The Night Before Christmas

by Alice Taylor

Alice Taylor returns to the world of "To School Through the Fields" in this story of oldstyle country Christmas. She attempts to convey the magic that lies in every detail of the festive season for a young child. Her story begins with the geese as they wobble around the farmyard and down to the river. She conveys the childrens' aching anticipation of the village schoolmaster's official announcement of the holidays. And then the scene moves to the farmhouse kitchen, where their neighbour Bill supervises the important business of writing to Santa.

Genres: Nonfiction, Christmas

160 pages, Paperback

First published October 30, 1994

About the author

Alice Taylor lives in the village of Innishannon in County Cork, in a house attached to the local supermarket and post office. Since her eldest son has taken over responsibility for the shop, she has been able to devote more time to her writing.

Alice Taylor worked as a telephonist in Killarney and Bandon. When she married, she moved to Innishannon where she ran a guesthouse at first, then the supermarket and post office. She and her husband, Gabriel Murphy, who sadly passed away in 2005, had four sons and one daughter. In 1984 she edited and published the first issue of Candlelight, a local magazine which has since appeared annually. In 1986 she published an illustrated collection of her own verse.

To School Through the Fields was published in May 1988. It was an immediate success, launching Alice on a series of signing sessions, talks and readings the length and breadth of Ireland. Her first radio interview, forty two minutes long on RTÉ Radio's Gay Byrne Show, was the most talked about radio programme of 1988, and her first television interview, of the same length, was the highlight of the year on RTÉ television's Late Late Show. Since then she has appeared on radio programmes such as Woman's Hour, Midweek and The Gloria Hunniford Show, and she has been the subject of major profiles in the Observer and the Mail on Sunday.

To School Through the Fields quickly became the biggest selling book ever published in Ireland, and her sequels, Quench the Lamp, The Village, Country Days and The Night Before Christmas, were also outstandingly successful. Since their initial publication these books of memoirs have also been translated and sold internationally.

In 1997 her first novel, The Woman of the House, was an immediate bestseller in Ireland, topping the paperback fiction lists for many weeks. A moving story of land, love and family, it was followed by a sequel, Across the River in 2000, which was also a bestseller.

One of Ireland's most popular authors, she has continued writing fiction, non-fiction and poetry since.

Reviews

[Jennifer · Rating 5 out of 5]

A perfectly charming and nostalgic reminiscence on Alice Taylor’s childhood Christmases. This was a lovely read over the holiday season.

[Trisha · Rating 4 out of 5]

Maybe it’s because I read this a few days before Christmas and then again aloud to Denny and the rest of our family on Christmas Eve that I enjoyed this book as much as I did. Or it could be because we were in Ireland this past year and met distant relatives who welcomed us so warmly into the family. In fact it was one of them who sent me this book a few weeks ago as a Christmas gift. Whatever the reason I loved Alice Taylor’s gently nostalgic – but not cloying –reminiscences of what the Christmas holidays were like while she was growing up in rural Ireland. Although no dates are mentioned in the book, Taylor was born born in 1938 and the Christmas she describes took place when she was nine years old which would have been around the same time I was a toddler. But the worlds we were living in were vastly different. At that time Ireland was years behind in terms of many of the things we children of the late forties and fifties took for granted here in the U.S. Fresh holly was gathered from the fields to festoon the kitchen and decorate the hollowed out turnip that served as a base for the large wax candle that was placed in the window. Santa’s gifts were mostly home-made and dinner was prepared over an open hearth – the goose which had been fattened during the fall and freshly plucked by hand simmered for hours in the bastable (an iron pot placed directly in the burning coals and covered with sods of turf.) Alice Taylor brings her memories of those Irish Christmases vividly to life, making them seem every bit as real as the memories I have of my own childhood. But the thing that left the deepest impression on me was the sense of tradition that went along with everything she was describing because they represented something enduring and unchangeable – customs, rituals, ceremonies, legends, beliefs and ways of doing things that had been a part of life for generations. Christmas was an important part of the very fabric of life and not simply a date on the calendar that’s been taken over by commercialization and kitschy tastelessness the way so much of it has for those of us here in the 21st century. But for Taylor and the children of her generation Christmas included timeless traditions that began long before the actual day itself and continued for weeks afterward. Customs like the hunting of the Wren on the day after Christmas (St. Stephen’s Day) had been handed down and enjoyed for centuries by young and old as well. Our Irish cousin tells us that sadly many of these traditions have died out but he remembers them well, and some of them – like the wren boy custom – can still be found in parts of rural Ireland. For some reason that’s good to know.

[Anne Williams · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not usually a non-fiction reader, but thoroughly enjoyed Alice Taylor's The Night Before Christmas, the memoirs of a child growing up in rural Cork in the 40s/50s, a wonderful description of the magic of Christmas past.

[Linda Fallows · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lovely, warm remembrance of Christmas’s past. A perfect read in the run up to Christmas.

[Karen Ireland · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the perfect read for Christmas, I will definitely be rereading next year, it shows what Christmas is really about, family, friendship and old way of life

[Ciara · Rating 5 out of 5]

A nice book to read what it was like growing up in Ireland around the Christmas of the 40s

[denudatio_pulpae · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Noc przed Bożym Narodzeniem" to opowieść o takich świętach, jakie pamiętam z dzieciństwa. Świętach, na które się czekało z niecierpliwością, a nie jak teraz, kiedy ustrojone choinki w sklepach pojawiają się od listopada, a kolędy lecą z głośników kilka tygodni przed Bożym Narodzeniem i człowiek po tych kilku tygodniach ma dosyć.

Bardzo miło się czyta o pięknych rodzinnych tradycjach, nawet jeżeli są nimi tylko zwykłe przygotowania czy sprzątanie, poprzeplatane magicznymi, w oczach dziecka, elementami. Chciałabym wrócić do tamtych czasów, poczuć znów tę atmosferę nieskażoną problemami dorosłości. Polecam każdemu, kto chciałby również poczuć się znów jak dziecko i cieszyć się z najdrobniejszych rzeczy.
7/10

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Just a sweet little story of the Christmas celebrations of a family in small-town Ireland in what feels like the 1950s/1960s.

[Julie · Rating 2 out of 5]

it was a nice, short memoir of an irish christmas. lots of interesting traditions.