Just a little mini reading list that I recommend for fellow fantasy enthusiasts (like myself), to check out and read! Have a Merry Christmas!
★The Little Match Girl
I used to hate this fairytale because it was sad but as I’ve gotten older, I have learned to enjoy it’s melancholy nature, plus it’s a nice and quick read if you don’t have a lot of time on your hands to spend reading old stories.
★The Elves and the Shoemaker
This one I always loved. It was cute and cozy. It was also written by my good pals The Brothers Grimm. A solid 8/10 fairytale for sure. Elves are always great.
★The Holy Night
I don’t know if this counts as a fairytale but it’s easily a classic. It is a tale written by Selma Lagerlof which stars a cold-hearted shepherd who meets a man looking for wood to make a fire to warm his wife and their newborn child (sound familiar?).
★The Nutcracker
Another classic. I really like this one because I own a fairytale book with the most beautiful illustrations. The sugar plumb fairy is gorgeous and was everything my 7 year old self wanted to be.
★The Little Girl and the Winter Whirlwinds
A little less well known fairytale. It’s about a wicked winter witch that wants to make winter last all year so a girl sets out to stop her. She also enlists the help of father Christmas to help her on this adventure (and no, this isn’t the Chronicles of Narnia, though speaking of which…)
★The Lion, The Witch, And The Wardrobe
This is a Christmas fairytale and you cannot convince me otherwise. Read the book with illustrations to vastly improve your life. God Bless, C.S. Lewis and him stoking my desire to check every closet for a magical world.
★The Steadfast Tin Soldier
A tale by Hans Christian Anderson. Is unbelievably cute but surprisingly heart breaking? Like A Romeo and Juliet style Toy Story. But still manages to be sweet.
And I’ll stop there! My hot chocolate is getting cold! Hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas season! A goodnight to all, and to all a goodnight!
By the Brooke 
Oh, how I hated The Little Match Girl when I was younger! What’s the point of dragging my heartstrings through the dirt with some short story about a kid who freezes to death? But now I see the appeal of writing those kinds of things, and with that came the appeal of reading them. And yes, the first Narnia book is absolutely a Christmas story. I’ve never read one with illustrations, but I listened religiously to listen to the Focus on the Family radio dramas. There was a time I probably could have recited them from memory. Hope you had a good Christmas!
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Yeah, when I was younger, I hated the ending of the little match girl, along with the original story of the little mermaid which was equally as tragic (I was used to the disnified version where the little mermaid lived happily every after. How shocked I was to find out as a kid that most fairytales are quite dark.
And I definitely recommend an illustrated version of any Narnia book really. They’re both adorable and magical.
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I grew out of my innocent fairytale stage rather abruptly when I stumbled upon The Brothers Grimm. With horrified fascination I realized that all the stories I knew and loved had been severely whitewashed into something that wouldn’t terrify the bejeebies out of young children. I like the originals better, though I can’t guess why. Maybe the shock value.
I’ve read an illustrated version of The Hobbit, but I’ll have to find Narnia. I hope they’ve got the whole series!
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Yes! Now that I’m older, the originals definitely appeal to me a lot more as they seem to have a mysterious air of danger and melancholy about them that clashes so much with the versions that I was used to hearing growing up! As a result, I am a little obsessed with writing fractured fairytales, one my biggest novel projects being a fairytale themed murder mystery. The originals really do inspire still.
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Precisely. The prettier ones are so innocent and fancified they’re almost pointless to read–the characters face challenges, sure, but we know they’ll overcome them. The bad guys will always lose and just go away. With the originals you get to see how hard it really is to beat the villains and reach those goals, and how tough the heroes have to be to do it. That’s a lot more inspiring in my book. I’m looking forward to that novel of yours! Not to push a fellow writer along, but how far have you gotten?
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I am currently working on my second draft of the novel though with college it’s a little slow moving these days. I’m hoping to finish it and look at publishing by the end of my college career but it’s also not my main field of study so it’s a little hard to juggle at the moment. But it’s a passion project that has been in the works for awhile and I have no intention on stopping work on it.
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I’m glad to hear that you’re going to keep at it. That’s half the battle in my limited experience, though how you manage to balance that and college is beyond my ken. Are you going to try and self-publish, or go the traditional route?
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It’s a struggle for sure, but as with anything, I’ve found I can generally keep up with both when I have an established routine. Though often enough I have to forgive myself during weeks where all I can do is keep myself afloat in school but I get no writing done. I have to tell myself that sometimes I simply can’t do everything and it turns into a game of priorities where sometimes my writing passion will have to receive the short end of the stick so to speak.
I haven’t officially decided which way I plan to publish as I’m sure I’ll figure it out when the time comes but I am tentatively leaning towards the traditional route though that could very well change the more research I do when I actually finish the novel.
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I think I’d just go crazy juggling all that. Good on you for not trying to do more than you’re able and pile on writing along with all that school. Pushing myself too hard is something I certainly need to work on.
I don’t want to shove you one way or another, but have you checked out Draft2Digital? Reedsy has a lot of nice articles comparing different self-publishing options, and the general consensus was that D2D was best. I’m still researching myself, but I thought I’d mention it. Best of luck to both of us!
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Hmmm… I’ll definitely have to check that out! Thanks for the recommendation!
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The Elves and the Shoemaker was such a lovely fairytale. It always melted my heart everytime I heard or read it in my childhood years. I think I might have heard of ‘The Nutcracker’ and ‘The Steadfast Tin Soldier’ but I don’t recall anything about knowing the story it seems. Happy holidays!😊
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Happy holidays to you as well!
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