Enid Blyton's Christmas Tales

by Enid Blyton, Mark Beech (Illustrator)

Celebrate Christmas with one of the world's best-loved children's authors in this sparkly collection of stories.

This hugely popular short story collection, first published in 2016, is back with a shiny new cover...

Nobody captures the spirit of Christmas like Enid Blyton, and in these stories, she describes the excitement of anticipating gifts, the pleasures of making special food, of singing carols, and coming together to share good times with friends and families. As ever with Blyton, there is mischief and mayhem but good always prevails in the end.

These traditional tales are perfect for younger children being read to and for newly confident readers to read alone. All stories previously appeared in magazines and anthologies from the 40s and 60s. This collection contains the original texts and is unillustrated.

Enid Blyton remains one of Britain's favourite children's authors and her bumper short story collections are perfect for introducing her to the latest generation of readers.

Read all of Enid Blyton's bumper short story collections. New in 2021:
Rainy Day Stories
Pet Stories
Stories of Spells and Enchantments
Christmas Tales

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Enid Blyton® and Enid Blyton's signature are registered trade marks of Hodder & Stoughton Limited. No trade mark or copyrighted material may be reproduced without the express written permission of the trade mark and copyright owner.

Genres: Christmas, Audiobook, Childrens, Short Stories, Fiction, Fantasy, Adventure

352 pages, Paperback

Published November 8, 2016

About the author

See also:
Ένιντ Μπλάιτον (Greek)
Enida Blaitona (Latvian)
Энид Блайтон (Russian)
Inid Blajton (Serbian)
Інід Блайтон (Ukrainian)

Enid Mary Blyton (1897–1968) was an English author of children's books.

Born in South London, Blyton was the eldest of three children, and showed an early interest in music and reading. She was educated at St. Christopher's School, Beckenham, and - having decided not to pursue her music - at Ipswich High School, where she trained as a kindergarten teacher. She taught for five years before her 1924 marriage to editor Hugh Pollock, with whom she had two daughters. This marriage ended in divorce, and Blyton remarried in 1943, to surgeon Kenneth Fraser Darrell Waters. She died in 1968, one year after her second husband.

Blyton was a prolific author of children's books, who penned an estimated 800 books over about 40 years. Her stories were often either children's adventure and mystery stories, or fantasies involving magic. Notable series include: The Famous Five, The Secret Seven, The Five Find-Outers, Noddy, The Wishing Chair, Mallory Towers, and St. Clare's.

According to the Index Translationum, Blyton was the fifth most popular author in the world in 2007, coming after Lenin but ahead of Shakespeare.

See also her pen name Mary Pollock

Reviews

[Sophie Crane · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a collection of short stories for Children about Christmas.  The stories are from a simpler time when children received a ball, or a doll, or maybe some soldiers for Christmas.  My Mum loves listening to the stories and I quite enjoyed reading them also. 

[Sue Gerhardt Griffiths · Rating 4 out of 5]

My first Enid Blyton. Yeah, I know, shock horror! LOL

I grew up reading Brothers Grimm fairytales, children’s christian novels and bible stories and from there went onto the Heidi books and What Katy did series and in my late teens I fell in love with the Sweet Dreams books - I had a huge collection and years ago I donated them to Lifeline and sadly haven't seen any since. Wish I still had them. They were my happy place.

Anyways, this enchanting collection of 25 short Christmas stories perfectly capture the spirit of the festive season. It was a delight to listen to. One day I might even try The Famous Five books as it sounds like a fun adventure filled series.

Listened to the audiobook on BorrowBox
Published by Bolinda audio
Read by Nicky Diss, Alex Wingfield
Duration: 5 hrs, 24min. 1.25x Speed

[Medini · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read for POPSUGAR 2020 READING CHALLENGE: Read an anthology.

