The perfect gift this Christmas season: a generous selection of some of the greatest festive stories of all timeThis is a collection of the most magical, moving, chilling andsurprising Christmas stories from around the world, taking us fromfrozen Nordic woods to glittering Paris, a New York speakeasy to anEnglish country house, bustling Lagos to midnight mass in Rio, and evenouter space. Here are classic tales from writers includingTruman Capote, Shirley Jackson, Dylan Thomas, Saki and Chekhov, as wellas little-known treasures such as Italo Calvino's wry sideways look atChristmas consumerism, Wolfdietrich Schnurre's story of festiveingenuity in Berlin, Selma Lagerlof's enchanted forest in Sweden, andIrene Nemerovsky's dark family portrait. Featuring santas, ghosts,trolls, unexpected guests, curmudgeons and miracles, here is Christmasas imagined by some of the greatest short story writers of all time.