite the right day, they would be cozy and warms. Tea would always be at the ready and there’s a good chance the library would leave a tin of biscuits for the guests to enjoy between friendly debates about the various subjects on the shelves and games of literary inspiration.
What are some of your favorite bookish Christmases?
Tough Luck Cowboy
Daughter of the Siren King by Tricia Levenseller