Metaphorosis Reviews
4 stars

Curiously, I like Connie Willis' short stories much more than her novels. They're friendly, intimate, and largely calm, with an enchanting sense of humor. That's especially true of this collection of Christmas stories, most of which were new to me.

Christmas legitimately means different things to different people. No one 'owns' it - not the Christians who named it, not the Germanic people whose traditions were coopted, not a horned guy with a bag of coal, not a bunch of elves and reindeer. Connie Willis, though, is squarely in the Christian religious camp. The stories here are heavy on religious symbolism, though often in a light-hearted way. They're equally heavy on religious philosophy, and there they're more heavy-handed. I found the moralism a bit of a slog at times. I know - complaining about the Christian message of Christmas stories - but see above.

Willis is equally heavy on references to popular culture. While in places it works well - e.g. in the homage to Miracle on 34th Street (which which I heartily disagree) - it becomes wearing after a time. On the whole, though, it's a fun, uplifting collection by a very talented writer. The best stories in the book were:

Miracle - in homage to Miracle on 34th Street
notableInn - explaining what happened to Joseph and Mary on the way to Bethlehem
Adaptation - the least Christmasy of the bunch, about an aging actress and an ingenue
Epiphany - sometimes divine messages leave a little to be desired

“Oh, Christmas isn’t just a day… it’s a state of mind…. and that’s what’s been changing. That’s why I’m glad I’m here, maybe I can do something about it.”

Edmund Gwenn, Miracle on 34th Street (1947)

As I type this, it’s November at Hobbit Towers. And as I’m in the Northern Hemisphere, the nights are getting darker earlier and its feeling a little colder. Hallowe’en has gone and Bonfire Night (here in the UK) too.

Which means that Christmas is not that far away.

Like Hallowe’en, at this time of year I have a perennial set of favourites to peruse. I mentioned some of these last year (HERE.) One of them mentioned is Connie Willis’s Miracle and Other Christmas Stories, first published in 1999.

The good news here is that Tor have taken this book, changed the title, updated it and added to it, making twelve stories from what was originally seven. Six of these are novellas.

Of the original collection, one short story has gone (The Pony) but the rest are all the favourites that still work for me. Perhaps best known of all, the first novella is Miracle, which tells of the arrival of The Spirit of Christmas Present who is determined to make Lauren’s office party preparations more difficult than they need to be. Throughout, the debate over which Christmas movie is best – It’s a Wonderful Life or Miracle on 34th Street is a continuous theme. It helps if you know both movies, and Connie’s argument that Miracle on 34th Street is entertaining, though not entirely convincing, to me.

The only downside of this is that in Miracle, being first published in 1991, the plot is filled with mentions of VCR’s and videotape, (how technology has changed!) Although it has dated a little, it is not enough to spoil the story.

But the tone and manner of Miracle, as with Miracle on 34th Street, is that it is clearly a template repeated in many of Connie’s stories here. There’s humour, wit and intelligence, a general feel-good tone and even a sprinkling of romance. The idea of a Personnel Morale Special Committee (PMS for short) should create a wry smile from anyone who has had to deal with the bureaucracy of a large organisation.

Inn is a contemporary story of a Nativity rehearsal where two homeless people arrive in the snow. A story that begins with humour but then takes a turn into The Twilight Zone.

In Coppelius’s Toyshop continues this less cheerful tone by being a slightly grimmer tale set in a place that is a place of horror for many parents at Christmas – the department store grotto. The protagonist is a stereotypically unpleasant male, on the search for a new conquest and really only after one thing, who is not amused by being left to look after a potential victim’s child in a toy store. One of those moral stories that suggests that sometimes people get what they deserve.

Adaptation is a bitter-sweet tale of Christmas in a book shop, as told by a divorced father separated from his young daughter at Christmas. It is by turns elegiac and funny and has a lot to say about the commercialism of Christmas, not to mention the stresses of shop-workers at their busiest time of year. A touch of the Neil Gaiman here, I think.

Cat’s Paw is a tale envisaged as a Christmas tradition, that of an Agatha Christie style murder mystery, but also deals with science-fictional issues of animal intelligence.

