Stories for the Season: More To Explore - Story Roundup

This is my last "Stories for the Season" post but it's by no means a complete collection of fairy tales, and stories for fairy tale people that can be enjoyed during this end of year/beginning of a new year holiday time.

Here is an additional short list of stories I ran out of time to profile individually and why they can be included on your Christmas fairy tales list:

The Velveteen Rabbit or How Toys Become Real
by Margery Williams
It's the classic Christmas toy story

The Wild Hunt
by Jane Yolen
Winter arrives and The Wild Hunt rides (excellent book!)

The Wooden Shoes of Little Wolff
adapted by Francois Coppee
A boy with a good heart unknowingly helps the Christ Child and is rewarded

Miracle of 34th Street
Novella written by Valentine Davies and made into the Oscar winning film from 1947 about a department store Santa insisting he's the real thing.
NOTE: Watch the black and white 1947 version - it's MUCH better than any of the remakes and has a gentle and special touch

Who's That Knocking on Christmas Eve?
by Jan Brett
A children's version of the Norwegian folktale The Cat on the Dovrefell (see below)

The Snow Princess
by Ruth Sanderson
Based on Tchaikovsky's Russian opera/ballet The Snow Maiden

The Cat on the Dovrefell
by Asbjornsen & Moe
A great white bear (yes, a bear - not a cat, but don't tell the trolls...) helps counteract an annual Christmas invasion by trolls - I love this one!

Why the Sea is Salt
by Asbjornsen & Moe
A poor boy goes begging on Christmas Eve and has a big adventure

Tatterhood
by Asbjornsen & Moe
An invasion by trolls on Christmas Eve sets things in motion

The Christmas Cuckoo
adapted by Frances Browne
Poor brothers become rich due to their good treatment of a cuckoo found on Christmas Day

The Christmas Fairy of Strasburg
A German folktale about the origins of the Christmas tree

The Golden Cobwebs
A folktale about the origins of tinsel/tree trimmings. (It's still good luck to have a spider ornament on your Christmas tree in the Ukraine.)

The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus
by L. Frank Baum
Mentioned in my post on Jack Frost

The Mail Coach Passengers
by Hans Christian Andersen
A New Years story in which the Twelve Months take a ride
(I couldn't find a correlating image for the story sorry - so you're being reminded of Gennady Spirin's work. :)

Again, there are many more, especially if you look at all the little folktales, but I thought these ones would interest my readers most (that I'm aware of anyway). Of course, if you have others to add please feel free to add a comment.

I hope you've enjoyed this series of posts. If you want to find them all, just click on the 'Xmas tales' tag in the sidebar.

If you're interested in finding more make sure you visit The Fairy Tale Channel HERE - they have an excellent collection of fairy tales and often post appropriate to the seasons throughout the year too (an excellent resource!).

Merry storytelling!
May fairy tales fill and enrich your holidays and the coming year.
:)

Christmas Bell Babies Grow in Australia
(They sing you joy)
by May Gibbs

Individual illustration credits (book covers show illustrators:
1. An engraving of "The Cat on the Dovrefell" from TALES FROM THE NORSE by George W. Dasent
2. Princess of Wands (Tatterhood) from THE FAIRY TALE TAROT by Lisa Hunt
3. The Christmas Cuckoo from GRANNY'S WONDERFUL CHAIR AND THE TALES IT TOLD by Frances Browne with illustrations by Florence White Williams
4. The Christmas Tree Fairy by Cicely Mary Baker
5. A Christmas spider ornament from the Ukraine (photographer unknown)
6. From THE LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF SANTA CLAUS by Lyman Frank Baum, illustrated by Mary Cowles Clark

Stories for the Season: The Little Match Girl

by ArtBIT

You were probably wondering if I forgot this tale but I was just saving it as my 'book end', since it's the first tale I mentioned this month.

by The Enigma (Ella Baru?)

development art from the Disney short directed by Roger Allers


by Jaqueline Hudon-Verrelli

You're most likely all familiar with the story so I won't repeat it except to tell you that the translation of the danish title actually means "The little girl with the sulphur sticks" - which makes it seem even more sad for some reason.

by Miwa Yanagi

In the middle of a stressful season it's good to remember to be thankful for all I have and to remember there are many who aren't nearly so lucky and that if I have the opportunity to help, I should.

