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Christmas In The South: Holiday Stories From The South's Best Writers
Last year's bestselling anthology of outstanding stories and original watercolors A Very Southern Christmas was an instant hit. This year we are pleased to present another stellar collection of short fiction that encourages us to celebrate and meditate on the meaning of the holiday season.
Christmas in the South reminds us of the multitude of emotions that arise as December approaches and the shopping days decrease, as anticipations and hopes rise about reunions, renewed vows, charity, and the perfect present. This year's anthology includes some of the South's finest contemporary fiction Doris Betts, Larry Brown, Ellen Douglas, Michael Knight, Clyde Edgerton, Gail Godwin, Jill McCorkle, Carolyn Haines, Silas House, and Donald Harington. Accompanied by Wyatt Waters's vibrant watercolors commissioned specifically for this collection, this beautiful volume, like its predecessor, promises to be a treasured keepsake.
Christmas in the South reminds us of the multitude of emotions that arise as December approaches and the shopping days decrease, as anticipations and hopes rise about reunions, renewed vows, charity, and the perfect present. This year's anthology includes some of the South's finest contemporary fiction Doris Betts, Larry Brown, Ellen Douglas, Michael Knight, Clyde Edgerton, Gail Godwin, Jill McCorkle, Carolyn Haines, Silas House, and Donald Harington. Accompanied by Wyatt Waters's vibrant watercolors commissioned specifically for this collection, this beautiful volume, like its predecessor, promises to be a treasured keepsake.
234 pages, Hardcover
First published October 1, 2004
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
December 23, 2019
"We can create battlefields of longing, and when it’s all over, we clean up and wait until next year, when we can try for perfection again." - Kaye Gibbons
I think Kaye Gibbons sums up this collection and Christmas in general quite perfectly with her quote from the preface. These are not the bright and rosy holiday short stories you may want to snuggle up with by the fire. What are they then? They exemplify the hard truth about what Christmas and holiday time is like for a good many people. Family differences and estrangements, homesickness, the wealth of a few in stark contrast to the privations of others, abandonment, longing, and death – Christmas cheer doesn’t necessarily rid anyone of these hardships, but rather may cause them to stand out even more.
There are eleven short stories written by well-known southern writers included here, and naturally some are more memorable than others. Even if the storytelling was not stellar in some, the writing in nearly all showcased real talent. I recognized most of the authors, but have only been personally acquainted with the writing of one thus far (Silas House). Those that resonate most are the ones that managed to evoke certain feelings that I’ve come across on some of those inevitable less than blissful Christmases. Emotions I'd rather shove back down! A couple of them were simply strange and abrupt. One left me feeling more hopeful, and I’m quite glad that the collection ended with this particular story by Larry Brown titled Merry Christmas, Scotty.
"Christmas kept coming around because it had good reasons for coming around, and it was hard even if you had little not to be a little bit happy."
If you can muster up something to be thankful for and there’s at least one other guy that seems more down and out than you, then perhaps the Christmas spirit is salvageable after all.
I’m glad I read this little collection, which by the way included some gorgeous illustrations at the start of each story. They all provided a good sampling of writers that I can now pursue in full-length novel form more diligently in future.
Before I dip into that eggnog to see if it really can cure melancholia (reader beware!), I’ll end with a few snippets of some of the writing I especially liked and highlighted while reading:
"I miss your sweet, smooth voice so much, and wish you could put that in a parcel and mail it to me."
"Olivia could still remember how easily his wide-eyed interest had seen past her own surface, as if her real self – like furniture – had been obscured under shellac and varnish and paint…"
"He could see her at the table, smiling over the rim of a coffee mug, her hair drawn into a ponytail, her exposed neck slender and elegant and gilded with fugitive, light-catching wisps."
"The fabric of events, the content of scene after scene in her life, stuck persistently in her mind whether or not she could assimilate it and understand it."
"You’ll be rendered naked – one way or another – and life will have happened to you the same as it does everybody else."
I think Kaye Gibbons sums up this collection and Christmas in general quite perfectly with her quote from the preface. These are not the bright and rosy holiday short stories you may want to snuggle up with by the fire. What are they then? They exemplify the hard truth about what Christmas and holiday time is like for a good many people. Family differences and estrangements, homesickness, the wealth of a few in stark contrast to the privations of others, abandonment, longing, and death – Christmas cheer doesn’t necessarily rid anyone of these hardships, but rather may cause them to stand out even more.
There are eleven short stories written by well-known southern writers included here, and naturally some are more memorable than others. Even if the storytelling was not stellar in some, the writing in nearly all showcased real talent. I recognized most of the authors, but have only been personally acquainted with the writing of one thus far (Silas House). Those that resonate most are the ones that managed to evoke certain feelings that I’ve come across on some of those inevitable less than blissful Christmases. Emotions I'd rather shove back down! A couple of them were simply strange and abrupt. One left me feeling more hopeful, and I’m quite glad that the collection ended with this particular story by Larry Brown titled Merry Christmas, Scotty.
"Christmas kept coming around because it had good reasons for coming around, and it was hard even if you had little not to be a little bit happy."
If you can muster up something to be thankful for and there’s at least one other guy that seems more down and out than you, then perhaps the Christmas spirit is salvageable after all.
I’m glad I read this little collection, which by the way included some gorgeous illustrations at the start of each story. They all provided a good sampling of writers that I can now pursue in full-length novel form more diligently in future.
Before I dip into that eggnog to see if it really can cure melancholia (reader beware!), I’ll end with a few snippets of some of the writing I especially liked and highlighted while reading:
"I miss your sweet, smooth voice so much, and wish you could put that in a parcel and mail it to me."