Newsletter tells of the old tradition of sending family updates with the Christmas card at this time of year. Now rather superseded by the email, I guess, the story is still rather amusing. When people all start wearing hats and acting unusually nicely, Nan suspects that aliens may be invading by stealth.

Epiphany is, along with Inn, one of the more overtly religious of the stories here. A priest, an atheist and a retired English teacher travel west in the middle of a snow storm and end up sharing an experience they did not expect. Again, something with a more serious Twilight Zone tone.

All About Emily is the first of the new stories. It is a wonderful tale of a robot that wants to become a Rockette (one of the dancers at Radio City, New York) as seen through the eyes of a fading theatre star. Filled with movie and cultural references, it is typical of Connie’s stories – bitter-sweet, funny and yet uplifting, a story of tolerance and warmth that echoes back to the golden era of movies in a slightly futurist setting. (I still shudder whilst thinking of Forbidden Planet – The Musical starring Justin Bieber Jr.)

All Seated on the Ground tells us of the arrival of aliens with a difference – ones whose communications with humans is limited until they hear Christmas carols. A funny romance story with enough detail to make you think about what Christmas music really means.

A more up to date story since the first edition is deck.halls@boughs/holly, which, as the name suggests, is an amusing future version of the Christmases to come. Linny Chiang is a Christmas planner, whose job is to arrange the ideal Christmas, for those willing to pay for it. It is a busy story, with a variety of difficult customers, overwork and romance, which is deftly handled.

Now Showing returns us again to film, but this time tells of the ‘joy’ of the cinema mega-multiplex and the difficulties encountered by student Lindsay as she tries to see Christmas Caper, and who discovers a big secret whilst doing so. There’s a lot of fun in some of the imaginary film names that have never been – anyone fancy The Return of Frodo or Texas Chainsaw Massacre – The Musical?

Just Like the Ones We Used to Know reminds us that as some things about Christmas change, other things stay the same. A wistful story from many peoples’ perspectives about what happens when a super-snowstorm happens over Christmas holiday season.

And talking of some things remaining basically the same, yet changing, the old A Final Word is updated with A Final Word on the Subject which summarised Connie’s view on Christmas. Twelve Terrific Things to Read at Christmas, which closed the original book has been expanded to three lists with very long titles – An Advent Calendar of Great Christmas Movies, And a Score of Christmas Stories and Poems to Read After You’ve Gone to Bed and Plus a Half-Dozen TV Shows You May Not Have Seen That Haven’t Succumbed to “Very-Special-Christmas-Episode Syndrome”.

These will lead you to search your YouTube & Netflix if you’re stuck for something to view. It would be wrong of me to quote them all, but there’s plenty to try here, and some rather forgotten classics. Connie scores points from me for mentioning Frasier and The Twilight Zone and even mentions the Dr. Who Christmas Specials, though personally I have rarely found them agreeable. As you might expect from reading this collection, Miracle on 34th Street is highly recommended, but A Wonderful Life is only obliquely referenced.

I don’t know why the story The Pony has been dropped from this edition (space, perhaps?) but even so, if you’re looking for a topical genre collection that is sweet but not too much so, that captures the essence of many of the facets of Christmas, and may make you smile, then you can’t go far wrong than this collection. The best of them are infused with Connie’s gentle sense of humour, include a little touch of screwball comedy and bitter-sweet romance and are full of enough good will to make the reader appreciate and enjoy this season. Fans who know of Connie’s other work will be enchanted by this one and need no further recommendation.

You may even find that it would probably be enjoyed by those not usually of an SF/Fantasy persuasion.

Merry Christmas, all.

If you love all things Connie Willis, you will love this book. She explains in the intro to this set of short stories that she has strong opinions about Christmas stories. She likes "Miracle on 34th Street" better than "It's a Wonderful Life". She loves redemption, romance, a bit of suspense, and lots of snappy dialogue. Although there is an element at least of speculative fiction about each of the stories, they are at least as much about relationships (especially romantic ones). There are one or two darker pieces, but Willis thinks that Christmas stories should be optimistic, and so these stories are, by and large. These stories are also about nostalgia. Willis is a movie buff, especially of older movies, and there are a LOT of references to old films, especially romantic comedies. I felt a bit out of the loop for some of the stories since my knowledge of film doesn't go back as far as hers does.

