This Christmas anthology by L.M. Montgomery touches on holiday themes of poverty, family, loneliness and good will, among others. Most of the short stories had a happy resolution without being sappy. There was one story called The Red Room, that was completely different from the rest and would qualify as gothic fiction. Although the change in theme was a little shocking, I ended up liking this more somber and macabre story. ( )

L.M. Montgomery is a long time and all time favorite author of mine. She writes the perfect girls story with just the right mix of adventure, drama and happiness. I find her books a comfort to read and have re-read most of her works many times over the years. They are classics for a reason and that reason is they are great. These are true comfort books for me and books I enjoy re-reading again and again. ( )

because it's the season. and i'm an addict. and it's the book of the month in the l m montgomery group.

....On finishing, it's a somewhat uneven collection. Some, like Aunt Cyrilla's Christmas Basket, I really liked. Others were significantly weaker...but they were all by LM Montgomery, so let's be honest, I liked it.

This collection of stories pulls together a couple of seasonally appropriate chapters from the Anne books and some stand-alone stories. The stories take place mostly at Christmas, although two of them take place at New Year’s. They deal in similar themes: the importance of family, remembering departed ones, the idea of it being better to give than to receive, and happy accidents leading to much better Christmases than would have originally been the case.

This is a collection that is better for dipping into and out of throughout the Christmas season rather than reading in one shot, given how similar the stories are. I would perhaps recommend this to people who like the Anne books or who like boarding-school stories and other children’s books of the era in which LMM was writing; some of the younger girls’ dialogue certainly reminded me of Malory Towers or St Clare’s. ( )

My in-depth review is live on my blog, but my overall rating is that this is a great Christmas collection to read once, but I personally cannot see someone wanting to read this every single Christmas. It lacks a depth, but there are great stories contained within that make it a worthwhile one-time read. ( )