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Tales Beyond the North Pole
Christmas Stories
Tales Beyond the North Pole
  • A Christmas Carol (by )
  • The Night before Christmas 
  • Norske Folkeeventyr, saml. og fortalte a... (by )
  • The Legend of the Christmas Rose 
  • The Christmas Roses, And Other Tales, Ch... (by )
  • The Christmas Rose (by )
  • Babouscka 
  • Lyrics and Legends of Christmas-Tide (by )
  • Legends of the North, Or the Feudal Chri... 
  • Myths and legends of Christmastide (by )
  • Pearl Story Book : Stories and Legends o... (by )
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The Christmas season regales Western culture with a host of familiar stories, many of which were written in the 19th century. However, the season boasts stories and legends that hail from centuries or even millennia past. Perhaps not so familiar as A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens and “The Night Before Christmas” by Clement Clarke Moore, these stories make for delightful reading for children and the young at heart.

The Little Girl and the Winter Whirlwinds. In this old Bulgarian folk tale, a young girl braves a treacherous journey to save her mountain village from the wicked Winter Witch who wishes to make winter the only season. The girl succumbs to the winter whirlwinds and small furry animals save her from freezing to death. The animals accompany her to the Ice Palace to rescue Father Christmas, a.k.a. Father Frost, who then banishes the Winter Witch and makes way for the advent of spring.

The Cat on the Dovrefell.  Published by folklorists Peter Christen Asbjørnsen and Jørgen Engebretsen Moe, this Norwegian fairy tale tells the story of a man in Finnmark who travels to Dovrefell on Christmas Eve with his great white bear. He seeks a place to stay the night, but the innkeeper claims to have no room as well as being under the threat of trolls. The man begs to be allowed to stay and suggests that his bear would sleep under the wood stove. The innkeeper relents. Trolls descend and wreak havoc upon the inn. One of them sees the bear sleeping beneath the stove and, mistaking it for a cat, pokes the it with a stick. Roused and angry, the bear chases the trolls from the inn.
The Wooden Shoes of Little Wolff. This French folktale published by Francis Coppe tells the story of Little Wolff, a 7-year old orphan living with his aunt, a cold-hearted, stingy woman with a large hairy wart on the end of her nose, who treats him as her servant.  The schoolmaster and the boy’s classmates treat him cruelly and use him as their drudge. On Christmas Eve, shivering in thin ragged clothing and wooden shoes, he accompanies his class to Christmas Mass. At the church, the boy comes across another penniless, barefooted orphan asleep in a pew and gives him his wooden shoes. As a  reward for his generosity, Little Wolff receives a Christmas morning filled with gifts of riches.

The Christmas Rose legends come in several variations. One, Legend of the Christmas Rose written by Swedish author Selma Lagerlöf, tells the story of mercy given to a robber’s wife and family. Another, “The Christmas Roses,” relates the tale of an indigent boy who sacrifices his most precious possession to heal his ill brother. In another, “The Legend of the Christmas Rose,” a shepherdess gives the baby Jesus the only gift she can muster, a flower revealed to her by an angel. The Christmas Rose by H. J. Wood tells the story of Frau Doctorinn Müller in possession of a miraculous plant called the “Rose of Jericho.” Müller gifts the plant to a young woman who loses it. The young woman’s swain then embarks upon a quest to find another.
Russian folklore speaks of Babouscka, an old woman who misses the chance to greet the Christ child on his birth. Regretting her mistake, she wanders every Christmas, seeking the baby Jesus in every house and nursery along the way.

The World Library offers other collections of Christmas stories and legends, including:


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