So why two stars? I think YMMV greatly for this book. I've read a lot of Connie Willis, and at this point I can see a lot of things coming- tricks she's used before, themes she has visited. I don't recommend reading this whole book straight like I mostly did. Spread the stories out, because they do have very similar themes and story beats. It could be a great way to get yourself in the mood for the holidays that way, but reading it straight you could feel like you're OD'ing on eggnog. Most of the stories are older ones, but it is nice to have a new compilation of these themed stories in one place.

Next year I am buying this book for some of my sci fi geek friends. A Lot Like Christmas is full of original Christmas stories that are not depressing. It has a little bit of everything, robots, aliens, and an ecologically responsible Christmas spirit.

A Lot Like Christmas: Stories by Connie Willis
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I've always been a big fan of Connie Willis and so I couldn't really find any fault in reading an actual Christmas story (or stories) EVEN on XMAS if it was coming from her. Sometimes you've simply got to pick your battles, and Connie Willis is like the John Mclaine of Xmas Stories.

I'm not saying she strangles Xmas with a chain or uses wildly inappropriate western sayings. I mean, she could, I'm sure, but that isn't what happens here. She might get a bit angry at It's a Wonderful Life, however, so all these lines do blur.

:)

I suppose the one thing I love most about these is how Connie Willis's storytelling skill is nearly perfect no matter the sub-genre she twists it. I mean, these Xmas stories are all genuinely uplifting while avoiding sentimentality, very critical and humorous in equal amounts, and a great number of them are filled with the dead or futuristic worlds or even a murder mystery involving apes.

Yes, apes. Merry Xmas!

Above all, every one of these stories is easy as hell to read, are down-to-earth, full of fantastic human consequences, and is full to the brim with humor. I won't say that any of them are knock-down brilliant... but in terms of reading a master storyteller who knows her craft and has well-researched probably EVERYTHING about Xmas from stories to movies to poetry from a lifelong obsession, she can't be beat. She covers all the angles, from dark revenge stories to romantic comedies to murder mysteries to time and space traveling Aramaic-speakers to aliens in a hunt for JUST THE RIGHT GREETING to a VERY white Xmas.

And I have to agree with her. It's a Wonderful Life is FLAWED as hell. :)

I never read the other collection of Xmas stories, which might be a blessing in disguise. Even so, there are five new ones in this book. Either way, it doesn't really matter. I can read her stuff all day long. :)

Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC!

For me it's generally a bad idea to rush through a collection of short pieces on one theme, or by one author. And this one was both. But, I don't like leaving Netgalley ARCs too long, and I definitely wasn't reading any Christmas stories outside December 1st-25th, so here we are. I really like everything else I've read by Willis, and indeed one of the stories here ('Now Showing') when I encountered it before in a multi-author anthology, but this was too much of the same; every writer has their tics and fallbacks, and reading them like this just brings it to the fore. So the first two stories have leads with tastes not a million miles from Willis' own, and seem largely to consist of them judging and/or evangelising at people who don't like the same old films as them. Which is amusing not least because, isn't that absolutely the sort of stereotype one generally expects from annoying male leads in books (or films, or whatever) by men which get snotty write-ups on Jezebel? And then later 'Adaptation' really doubles down on this, because not only is our hero grouchily lamenting the way that nobody reads the original Christmas Carol anymore, but he's also lumbered with the very type specimen of the bitch ex, who doesn't understand why he can't pay so much child support since giving up accountancy to sell books by way of following his heart, not that he actually enjoys the realities of modern bookselling either. In short, given this blind there's no way you'd guess it had a female author. But. Twined like ivy around all that, there is a wonderful Dickens update of precisely the type the hero decries (so I guess at least the story undercuts its narrator that much), in which the spirits have fallen on hard times now that miserliness is generally celebrated, and Scrooges get to publish bestselling books of business advice rather than be hated.

