Old Christmas

About this edition

The Book That Helped Save Christmas

Before Dickens wrote A Christmas Carol, Washington Irving wrote Old Christmas. These five beloved sketches from The Sketch Book (1819) captured the warmth, festivity, and fading traditions of an old English Christmas, and helped inspire the holiday revival that shaped how the world celebrates to this day. Dickens himself acknowledged the debt.

Travel with Irving's narrator through the frosty Yorkshire countryside by stagecoach to Bracebridge Hall, where the old Squire keeps Christmas in the grand ancient style: the Yule log blazing on the hearth, carols echoing through the servants' hall, the wassail bowl passed from hand to hand, and the boar's head carried to the table with ceremony and song.

Inside This Collector's Edition

• All five original sketches: Christmas, The Stage Coach, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and The Christmas Dinner
• Original illustrations in the style of Victorian engravings, created exclusively for this edition
• An original biography of Washington Irving, exploring his life, his influence on American literature, and how an American writer became the great preserver of English Christmas tradition
• Elegant interior typography designed for comfortable reading by the fire

A Christmas Classic to Keep and Share

Irving understood that Christmas is more than a date on the calendar. It is the season of open doors and gathered families, of old songs sung again and the traveller welcomed in from the cold. His portrait of Bracebridge Hall remains one of the most charming celebrations of the holiday ever written: funny, tender, and glowing with firelight.

Whether you are building a library of Christmas classics, seeking a readable companion to Dickens, or looking for a book worthy of an annual December reading tradition, this edition of Old Christmas belongs on your shelf.