Old Christmas


Read by LibriVox Volunteers

(4.4 stars; 42 reviews)

A tale of the quaint and old English traditions of celebrating Christmas. Irving travels to the English countryside and meets an old schoolmate, who invites him home to spend Christmas at the family estate.
(Summary written by Gesine) (1 hr 52 min)

Chapters

Christmas 11:45 Read by Alex Foster
The Stage Coach 18:27 Read by Kara Shallenberg (1969-2023)
Christmas Eve 21:05 Read by Kristen McQuillin
Christmas Day 28:49 Read by Mark Bradford
The Christmas Dinner 32:00 Read by Kara Shallenberg (1969-2023)

Reviews

Well read, mildly amusing.


(4 stars)

5 star for the readers - Well read by all. Irving’s observations on tradition and on people are of value and as a source of amusement it’s relatively successful. It’s good to be reminded especially that music was played, sung, and danced to by all as part of celebration, rather than living only in orchestra halls, choirs, and recordings made by professionals.

TRADITION HAS ITS PLACE


(4 stars)

An interesting description of a tradiitional Christmas in England. It, of course, is gone, even as our own Christmas ttaditions are falling by the wayside. Bad for England, bad for us.

Charming book, wonderfully read.


(5 stars)

A very bittersweet book for me. Luckily my family were brought up to be quite the traditionalists and some of these old festivities and celebrations were still alive when I was a child, and I intend to keep them so for my own children. However, it's sad and somewhat bemusing that they seem to have disappeared altogether from our national zeitgeist in just a couple of generations, obsessed as people are nowadays with the more corporate and sterile notion of the supposed "festive" period. Well, my children and theirs are welcome to do as they will with them, but I'll do my best to keep the candles burning, much like my own parents did for me, and theirs for them.

good book and readers


(4 stars)

good book and readers but the sound quality is pretty bad on a couple of chapters.


(5 stars)

A nice step back into Christmases from long ago!