by Tekkoman

by Ariel Padilla

I find different images/illustrations bring different emphasis to the story so thought I'd post a few - quite different from each other - that I've found in the past. (The SurLaLune blog has already had a "Little Match Girl" week and highlighted some lovely illustrated retellings so I'm focusing on one-off illustrations, although I've included a couple of classic for comparison.)

album cover for Loren Mazzacane Connors


by Honor C. Appleton


Laetitia Angot plays The Little Match Girl in the theater production by Martin Jaques


scene from the Disney short directed by Roger Allers

by Christian Birmingham



by McLelun

by Robert Dress

And one little charm in a matchbox - a collaboration by Zoe Sernack and Lang Leav.
In addition I found a special Match Girl book, by artist Chloe Lan, which cleverly uses text to both tell the story, set the scene and communicate the mood of the story. I've included one example below. Click to view larger and read the text:

Click HERE to view some other pages and to learn more about the book.

I couldn't complete this entry with at least a little film so found a lovely, 'conceptual art animation' for you by Charlene Wienhold (a.k.a. AuroraInk on deviantArt) who has an amazing portfolio HERE. Enjoy:


I also wanted to mention a story titled Little Piccola by Francis Jenkins Olcott. This story reminds me of The Little Match Girl very much except it has a happy ending - and the girl lives to see another Christmas.

You can read the original poem the story was adapted from HERE.

Piccola, illustration from McGuffey's Fourth Eclectic Reader
St Nicholas Center Collection

Stories for the Season: The Blue Bird

"The Blue Bird" was one of those fairy tales that had a huge influence on me as a child, thanks to the 1976 film adaptation which I saw in the theater. The story begins on Christmas Eve and is all about giving and new beginnings.

Here's a summary:

Two somewhat disgruntled children, Tyltyl (the older girl) and Mytyl (the boy) after wishing Christmas would be better for them (their parents are poor and cannot afford all the presents and wonderful food that other richer people are indulging in), are sent out by the fairy Bérylune on a fantastical trip into various lands (Land of Luxury, the Past, the Future etc) to search for the Bluebird of Happiness. They are accompanied by their dog and cat (given human form by the fairy - who also gives other objects like milk, sugar, light and fire a temporary human form), the characters of which provide their own complications to the search along the way. Finally returning home empty-handed, the children see in the light of the new day that the bird has been in a cage in their home the whole time. Tyltyl, having found happiness in herself, gives the bird as a present to a sick neighbor but the bird escapes to freedom.

The story was made into a play in the early 1900's by Maeterlinck, which was very successful and popular, and has been made into more stage adaptations, including ballets, as well. The play has also been made into a film a number of times: two silent films, another in color (which is the most famous, with Shirley Temple as Tyltyl) in 1940, another in 1976 (with Elizabeth Taylor, which I saw as a child) and later as a Japanese anime. Three of the films are now available on DVD (you can see a lot of images from all three films HERE).

The story is very much about teaching the value of family, love and 'the journey' (not 'getting the prize') and the importance of sharing and giving but despite being overtly didactic in this manner, the films and story have a lot of charm and all these 'lessons' contribute greatly to the overall Christmas and New Year feel.

As a child, I especially loved all the objects coming to life, the spirits of the forest/trees, seeing the children who were about to be born and the personified cat and dog and must admit these are still big draws to the tale for me today.

You can read the whole version (in prose, as written out for children from the play) HERE.

Stories for the Season: The Tailor of Gloucester

"The Tailor of Gloucester" became one of the Christmas stories read to children each year and because Beatrix Potter's work is so closely linked to fairy tales (in fact, that was often her aim: to write new ones) I feel I can highlight it here. The story was initially self-published by the author and not available in her collections but it's now included in the big box sets. (You can read the story online HERE.)

It also seems Ms. Potter wrote this story specifically for someone, as the inscription indicates (below):

MY DEAR FREDA,

Because you are fond of fairy-tales, and have been ill, I have made you a story all for yourself—a new one that nobody has read before. And the queerest thing about it is—that I heard it in Gloucestershire, and that it is true—at least about the tailor, the waistcoat, and the "No more twist!"

Christmas, 1901

The plot is as follows (from Wikipedia):

A tailor in Gloucester sends his cat Simpkin to buy food and a twist of cherry-coloured silk to complete a waistcoat the mayor has commissioned for his wedding on Christmas morning. While Simpkin is gone, the tailor finds mice the cat has imprisoned under teacups. The mice are released and scamper away. When Simpkin returns and finds his mice gone, he hides the twist in anger.

