December resolution

Despite holiday decorations crowding out Halloween, and mega-shopping promotions smothering Thanksgiving, the first of December is still the opening day of Christmas month.

The bustle and fuss of decorating and celebrating and shopping and wrapping and party-going and gift-giving and merry-making and good-cheering takes the normal time-flying of life to extraordinary speeds in December.

The hard irony is that in no month do we need downtime more, and yet December’s calendar hungrily demands every spare moment, and then some.

Into the rush of this season, I offer a special invitation. If you’re reading this column, you’re likely a reader in general. So here’s my suggestion for a December resolution: Read something new this Christmas.

Better yet, read several new somethings.

As a reader, you may already have some favorite stories or books you return to every holiday season, and there’s great comfort and joy in discovering something new with each annual rereading.

I see or learn or am moved by previously unnoticed details in “A Christmas Carol” every year. Having an annotated edition aids me in that respect, but there are always revelatory details in Dickens’ prose and phrasing that sprout up fresh on their own in my mind.

My “Read Something New” resolution isn’t a replacement if that’s also your tradition, but an extension.

One of the wonderful things about Christmas is its enduring significance. So many authors of fame and prominence in every genre have lent their voices to its spirit over the centuries that Christmas literature could fill a doctoral degree curriculum.

Add to that the countless more common personal anecdotes, remembrances, recollections and devotionals inspired by the holiday, and there’s simply more to read about Christmas than Santa can shake his pipe at.

If you’ve never actually read some of the tried-and-true classics — “The Gift of the Magi,” “The Little Match Girl,” “A Visit from St. Nicholas,” etc. — that’s a great starting point for something “new to you” this year.

The following compilation, however, is a digest of lesser-known works that might surprise and entice you. Most can be found online; eBay and Amazon are excellent and inexpensive options.

LITERARY MASTERS

The Christmas scenes in “Little Women” are popular holiday excerpts, but Louisa May Alcott also wrote numerous holiday-specific stories and novellas. Her “Christmas Treasury” is an anthology of 20 tales, including “A Christmas Dream,” which is a child’s version of the Scrooge story.

J.R.R. Tolkien is best known for his works of fictionalized mythological fantasy such as “The Hobbit” and “The Lord of the Rings.” But he also published “The Father Christmas Letters,” a compilation of annual correspondence he wrote to his children when they were young.

The name Elizabeth L. Seymour may not sound familiar, for good reason. It was the pen name of Willa Cather, and was used for a short story called “The Burglar’s Christmas.” Written 15 years before Cather’s first novel, when she was only 23, it’s not hard to see her Pulitzer destiny foretold in this touching tale rich with Yuletide redemption.

Though overshadowed by the Magi, “A Chaparral Christmas Gift” is another O. Henry seasonal offering with an entertaining surprise ending.

Others worth considering are F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “A Luckless Santa Claus,” Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s “A Christmas Party and a Wedding” and Truman Capote’s “A Christmas Memory.”

MYSTERY WRITERS

Scattered among some holiday-themed mystery anthologies are several leading authors, including Arthur Conan Doyle. His lone nod to the holiday from his Sherlock Holmes canon is “The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle,” in which the sleuth solves a Christmastime jewelry theft. Doyle also wrote a semi-comic magazine story in 1883, “An Exciting Christmas Eve.”

Robert Bloch was a prolific crime fiction writer — probably best known for “Psycho,” which Alfred Hitchcock adapted for the cinema. His “The Night Before Christmas” is a harrowing holiday story with a dark finale.

Crime novelist Dorothy Sayers sends upper-class amateur investigator Lord Peter Wimsey to a holiday party in “The Necklace of Pearls.” Fellow “Queen of Crime” Agatha Christie employs her renowned Inspector Hercule Poirot to come to the rescue of a prince in a twisty plot involving yet another gemstone in “The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding.”

ROOTS OF CHRISTMAS

Henry Van Dyke’s “The Other Wise Man,” which follows the quest of a fourth king who missed his rendezvous with the other three to visit the Savior, is an inspiring read, as is Maya Angelou’s “Amazing Peace,” written for the 2005 White House tree-lighting ceremony.

Few will associate Leo Tolstoy with Christmas cheer, but “Papa Panov’s Special Christmas” is a truly heartwarming holiday treat.

The most eloquent Christmas story is still the original one, especially when read in his majesty King James’ vernacular. That’s what Linus recited on national TV in 1965’s “A Charlie Brown Christmas.” Vocalizing verbiage like “lo” and “behold” and “good tidings of great joy,” 8-year-old child actor Christopher Shea brought Luke’s account to life with mesmerizing innocence and purity.

That magical two-minute segment, now nearly 60 years into timelessness, is easy to find on YouTube and well worth a relisten. As Linus said when he finished, “That’s what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown.”