[Kirsty · Rating 3 out of 5]

I adore Christmassy reads, and as Enid Blyton was one of my favourite childhood authors, I could not resist purchasing an electronic copy of Christmas Tales. I would have undoubtedly liked the collection far more as a child; my adult self saw flaws in the writing, and felt as though some of the stories were unfinished, or had been rushed. Almost all of them, true to form, are morality tales, and whilst some are rather sweet, there are an enormous amount of purses which fall out of holes in pockets, troublesome stockings, and those featuring a talking Santa Claus. Although rather twee, one of the mainstays of Christmas Tales is that it does promote happiness during the festive season, and is well worth reading to a child for this reason alone.

[Ana || portuguese_bookaholic · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love Enid Blyton nostalgically because The Famous Five was the series that got me into reading when I was a child.
But even though some of these stories were heartwarming and whimsical, almost all of them showed their age, and not to their best advantage...

[Tri✿ · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such an adorable collection of Christmas stories! 🎄☃️

[Parth Kumar · Rating 5 out of 5]

There are 25 stories in this lovely book - perfect for December, as if you start reading the book on 1 Dec, and read the first story on that day, then read the second story on 2 Dec, and so on, finishing with the final story on 25 Dec (Christmas Day).

As it is rightly said, Enid Blyton loved writing stories, and she loved Christmas too! So writing this book must have been much enjoyable by Enid Blyton. All of them capture the spirit of Christmas, from people who don't believe in Santa Claus even with proof to a boy who doesn't have money for his poor family for Christmas dinner and finds Santa' (wishing) cap and with some truthfulness gets what he deserved and wanted - a Christmas Dinner for his family. My personal favourite was the story about Brownie the horse who is going to be sold on Christmas day. But then when he finds a spectacular way to save his master, he continues to belong to the family which loves him!

This was my 100th book of the year - that that too on Dec 31! I think it is a perfect book to end the year with....

[Anthony · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enid Blyton (2016) ENID BLYTON'S CHRISTMAS TALES (AUDIOBOOK)
BorrowBox - Hodder Children's Books

⭐️⭐️⭐️ 3 out of 5 stars

BorrowBox writes, "Twenty-five more timeless Christmas stories from Enid Blyton. The excitement of singing carols, exchanging gifts and a bit of her trademark mischief can all be found in this festive collection. Stories include 'The Pantomime Wolf', 'Christmas in the Toyshop' and 'The Extraordinary Christmas Tree'."
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Very English. A bit stuck up. These are of their time. Christmas in abundance though.
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[PleaseJustLetMeRead · Rating 4 out of 5]

Letlæselige, super-hyggelige små julefortællinger, hvor man sagtens kan læse én eller flere højt for familiens mindste. Flere er så tilpas korte at selv mange små børn kan koncentrere sig længe nok til at få læst mere end den ene historie op, og de er samtidig skrevet på en måde, så også voksne læsere kan få noget med fra dem; om det så bare er nostalgien og den barnlige begejstring fra julen, eller om det må være budskaber og moraler må være op til den enkelte læser.

[Gabby · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a collection of short Christmas stories. They are a mixture of magic, naughty children, nice children and Santa tales. I loved some of them and hated others. I really did not like the idea of Santa having Servants and being a bossy Lord rather than friend to all. I found some of the tales grated and why she separated the two halves of one of the story for different sections of the book I do not know. Made it difficult to slip back in to understanding the children again.

Do not get me wrong there were some amazing stories in there but there were a few that did not have the same magic as the others. Still a fun collection of stories for easy night-time reads.

[Nicola · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book and can't wait to hopefully read the stories to my baby on the way in the years to come. I have always been an Enid Blyton fan and this collection doesn't disapointment. I might change the odd word here and there when reading aloud as a bit dated but they definitely capture the excitement of Christmas!

[Roqeebah · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love Enid blyton and I also love the fact that no matter how much I grow as soon as I pick any Enid blyton story,I feel like I'm back to my childhood days...The effortless reading and the great lesson at the end of stories makes it all worth it

[Lorena Ballesteros · Rating 4 out of 5]

Este es para leerlo en familia. Los niños van a disfrutar con cada relato de Father Christmas y aprender mucho con las lecciones que deja cada cuento. La Navidad está retratada en su mejor forma de la mano de Enid Blyton.

