For all who celebrate Christmas, December brings a sleigh load of excitement and anticipation. The little ones count down the days until Santa tumbles down the chimney, while the rest of us look forward to a few days away from work, visits with friends and family, special meals and drinks, and the old familiar songs and carols that gild the season.

Then there’s the other side of the holiday: the rush to decorate our homes and apartments, the travel plans to arrange, the gifts to buy, the greetings to send, the parties to attend, and the bills to pay when the killjoy Grinch of credit card debt knocks at the door of your bank account. On and on they go, those infinitives of duty and desire, that to-do list that can inflict stress and misery on the most stouthearted Yulephile.

There are ways, of course, that we can take a break from this rushing flood of obligations and plans while remaining engaged in the spirit of the season. Some people find relief watching holiday movies, flicks ranging from the classic “It’s a Wonderful Life” to the ubiquitous but enjoyable Hallmark films. Some go caroling in nursing homes or their neighborhoods, taking joy in bringing joy to others. Some throw pre-Christmas kitchen parties, inviting friends over for an afternoon of chatting and baking gingerbread men, spritz cookies, and snickerdoodles.

And then there are books.

A Genre All Its Own

Your choices in Christmas literature run as deep and broad as Santa’s “Ho-Ho-Ho!” You could fill a small library with volumes of verse and stories about Christmas, stretching all the way back to Luke’s account of the nativity in Scripture. Not only that, but picking up and reading some of these books, like watching Christmas movies, can bring respite from the season’s hustle and bustle and keep you grounded in the spirit of the season.

Taking this holiday from the holidays depends on your setting aside some time for reading. If you’re a parent, especially of small children, storytime is an easy way to take a mental break from December’s rush and roar, provided you become engrossed in the book. If you have older kids, taking half an hour in the evenings to read aloud and share stories such as “The Best Christmas Pageant Ever” might bring some downtime and remind you, as Ebenezer Scrooge discovered, “how to keep Christmas well.”

And if you’re simply in need of escape and time alone, take a few moments to enjoy a short story such as O. Henry’s “The Gift of the Magi” or some humor from Dave Barry’s “Christmas Shopping: A Survivor’s Guide.”

Read Aloud Around the Tree

Pick a good book and summon up the actor within, and you have the makings for a holiday feast of words. Choose “A Christmas Carol,” for instance, and you have the quintessential classic for the season. Many listeners will know this story of Scrooge, Jacob Marley, Tiny Tim, and the Christmas Ghosts, which is great, as they can then focus on Charles Dickens’s marvelous twists and turns of language.

A cautionary note: Some teens and adults may find Dickens’s style, or similar prose, a bit much. If that’s the case, switch gears and try a different book such as J.R.R. Tolkien’s “Letters From Father Christmas” or J.K. Rowling’s “The Christmas Pig.”

To bring magic to these readings demands some drama. No dull voices here, no monotones, no sprinting through the text: Take your time, breathe life into the characters and plot with your voice, and the story will jump from your lips to your listeners’ ears. When Dickens read aloud from his works before an audience, whether at home or in public, he electrified the stage, using different voices and loads of drama. During some of these readings, he became so involved that he would cry real tears.

You’ll find all sorts of online suggestions for read-aloud books. The article “13 Fantastic Christmas Read Alouds,” for instance, delivers a mix of old and new stories. On this list we find the ever popular holiday read “The Best Christmas Pageant Ever” and the finely told “The Vanderbeekers of 141st Street,” in which five siblings try to prevent a misanthropic landlord from heaving their family out of their apartment at Christmastime. You’ll also find some excellent stories now out of print but still available secondhand, including Chris Heimerdinger’s “A Return to Christmas,” an exciting story about two 11-year-old boys who rediscover a new meaning for Christmas.

Looking for something short and sweet? Kate Douglas Wiggin’s 1886 “The Birds’ Christmas Carol” tells of a girl, Carol Bird, whose health is failing yet who shows love to all around her. The tale may be too religious for some and too sugary for others, even though Christmas is a time for peppermint and chocolate Santas, but it’s a story many readers cherish.

Anthologies

At my elbow is “A Treasure of Christmas Joy,” a 422-page collection of stories, carols, and verse, secular and religious. Included here are classic poems such as Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s “I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day”; Eugene Field’s humorous “Jest ’Fore Christmas,” about how Bill reforms his behavior during the Yule season; stories such as Taylor Caldwell’s “My Christmas Miracle,” in which she describes the Christmas that turned her life around; humorous essays such as Russell Baker’s “Fruitcake Is Forever”; and even practical advice such as Kristin Tucker and Rebecca Warren’s “Family Christmas Finances.”

Pamela McColl’s newly published “Wondrous Mrs. Claus” throws the spotlight on Santa’s helpmate with stories and poems, many from the Victorian period. What makes this volume particularly special are the beautiful pictures and paintings, many from the 19th century, that can also be shared with the young.

Find a good holiday anthology, and you’ve struck literary gold.

More Options

Being alone need not preclude a Christmas read-aloud.

When I was teaching, my students wrote many essays. I frequently reminded them to read their compositions aloud before turning in an assignment so that they could check the rhythm of the words, as well as catch mistakes. Slowing down and editing with the tongue as well as the eye allowed them to appreciate their writing from a different slant.

This technique works for the rest of us, too. Try reading the opening paragraphs of “A Christmas Carol” to yourself aloud. You’re alone, so you can be as theatrical or as goofy as you please. Read aloud, and you’ll likely find that you better remember the story or poem. It will slip inside you, becoming more your own.

And whether you’re alone or with family and friends, audiobooks are a great way to keep the Christmas spirit and have some fun in the bargain. On YouTube, for example, you’ll find Dylan Thomas reading his “A Child’s Christmas in Wales.” To follow him you must pay attention, perhaps even reading along with him, but it’s beautiful entertainment. Recently, I listened to the very beginning and burst out laughing as Thomas described two boys wearing socks for gloves getting ready to pelt cats with snowballs.

In his 1905 “The Spirit of Christmas,” Henry van Dyke included an essay titled “Christmas-Giving and Christmas-Living,” which ended by noting, “After all, Christmas-living is the best kind of Christmas-giving.” This holiday season, treat yourself along with your family and friends to some Yuletide tales and poetry, and with those gifts you’ll also find that Christmas-giving is Christmas-living.