"Olivia could still remember how easily his wide-eyed interest had seen past her own surface, as if her real self – like furniture – had been obscured under shellac and varnish and paint…"
"He could see her at the table, smiling over the rim of a coffee mug, her hair drawn into a ponytail, her exposed neck slender and elegant and gilded with fugitive, light-catching wisps."
"The fabric of events, the content of scene after scene in her life, stuck persistently in her mind whether or not she could assimilate it and understand it."
"You’ll be rendered naked – one way or another – and life will have happened to you the same as it does everybody else."
December 11, 2019
My kind of Christmas stories. Some of the stories were uneven or ended abruptly, but a few of them were excellent. The very last story by Larry Brown, "Merry Christmas, Scotty",was my favorite. It will be one I re-read every year, just for the feels. I'm not a Hallmark movie, happy ending, hohoho kind of reader, but in my opinion, it's what the season is all about. Kindness and eggnog.
December 13, 2019
I love the cover of this book. There are eleven, southern short stories. Each one has a good Christmas message. I had two or three favorites but enjoyed them all. I can see myself reading it again.
January 19, 2017
Some stories I found hard to follow, others even thou they were short stories seemed to end too quickly. Unfinished. I honestly don't know why I kept reading it, other than they were different authors and I thought I might enjoy the next one to come.
November 26, 2012
Stories were almost depressing, and ended abruptly--no wrap up.
December 31, 2017
Stories were depressing and left you hanging. Read seven out of eleven but couldn’t finish. I kept thinking the next one would be better.
December 29, 2025
This is NOT a book to inspire Christmas spirit or cheer. I love anthologies, and for the most part I liked the stories - though some ended too abruptly and others had so many characters the story was barely long enough to make sense out of everything - but for the most part, the stories were either just about sad Christmases, or non-Christmas stories that just happened to take place at Christmas.
2 stars for some good stories - 3 stars off for cursing, the less-good stories, and for pretending to be a Christmas book.
2 stars for some good stories - 3 stars off for cursing, the less-good stories, and for pretending to be a Christmas book.
October 20, 2018
A great collection of Christmas stories. Short and sweet.
December 11, 2019
A bit uneven of a collection, some stories were good and others were puzzling. Great to have found a short story by Larry Brown which I had not previously read.
November 24, 2022
Several quite enjoyable stories in this compilation. Quick reads for the season when you’re busy and want to read something short.
January 2, 2017
Ugh. I wish there was a partially-read option because this would be on it. I made it through 4 short stories---each with a very unsatisfying ending and then was done. This book reminded me why I don't care for short stories. Why do short stories have to end leaving you hanging with no resolution? Am I missing how they should be read? Should I ponder them and make up my own ending? Eh....
I borrowed this book from the library and held out reading it until the day after Christmas when life calms down and I'd have a chance to curl up under a blanket on the couch with the cat on my stomach and read. Ahhhh. But it just wasn't the right book for the moment. I guess I was looking for a Hallmark feel good book where everything ties up tidily and happily in the end and this wasn't that.
What Child Is This by Doris Betts had the unhappy character of Olivia Dudley moving in to a small town to live beside it's town odd ball, Pattybell. Olivia is obsessive to have a child to the point of pondering whether her husband's gay brother might help her father one. Alonzo, Olivia's brother in law really wants to get in Pattybell's house to get a look at her antiques. The story continues...
Clyde Edgerton's story, Good Will Toward Men involves Melvin, a labrador breeder who is struggling with his daughter in law. He can't figure out what his son sees in her---she's big, she's brash, she speaks plainly about what's on her mind. Melvin just sold his only chocolate puppy, a high strung puppy with a high strung mother, to a city slicker who didn't know the right questions to ask about his parentage. Melvin is steadily talking himself out of feeling guilty about this while he attends a concert at Duke Chapel. He's had enough of the music and goes outside to his truck for a smoke. While out there, he runs into the man he sold the dog to as well as his daughter in law who comes to find him. The story continues....
There are two more that I read but I'll stop here.... it just wasn't my thing.
I borrowed this book from the library and held out reading it until the day after Christmas when life calms down and I'd have a chance to curl up under a blanket on the couch with the cat on my stomach and read. Ahhhh. But it just wasn't the right book for the moment. I guess I was looking for a Hallmark feel good book where everything ties up tidily and happily in the end and this wasn't that.
What Child Is This by Doris Betts had the unhappy character of Olivia Dudley moving in to a small town to live beside it's town odd ball, Pattybell. Olivia is obsessive to have a child to the point of pondering whether her husband's gay brother might help her father one. Alonzo, Olivia's brother in law really wants to get in Pattybell's house to get a look at her antiques. The story continues...
Clyde Edgerton's story, Good Will Toward Men involves Melvin, a labrador breeder who is struggling with his daughter in law. He can't figure out what his son sees in her---she's big, she's brash, she speaks plainly about what's on her mind. Melvin just sold his only chocolate puppy, a high strung puppy with a high strung mother, to a city slicker who didn't know the right questions to ask about his parentage. Melvin is steadily talking himself out of feeling guilty about this while he attends a concert at Duke Chapel. He's had enough of the music and goes outside to his truck for a smoke. While out there, he runs into the man he sold the dog to as well as his daughter in law who comes to find him. The story continues....
There are two more that I read but I'll stop here.... it just wasn't my thing.
March 30, 2017
Didn't much care for the stories. They left me in a melancholy mood.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews