Auggie Wren's Christmas story / Paul Auster - good
Horatio's trick / Ann Beattie - good
A Christmas memory / Truman Capote - good
Christmas is a sad season for the poor / John Cheever - good
Creche / Richard Ford - scattered and kind of boring
The Sunday after Christmas / Mavis Gallant - Huh?
The zoo at Christmas / Jane Gardam - strange
Run silent, run deep / Peter Goldsworthy - ok
A visit to Morin / Graham Greene - zzzz
The coming of the Christ-child / Bessie Head - zzzz
For Christmas / Juan Jose Hernandez - good
A risk for Father Christmas / Siegfried Lenz - strange
Winter dog / Alistair MacLeod - good
The turkey season / Alice Munro - good
Christmas / Vladimir Nabokov - good enough story but I don't like how he writes
The night before Christmas / Theodore Odrach - good
The loudest voice / Grace Paley - good
Saint Nikolaus / Sergio Ramirez - good
God is nowhere, God is now here / Itoh Seikoh - I don't get this one
The leaf-sweeper / Muriel Spark - good
Mother Christmas / Michel Tournier - haha, that was weird.
Another Christmas / William Trevor - good
O'Brien's first Christmas / Jeanette Winterson - ok

Manguel is a well known anthologist. For this volume, he has selected writers from around the world. Many are very well known including: Truman Capote, Graham Greene, Vladamir Nabokov, and William Trevor. Contemporary writers include Paul Auster, Ann Beattie, Richard Ford and Jeannette Winterson. My favorite stories were Trevor's "Another Christmas", Grace Paley's "The Loudest Voice" and Jeannette Winterson's "O'Brien's First Christmas". Trevor's story of an Irish couple who move from Waterford to London tells of a rift that occurs with their landlord, Mr. Joyce, an English man (possibly of Irish descent). They had weekly shared tea on Friday nights and discussed the news - it was 1978, the height of the Troubles in Northern Ireland. They all condemn the bombings. Then one day, Dermot, the husband, and deeply religious and devout Catholic, added to their discussion of the latest bombing, you shouldn't forget what the Catholics of the North had suffered and that the crimes of the bombings wouldn't have happened if generations of them hadn't been treated like animals. Paley's story is about a young Jewish girl from an immigrant family in New York selected to act in the Christmas story pageant because she has the loudest voice. The hilarity of the story is although her mother is appalled, her father sees it as a way into understanding the beliefs of a different culture. Winterson's story is pure whimsy and tells the story of a lonely woman who is a store clerk and how her life magically changes - just wonderful.

This is so hard to rate. The stories themselves are mostly well-written but if you're looking for heart-warming and uplifting, look elsewhere. The stories generally take place around Christmas but they're not festive and are depressing as hell.

In these short stories, we have  sexual assault, rehab, grieving parents, attempted murder, apartheid, dogs being shot, turkeys being slaughtered, kids bullying and threatening to kill other kids, and so much more that I'm forgetting about.  I think my favorite was Capote's - it captured the spirit of Christmas with a touching, bittersweet ending. Still sad but at least Christmassy.

I also enjoyed The Night Before Christmas (Theodore Odrach). A sobering reminder of Christmas during war time.

The stories themselves weren't bad, and there was an obvious theme throughout. I imagine the editor chose these kinds of stories on purpose, but damn, what a let down. I chose this expecting to feel festive and instead was just depressed.

3/3.5 stars

There were some short stories that were good and kept my attention. Some had me in tears and crying. Some I could not recall right after reading them but that was only a few stories. Overall I enjoyed it. I wanted to read this during the month of December and finish it by Christmas time but I'm glad I finished it before Jan 6th. The true date we finish celebrating the days of Christmas time. I tried reading it last year but got busy and put it aside. Picked it back up this year and barely remembered the stories I had started last year but glad I finally got around to finishing this one. It had been on my shelves for some time.

16 out of the 23 short stories was how many I enjoyed the most, kept my attention, or sparked some kind of emotion out of me.

