“Oh, Christmas isn’t just a day… it’s a state of mind…. and that’s what’s been changing. That’s why I’m glad I’m here, maybe I can do something about it.”
Edmund Gwenn, Miracle on 34th Street (1947)
As I type this, it’s November at Hobbit Towers. And as I’m in the Northern Hemisphere, the nights are getting darker earlier and its feeling a little colder. Hallowe’en has gone and Bonfire Night (here in the UK) too.
Which means that Christmas is not that far away.
Like Hallowe’en, at this time of year I have a perennial set of favourites to peruse. I mentioned some of these last year (HERE.) One of them mentioned is Connie Willis’s Miracle and Other Christmas Stories, first published in 1999.
The good news here is that Tor have taken this book, changed the title, updated it and added to it, making twelve stories from what was originally seven. Six of these are novellas.
Of the original collection, one short story has gone (The Pony) but the rest are all the favourites that still work for me. Perhaps best known of all, the first novella is Miracle, which tells of the arrival of The Spirit of Christmas Present who is determined to make Lauren’s office party preparations more difficult than they need to be. Throughout, the debate over which Christmas movie is best – It’s a Wonderful Life or Miracle on 34th Street is a continuous theme. It helps if you know both movies, and Connie’s argument that Miracle on 34th Street is entertaining, though not entirely convincing, to me.
The only downside of this is that in Miracle, being first published in 1991, the plot is filled with mentions of VCR’s and videotape, (how technology has changed!) Although it has dated a little, it is not enough to spoil the story.
But the tone and manner of Miracle, as with Miracle on 34th Street, is that it is clearly a template repeated in many of Connie’s stories here. There’s humour, wit and intelligence, a general feel-good tone and even a sprinkling of romance. The idea of a Personnel Morale Special Committee (PMS for short) should create a wry smile from anyone who has had to deal with the bureaucracy of a large organisation.
Inn is a contemporary story of a Nativity rehearsal where two homeless people arrive in the snow. A story that begins with humour but then takes a turn into The Twilight Zone.
In Coppelius’s Toyshop continues this less cheerful tone by being a slightly grimmer tale set in a place that is a place of horror for many parents at Christmas – the department store grotto. The protagonist is a stereotypically unpleasant male, on the search for a new conquest and really only after one thing, who is not amused by being left to look after a potential victim’s child in a toy store. One of those moral stories that suggests that sometimes people get what they deserve.
Adaptation is a bitter-sweet tale of Christmas in a book shop, as told by a divorced father separated from his young daughter at Christmas. It is by turns elegiac and funny and has a lot to say about the commercialism of Christmas, not to mention the stresses of shop-workers at their busiest time of year. A touch of the Neil Gaiman here, I think.
Cat’s Paw is a tale envisaged as a Christmas tradition, that of an Agatha Christie style murder mystery, but also deals with science-fictional issues of animal intelligence.
Newsletter tells of the old tradition of sending family updates with the Christmas card at this time of year. Now rather superseded by the email, I guess, the story is still rather amusing. When people all start wearing hats and acting unusually nicely, Nan suspects that aliens may be invading by stealth.
Epiphany is, along with Inn, one of the more overtly religious of the stories here. A priest, an atheist and a retired English teacher travel west in the middle of a snow storm and end up sharing an experience they did not expect. Again, something with a more serious Twilight Zone tone.
All About Emily is the first of the new stories. It is a wonderful tale of a robot that wants to become a Rockette (one of the dancers at Radio City, New York) as seen through the eyes of a fading theatre star. Filled with movie and cultural references, it is typical of Connie’s stories – bitter-sweet, funny and yet uplifting, a story of tolerance and warmth that echoes back to the golden era of movies in a slightly futurist setting. (I still shudder whilst thinking of Forbidden Planet – The Musical starring Justin Bieber Jr.)
All Seated on the Ground tells us of the arrival of aliens with a difference – ones whose communications with humans is limited until they hear Christmas carols. A funny romance story with enough detail to make you think about what Christmas music really means.
A more up to date story since the first edition is deck.halls@boughs/holly, which, as the name suggests, is an amusing future version of the Christmases to come. Linny Chiang is a Christmas planner, whose job is to arrange the ideal Christmas, for those willing to pay for it. It is a busy story, with a variety of difficult customers, overwork and romance, which is deftly handled.
Now Showing returns us again to film, but this time tells of the ‘joy’ of the cinema mega-multiplex and the difficulties encountered by student Lindsay as she tries to see Christmas Caper, and who discovers a big secret whilst doing so. There’s a lot of fun in some of the imaginary film names that have never been – anyone fancy The Return of Frodo or Texas Chainsaw Massacre – The Musical?
Just Like the Ones We Used to Know reminds us that as some things about Christmas change, other things stay the same. A wistful story from many peoples’ perspectives about what happens when a super-snowstorm happens over Christmas holiday season.
And talking of some things remaining basically the same, yet changing, the old A Final Word is updated with A Final Word on the Subject which summarised Connie’s view on Christmas. Twelve Terrific Things to Read at Christmas, which closed the original book has been expanded to three lists with very long titles – An Advent Calendar of Great Christmas Movies, And a Score of Christmas Stories and Poems to Read After You’ve Gone to Bed and Plus a Half-Dozen TV Shows You May Not Have Seen That Haven’t Succumbed to “Very-Special-Christmas-Episode Syndrome”.
These will lead you to search your YouTube & Netflix if you’re stuck for something to view. It would be wrong of me to quote them all, but there’s plenty to try here, and some rather forgotten classics. Connie scores points from me for mentioning Frasier and The Twilight Zone and even mentions the Dr. Who Christmas Specials, though personally I have rarely found them agreeable. As you might expect from reading this collection, Miracle on 34th Street is highly recommended, but A Wonderful Life is only obliquely referenced.
I don’t know why the story The Pony has been dropped from this edition (space, perhaps?) but even so, if you’re looking for a topical genre collection that is sweet but not too much so, that captures the essence of many of the facets of Christmas, and may make you smile, then you can’t go far wrong than this collection. The best of them are infused with Connie’s gentle sense of humour, include a little touch of screwball comedy and bitter-sweet romance and are full of enough good will to make the reader appreciate and enjoy this season. Fans who know of Connie’s other work will be enchanted by this one and need no further recommendation.
You may even find that it would probably be enjoyed by those not usually of an SF/Fantasy persuasion.
Merry Christmas, all.
A Lot Like Christmas by Connie Willis
Published by Tor, October 2017
518 pages
ISBN: 978-0399182341
Review by Mark Yon