[Manuel Messina · Rating 3 out of 5]

A nice anthology of Christmas tales filled with love, generosity, elves, Santas, magic gifts, naughty childs, snowmen and magic snowbirds. Blyton has always an engaging way of storytelling and it's simple to read for both kids and grown ups.

[Liza Hotta · Rating 4 out of 5]

Läsningen av den här gav julstämning till tusen, älskar att alla historier är jul med extra allt. Gillade inte fullt lika mycket som Christmas Stories som hade historier som hörde ihop men njöt ändå väldigt mycket av också de här historierna.

[Shelley · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love Enid Blyton. This is a bunch of lovely stories. Many of them have a meaning in them but beautiful to read and full of Christmas magic.

[Lynne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Happy memories.

[Tanya · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lovely book of little stories. Loved this

[Fiona · Rating 3 out of 5]

A collection of very short stories - some better than others - 2 to 3 stars certainly not good enough to read again next Christmas - a bit of a disappointment from Enid Blyton if I'm honest.

[Josie Dabinett · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good fun set of stories. Sometimes rather preachy and there's a fair bit that's outdated - especially the gender ideas - but overall a lot of fun

[Belinda Vlasbaard · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 stars - English hardcover -
Review follows later

[Jackie Mc · Rating 5 out of 5]

Different but enjoyable

[Guillermo Andrade Uribe · Rating 4 out of 5]

7.5/10

Una colección linda de fábulas de navidad, te dejan enseñanzas buenas y además te dan todo el feeling de una historia perfecta para adultos y niños de navidad.

[JK The · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very lovely, easy-to-read stories about Christmas. Do recommend. A great "get your mind off things", heartwarming

[Paddy Reddy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Listened to this as an audiobook. Really enjoyed it. Will definitely read it again closer to Christmas!

[Scott · Rating 3 out of 5]

The usual kind of fare with a range of stories for Christmas.

[Oliver · Rating 2 out of 5]

Didn’t get me into the Christmas spirit!

[Mandie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Everybody’s childhood has an encounter with Enid Blyton but I will admit that this is the first time I have come across her Christmas stories.
Enid Blyton’s Christmas Tales transport you back into a time where things were a little more simple and innocent and where not everything was about the material side of Christmas. In true Enid Blyton style each story shows how kindness is rewarded in many different ways and naughtiness will always be punished. There are things that will make you chuckle along the way.
With 25 stories to choose from you can read a tale a day in the run up to the big event getting your children in the mood for Christmas and showing them the true meaning of Christmas spirit.

As much as this book did transport me back to my childhood, it did also make me realise just how cynical I had become as an adult. Everything you take at face value growing up took on a whole new meaning reading these stories as an adult. Yes I was chuckling at some of the stories but that was due to the fact that innocent phrases and sentences didn’t always sound so innocent in my head. Then again maybe that just says more about my warped mind and sense of humour than it does about the actual book (a sentiment that those who know me well would probably totally agree with) or that I had finally reached Christmas overload reading so many Christmas books back to back

[Namratha · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am never going to be too old for magic.
I am never going to be too old for Christmas.
And I am sure as hell never going to be too old for Enid Blyton's stories.

Blyton is the literary equivalent of scrunching up your toes in front of a cheery fireplace on a chilly night. And when she adds her own brand of magic to Christmas, it makes for heartwarming stuff. This book is packed with lots of short stories that cover elves, brownies, humans, fairies, fake wolves and magical birds and yep, even Santa Claus. Some transport you to a winter wonderland, others have tiny lessons gently tucked in and still others capture the true essence of Christmas in inspiring conclusions.

A lovely December read that really makes you look forward to Christmas with the bushy-tailed optimism of a child.