I read this over the course of several years, a handful of stories each holiday season. There are some very unusual choices, including some that really have hardly anything to do with Christmas (e.g. the one by Bessie Head). Still, it’s a nice book to have to hand, even if just to skip through. Manguel strikes a good balance between well-known short story writers (Mavis Gallant, William Trevor and Alice Munro), authors you might never think to associate with Christmas (Paul Auster, Richard Ford and Vladimir Nabokov), and fairly obscure works in translation (Theodore Odrach, Sergio Ramírez and Itoh Seikoh).

Four favorites:
“A Christmas Memory,” Truman Capote (overall favorite)
“Christmas Is a Sad Season for the Poor,” John Cheever
“The Zoo at Christmas,” Jane Gardam
“O’Brien’s First Christmas,” Jeanette Winterson

I enjoyed many of the stories but others didn’t feel like they belonged. If you’re looking for something wholesome this is not the collection for you.

Not in the mood for this right now.

I'd rate this two stars, but I deducted an extra star for the misleading title and theme. Really, half of these stories only mention Christmas in passing, and most of them are of the depressing and pointless modern style in which 'nothing happens'. One or two of them are hardly even stories (stating your opinion about things or people, even fictional, doesn't make for a story). I'm thinking the editor must really hate Christmas to subject the reader to most of this material.

The bright spots among the lumps of coal are "Augie Wren's Christmas Story" by Paul Auster (which was made into the last vignette in the movie Smoke), "A Christmas Memory" by Truman Capote, "Winter Dog" by Alistair MacLeod, and "Christmas" by Vladimir Nabokov.

This is a broad mix of stories by an international group of writers, as would be expected from an anthology edited by Alberto Manguel.
It's a good read offering a varied perspective on the festive season, but not for anyone expecting tinsel and Bing Crosby! Although a Christmas Fairy does pop up in one of the stories.

The Ecco Book of Christmas Stories by Alberto Manguel (2006)

Average story rating: 2.9/5

Even at their best, Christmas stories were no more than wish-fulfillment dreams, fairy tales for adults, and I’d be damned if I’d ever allowed myself to write something like that. - Paul Auster

Oof. This one was pretty disappointing. I'm reasonably sure that Alberto Manguel had access to some sort of short story database, searched the keyword "Christmas," and selected the first 23 authors he recognized as having good work and good reputations. They're not even edited into a cohesive order. They're alphabetized.

I also learned through this collection that I am a pretty tough customer when it comes to short stories. There's a point in my notes where I just say: "I really don’t like short stories. If they can’t tell an interesting evocative story reaching its full potential, what’s the point?" So there's that.

Okay. Let's talk positives. I'm really glad that there is varied collection of short Christmas stories that puts a spotlight on a variety of authors of different genders, sexual orientations, and nationalities, and I'm glad that it puts beloved Canadian writers at the forefront. That's really cool. I wish it had been a bit more positive, but I did my research so I knew not to walk into this expecting 23 heartwarming stories all about Christmas.

Eggbeaters whirl, spoons spin round in bowls of butter and sugar, vanilla sweetens the air, ginger spices it; melting, nose-tingling odours saturate the kitchen, suffuse the house, drift out to the world on puffs of chimney smoke. - Truman Capote

There are a couple of bittersweet gems from Truman Capote and Alistair MacLeod, and some good ones from Ann Beattie, Vladimir Nabokov, Sergio Ramírez, Muriel Spark, and William Trevor. The Alice Munro story is probably enjoyable if you're not a vegetarian. Manguel also wrote a great historical introduction to set the scene.

The rest of the collection is unfortunately not really worth your time, and the seven that are don't make the entire collection worth it. I read this one for something seasonal to carry my evenings through the Christmas seasons. It largely let me down.

What are you doing?’ I call, although it is obvious.
‘Singing Christmas songs, because it snowed.’ - Alistair MacLeod

Stories old and new that address the wonder of this holiday along with the pain and confusion it brings about for many. Favorites in this collection include, Paul Auster's Auggie Wren's Christmas Story, Truman Capote's A Christmas Memory, and Jeanette Winterson's O'Brien's First Christmas.