Time For A Story

It's the last Sunday evening before Christmas. Here at High In The Sky we are looking out at the gathering clouds and drawing the curtains against the night to come. We are searching out candles to give a soft glow against the flickering of the Christmas tree, and curling up on the sofa in front of the fire. It is time for a story.

At times like this, when I was a little girl, my mother would reach for her copy of  Wind In The Willows- the one with the thick, creamy pages and the the yellow cover which always, always felt dusty - and she would turn to the chapter called "Dulce Domum", Home Sweet Home; and tell us how Mole found his way back to his old house in time for Christmas:
"this place which was all his own, these things which were so glad to see him again and could be always be counted upon for the same simple welcome."

When I was a little older, I chose to read for myself the wonderfully festive scenes in Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House books. How Pa carved a beautiful shelf as a gift for Ma; how Laura and the cousins played snow angels; how very little became more than enough for Laura, snug with her family in the neat log cabin tucked away in the woods.

It was as a grown up that I discovered Shirley Hughes' wonderful Lucy and Tom's Christmas - in a tiny, shiny, little hardcover edition. It's a children's story. Traditional, nostalgic, timeless, I think, I love it just as much now as ever I could as a child. The gentle, knowing tale of Lucy and Tom's preparations for the Big Day (the paper chains, the Salvation Army Band, the nativity) is everything we want to remember and all the things we want to pass on rolled into one. Excited children, crotchety children, delighted children - the kind of story we can all recognise even if the scenery is a little different. It's been around for some years now (but then I think lots of the best Christmas books have) and Lucy and Tom are probably letting middle age catch up with them in real life. That doesn't matter because, every Christmas, just like the rest of us they can be children again. And that's magic.

Time for another one? Maybe just one more story before bed? Some of my blogging friends have suggestions for you too and they'd be happy for you to pull up a chair over at theirs. You can visit:

Abi: http://www.creatingpaperdreams.blogspot.com/

Lizzie: http://www.lizziemade.blogspot.com/

Mel: http://ispeakmelsh.blogspot.com/

Jo: http://curlyscrapbooker.blogspot.com/

Amy: http://overatourplace.blogspot.com/

Kate: http://libertycottage.blogspot.com/

And before I go I'd like to say a big hello to the incredibly talented  Sasha and to any of her blog readers who jumped over here thanks to her link. She's going to start doing blog makeovers soon so if you're looking for an expert she might just be the girl.