By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)
‘The Gift of the Magi’ is a short story by the US short-story writer O. Henry, whose real name was William Sydney Porter (1862-1910). His stories are characterised by their irony, their chatty narrative style, their occasional sentimentality, and by their surprise twist endings.
All of these things became something of a signature feature, and ‘The Gift of the Magi’ embodies them all to some extent. But what does this Christmas story mean?
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)
‘The Twelve Days of Christmas’ is one of the most famous Christmas songs. It is also, perhaps, the one that has attracted the most theories and origin-stories relating to its meaning and history. What each of the gifts given on the twelve days of Christmas might represent, for instance, has kept people busy for several centuries.
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)
This is a somewhat unseasonal post for us, appearing in July as it is. But we’ve recently turned our thoughts towards Christmas literature for a whole host of reasons, so thought we’d offer ten of the greatest short stories about Christmas. These are stories set around Christmas time, or during the Christmas holidays, which reflect the jubilation as well as the turmoil of that season.
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)
What connects the popular Christmas carol ‘Once in Royal David’s City’ and the popular hymn ‘All Things Bright and Beautiful’? They both share an origin – but the origins of ‘Once in Royal David’s City’ are not as famous as the words. And the words themselves deserve closer analysis…
Once in Royal David’s City
Once in royal David’s city
Stood a lowly cattle shed,
Where a mother laid her Baby
In a manger for His bed:
Mary was that mother mild,
Jesus Christ her little Child.
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)
‘’Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house / Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse’: as opening lines go, they must be up there in the top five most famous opening lines from an American poem (something from Emily Dickinson would also have to be in there).