The tailor falls ill and is unable to complete the waistcoat, but, upon returning to his shop, he is surprised to find the waistcoat finished. The work has been done by the grateful mice. However, one buttonhole remains unfinished because there was "no more twist!" Simpkin gives the tailor the twist to complete the work and the success of the waistcoat makes the tailor's fortune.

On Christmas Day this year, some lovely person uploaded the wonderfully done live action film adaptation from 1989 onto YouTube for us all to enjoy.

All five parts should play in order. Enjoy!

Stories for the Season: Jack Frost

There isn't a specific fairy tale for Jack Frost, just some traditional poems, (though there are a few picture books) but he's a character that pops up a lot in Winter fairy and folktales in various guises - and he's often a different character from The Winter King.

Traditionally, Jack Frost (or King Frost or Father Frost), is an elf-like creature or sprite and ranges from elf-size-small to human size to the size of the wind, depending on what mischief he's up to. He's credited with decorating window panes and frozen surfaces with (spiked and frosty or 'fern-like') ice patterns, sometimes with his breath, sometimes with "his silver brush". He's also fond of nipping at fingers, toes and noses.

Jack Frost
by Oliver Herford

I particularly like Frank L. Baum's treatment of the character in which Jack Frost is actually the son of The Winter King (or Frost King) and, like most Jack characters, employs a strong streak of mischief in all he does. Santa Claus actually likes him (calls him "a jolly rogue") but doesn't particularly trust him and asks specifically that Jack spare the children. Jack sobers enough to reply he will if he can.

Jack Frost
by Eric Kincaid

Another activity attributed to Jack in literature includes the ability to freeze shadows, separating them from their owners and giving them their own autonomy (that appears to have originated from Baum too).

He's also been represented as having the ability to project ice and cold, be prone to jealousy, turn from mischievous to downright nasty (including amassing leagues of Goblins to help him take over Fairyland) or to simply be the light-hearted herald (sometimes filling a court jester role) of the Winter King.

Jack Frost
by Arthur Rackham

Though there are many poems written about Jack Frost there are (as far as I can make out) two traditional ones taught to children. You can find them HERE (by Laura E. Richards) and HERE (by C. E. Pike).

A composite of the Jack Frost covers from the "Fables" series
created by Bill Willingham

This character has appeared in countless myth-based novels and stories since in all shapes and forms, playing the protagonist to the villain. The Fables series also uses the character of Jack Frost too with his story and legend continuing to grow in various installments. He's such a versatile character, with many facets from country to country (a tiny pixie through to Norse heavy-weight frost-giant - with frost-giant brothers), I'm actually surprised we haven't seen more of this fellow*.

*Wikipedia has a growing list of references in literature and film and, though it's still far from complete, it's a good place to start researching (see HERE).

Stories for the Season: Edward Scissorhands

"Edward Scissorhands" is a movie it took me a very long time to see. When it was first in theaters I found the poster disturbingly like the "Freddy" horror posters and, despite what people were saying, didn't want to subject myself to anything remotely in that genre.

Many years later I saw the movie and quickly realized it wasn't a horror at all but a beautiful modern (and romantic) fairy tale of a boy misunderstood simply because of how he looks. It's quite reminiscent of "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" with a light and magical aspect (for the most part) instead of the heavy Victor Hugo touch. The PG rating is more because of the unfortunate boy/creature's appearance than anything else, otherwise the film is touchingly humorous, beautifully fantastic and very romantic. The film is in many people's favorite fantasy film picks and has even been adapted into a very successful ballet.The supposedly true story of how the first snow came to fall on the town, is being told to a child by her grandmother. An old inventor is slowly completing his life's work: a boy he names Edward but Edward's creator dies before he can give him the hands he made for him and the poor boy-creature is left alone in the mansion/castle he was created in. One day a kindly Avon lady comes knocking one day and takes him under her wing. In all his years with his substitute hands that are made of knives and scissors, the gentle-hearted Edward has learned to use them to create beautiful things. This helps people get over their first fearful impression of him to start with but nothing is straight forward - of course. Especially when Edward falls in love with the Avon lady's beautiful daughter...In a quick search for favorite Christmas movies it's not surprising to see "Edward Scissorhands" on the peoples lists. The music alone has some beautiful winter/Christmas-sounding pieces but when you add the story you add the heart.