And then there was the third story, which sees rehearsals for a church Christmas pageant interrupted by a young couple in sandals who don't speak English, and almost all the people doing the nativity pageant have no time for them or else consider them suspiciously, aaaaaah. Like the more successful 'Epiphany', this makes the point that modern organised christianity is often not just devoid of Jesus' original message, but outright aggressively at odds with it. A point with which nobody sane could argue, yet one which somehow still annoys me here, just like I still get annoyed by that opening 'Miracle' despite agreeing that Miracle on 34th St is a far superior Christmas film to It's A Wonderful Life. It's that special Pat Mills, Prince Charles gift for winding up even those who agree with you*. But I think in large part that's me, not having a great Christmas season, reading it in such a way that too much of a good thing is inevitable. See also, the tendency for Willis' leads to be saddled with an imperious client/boss/relative with a whim of iron - great fun in To Say Nothing of the Dog, wearisome when you get through three in one week here. In summary: don't make my mistake. Get a physical copy of this, and read no more than one story a week over several Christmases, unless you want to feel the same regret you did when, aged eight or so, you scarfed the whole selection box in ten minutes. And you know what? In keeping with the best redemptive resolutions to Christmas tales, I was really won back round by the final story, in which all those dreams of a white Christmas finally come true, everywhere - and for a while at least, it inevitably plays like a disaster movie. But never meanly, never in a way that takes the piss. Whatever may have been wrong with how I read this, I can't deny that Connie Willis fundamentally gets Christmas.

*I except here the final appendix on festive TV. Not only does Willis rate that monstrous carbuncle on the face of geek culture that is The Big Bang Theory, but she commits a peculiar tripartite error as regards Doctor Who. She says that all the Christmas specials are lovely; she counts 'Tooth and Claw' among them; she regards it as the best. Eh?

I'm not one for short story collections. I actively avoid them. But I trust Connie Willis' writing, and I can't say I've come across sci-fi Christmas tales before, so I decided to give this a chance. And while I still believe in Willis as an author, I can't say "A Lot Like Christmas" has changed my perception on short story collections. I made it through seven or eight of these stories before I simply lost interest in continuing. None of them were awful, but none were standouts, either. Many have a theme which weighs down the plot with Willis' signature brand of endless repetition. One story goes through nearly every verb of every Christmas song of ever, another includes an exhaustive history of musical theater. The sci-fi elements of the stories were interesting, but none had a payoff was satisfying enough to induce me to keep reading. My favorite was probably a Christmas horror story about a child-hating man who gets trapped in an obnoxious toy store. Although by the eighth story in this book, I started to feel a bit like that man. I knew from "Crosstalk" that Willis has a tendency to repeat, circle, and fixate in her writing style. I found that quality harder to forgive in this Christmas collection. At this time of year, with everyone having a checklist a mile long, who has time for that?

I received an ARC of this book courtesy of the publisher and NetGalley

The perfect book for science fiction fans at Christmas time!

Having read this collection. In a previous form as “Miracle and Other Stories”, I was excited to see what the new stories in the collection were like. I felt that all of of the new stories were extremely enjoyable and were worthy of addition. The majority of the stories do put you in a Christmas mood, and I really enjoyed Willis’s recommendations at the end of the book. The romance wasn’t schmaltzy, and the stories weren’t treacly. Highly recommended!

A delightful collection of Christmas short stories that's chock full of humor and romance. Just the thing to get you in the mood for Christmas!

So many short stories about the Christmas season. You can't go wrong and it brings the spirit of Christmas into everyone's heart! You can pick and choose each story to read next! Loved it!

Full disclosure: I already own Miracle and Other Christmas Stories, so the fact that I like this one too is not much of a surprise. There are no saccharine sweet stories, just interesting looks at the holiday season. I love reading Christmas books during the holidays so this is a little early for me, still I can use a little hopefulness all year long.

This is a collection of 12 short stories that all have the Christmas theme. This is an expanded edition of a previous book called Miracle and other Christmas Stories. there are 5 additional stories in this new edition. Most of Ms. Willis' stories have a futurist twist of fantasy or science fiction. Some are funny and joyful while others are sad or more traditional human troubles. I think anthologies around the holidays are perfect when time becomes more valuable.

