This delightful anthology—described in Gyles Brandreth’s introduction as “a plum pudding stuffed with good things”—offers an array of writers, both old and new, who have expressed their thoughts about Christmas with joy, nostalgia, grumpiness, and wit. Devour in one sitting, or savor at your leisure through the long winter nights.

On Christmas includes selections from Charles Dickens, William Sandys, Deborah Bull, C.S. Lewis, Saint Bonaventure, Clement A. Miles, Robert Benchley, Quentin Crisp, the Koran, Queen Victoria, Anthony Trollope, Francis Kilvert, Samuel Pepys, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Jerome K. Jerome, Edmond de Goncourt, Mrs Beeton, Kathy Lette, Paul Fournier, Anton Chekhov, Charles Dudley Warner, Sue Townsend, O. Henry, Suhel Seth, Saki, Ali Smith, William Makepeace Thackeray, Henry Lawson, Guy de Maupassant, Will Self, and P.G. Wodehouse.