The Holiday Re-Runs #3 -- Favorite Holiday Stories

What's your favorite holiday fiction? -- Anonymous

Would it be a cop out to say "Gift of the Magi" and "A Christmas Carol"?

Okay, I'll go deeper then.

I honestly don't read a lot of seasonal literature. Don't know why. I've always gotten books for the holidays, but usually just general books that I had requested across the course of the year.

I've always loved the winter fables of Hans Christian Andersen, and if "The Fir Tree" and "The Little Match Girl" count as holiday tales, those two top my list. Oh, and the Sherlock Holmes tale, "The Case of the Blue Carbuncle."

At the risk of seeming self-serving, what I've always preferred is WRITING holiday-themed stories, and of those, my favorites are "Sin and Error Pining" and "It's Christmas, Baby, Please Come Home," both of which appear in my collection Show Me A Hero from New Babel Books.

And I'll be posting a special free holiday tale here as a gift to you on Christmas Day. It's called "Nor Doth He Sleep," and it was the 24-hour tale from iHero Entertainment/Cyber Age Adventures last year.