Connie Willis is always relatably delightful. Her stories are charming and witty, even as they make you cringe because you recognize in one of her characters That One Person in the family or at work who says and does the same sorts of embarrassing and absurd things. I enjoyed every story in this collection, and some of them are among my favorite Connie Willis stories (Newsletter, Inn, Just Like the Ones We Used to Know).

I should point out that Connie Willis's short story volumes tend to have a lot of overlap with other previously published volumes. This is no exception. It's an expansion of Miracle and Other Christmas Stories and I've seen many of these stories printed elsewhere in collections I own. If you already own a lot of Connie Willis short stories or novellas, check to make sure you don't already have all of these.

I like to recommend Connie Willis to a lot of my friends who don't normally read science fiction because I think her work can appeal to a broader audience than say, a hard science fiction novel or epic fantasy. Even as she works in aliens or androids or time travel, she's good at writing relatable characters to respond to these elements. I particularly recommend this to you if you like screwball romantic comedy, old movies, and the Twilight Zone.

Wonderful short stories. All Christmas but unusual, fun and interesting.
My favorite was Miracle. A well written tale of finding what you need while you're looking elsewhere.

Funny, wry, and and sometimes downright cheery, A Lot Like Christmas does an
excellent job of bringing holiday spirit without falling into the traps of “cynicism
or mawkish sappiness” (as Willis explains she’s tried to avoid).

An expanded edition of Miracle and Other Christmas Stories, with four stories that did not appear in that volume, although at least some of them are available elsewhere.

A charming collection of Christmas stories in a science fiction and fantasy vein. They have Willis's trademark wit and romantic complications. Standouts include "Newsletter," "All Seated on the Ground," and "deck.halls@boughs/holly."

I'm a huge, HUGE Connie Willis fan. But the first story was treacly and the second one was confusing and I just couldn't motivate myself to keep reading.

Disclaimer: I received this book from NetGalley, but my review has not been impacted by this.

It felt just like Christmas to see this book on NetGalley. A new Connie Willis book! Well, it's not 100% new - it's a new and expanded version of the book Miracle and Other Christmas Stories - but that's OK, as I love reading that book!

Miracle and Other Christmas has the stories Miracle, Inn, In Coppelius's Toy Shop, The Pony, Adaptation, Cat's Paw, Newsletter, Epiphany, A Final Word, and as an afterword, adds 12 things to read and 12 things to watch.

A Lot Like Christmas adds All About Emily, All Seated on the Ground, deck.halls@boughs/holly, Now Showing, Just Like the Ones We Used to Know, and adds more recommended movies, books, and TV shows.

I was trying to think of how to describe the book and the stories, and possibly it's caring is the commonality. It's about what the Christmas season is supposed to be like - love, and caring, and changing. As she puts it in the introduction: "But Christmas is about someone who believed, in spite of overwhelming evidence, that humanity is capable of change and worth redeeming."

We see that in many ways - perhaps it's about an artificial human who wants to be a Rockette, or a Christmas designer trying to manage other people's Christmas's, and the client who wants to change her, or the aliens who glare disapprovingly, the choir director, and the Hallelujah chorus, or the alien parasites and the Christmas newsletters, or Kris Kringle and the office staplers and the black sequined dress, or the British murder mystery with the gorilla butler... I could go on for ages. We even see Mary and Joseph, having lost their way from Nazareth to Bethlehem, ending up in a current day church in America. As Reverend Wall says, "Though we know nothing of their journey, we know much of the world they lived in. It was a world of censuses and soldiers, of bureaucrats and politics, a world busy with property and rules and its own affairs" - just like our world, with concerns about homeless people and church property.

And it's so wonderful to find out all these other books, movies, and even TV shows from this book. A Chorus Line, The Drowsy Chaperone, the Little Princess, Dickens, how the Muppet adaptation of A Christmas Carol is one of the best, how Miracle on 34th Street (the original) is so much better than It's a Wonderful Life... so many references to other wonderful things. Connie Willis refers to discovering Three Men and a Dog through reading a Robert Heinlein book when she was young, and she passes on the wonder of discovering other favorites through the book she writes.

Not only do I recommend reading this book, I recommend re-reading this book regularly, whenever you are in need of some Christmas spirit.