SOLVED. Children's Christmas Short Story Collection which includes A Town that Forgot Christmas, and a Christmas Fir?/ Holly? Tree that Burns to Keep Jesus Warm. [s]

[Read While It Rains]

This is a children's short story collection with a female author on the cover (although they may just have been the editor for the collection).

This book would have been published around the late 90s, early 2000s and I believe it was published in the UK although I cannot be certain.

I read it in about 2004/5. The cover featured snow and a village in the distance. It was a paperback.

One story featured a town that had forgotten Christmas/ didn't want to celebrate it. One girl wants to get everyone to celebrate, and eventually gets everyone on board on Christmas Eve. She decorates the large tree outside her home with random items, and lights it up using the light of a bicycle (or perhaps a car). A shop strings balls of cotton wool to look like snow.

Another story features lots of family visiting for Christmas. Aunts and Uncles are in every possible space, including lying across the kitchen shelves and in the bath.

Another story in the collection is written I think from the POV of a holly tree or fir tree. It burns to keep a baby (presumably Jesus) warm as it cannot offer milk like the cow or other offerings.

I know this information is very little to go on, and I've had no luck searching for it online for years, but any ideas would be very appreciated!

[Becca]

The story about the aunts / uncles sleeping in unusual places sounds like Christmas in Exeter Street by Diana Hendry, in case that helps. It was originally published as a picture book - were there illustrations in the collection you read?

[Read While It Rains]

Wow this is exactly the story! Thank you so much, this has given me something to go on now! Some of the illustrations are familiar but most are not so I’m thinking perhaps it was reprinted in this collection.

[Becca]

Two Christmas collections that contain the Exeter Street story that I've found so far: The Walker Book of Christmas Stories and A Stocking Full of Christmas Stories. Neither cover matches your description, but maybe there are different editions that aren't on Goodreads.

Both are on archive.org so you can check if the other stories match: https://archive.org/details/stockingf... and https://archive.org/details/walkerboo...

[Read While It Rains]

Wow, you are incredible!!! The second of the two has such a familiar cover and I definitely owned it at some point. I've gone through the version on archive and I think I'll order a copy for nostalgia's sake. This is utterly amazing but also means I am conflating two separate books (my sincere apologies!!) The 2nd and 3rd story I mention are in this collection but the first is not and must be in the other book with the snowy cover. I realise this means I have even less to go on to find this book but I am honestly delighted at being reunited with this other one too.

I am so grateful to you! Thanks so much.

[Kris]

Glad you found some of your short stories, Read While It Rains. I've marked this thread as Solved because only one book can be added to the header.

If you'd like to find your other short story collection, please create a new thread (request).