The Christmas holiday is undoubtedly the best time for reading books of all kinds. Families gather together, set the festive table and exchange wishes and gifts. Every bibliophile hopes that the next package they open will reveal, instead of some ordinary holiday accessory or another boring sweater, an exciting book to keep them company during the warm hours that follow the family gatherings. Nabokov, Gogol or a romantic comedy by Becca Freeman promise to keep us awake for hours and hours after Christmas Eve.

The books of Erato Publications are a guarantee for lovers of classical literature. Everyone knows what a great playwright Anton Chekhov was (Uncle Vanya, The Seagull, The Three Sisters). If you really want to surprise someone this Christmas, gift them the Russian author’s Christmas short stories. As it’s easy to imagine, it’s a unique reading experience, as Chekhov’s stories lack the usual festive, cloying style of his fellow peers. On the contrary, he continues in these stories to explore the limits of human goodness and evil, the dreams of escaping to America (‘The Boys’), while in the short story ‘The Great Martyrs of the New Year’ he attempts to expose the pathologies of the bureaucracy and, at the same time, of an entire nation with his allusive but always penetrating satirical eye.

For those who consider Chekhov’s approach too naturalistic, there is always the option of another great Russian (Cossack) writer, Nikolai Gogol. In one of the most elegant cover works for Erato Publications,”Christmas Eve” utilizes a more fairy-tale-like mood and telling the adventure of the blacksmith Bacula as he faces demons, evil witches and the devil himself in order to win the heart of his beloved Oxana. Contributing to the work’s merit are the flattering comments of the demanding Vladimir Nabokov: “One of the most beautiful fairy tales people should read on Christmas night.”

If, on the other hand, you wish to gift or immerse yourself in a bouquet of diverse stories, then the Christmas stories of Andersen, Hawthorne, Dostoevsky, Dylan Thomas and Tournier will fit your situation perfectly. The ironic Nabokov, the allegorical Andersen, the ‘cheery soul’ of Elizabeth Bowen and the tender world of Dylan Thomas await you in the pages of the Erato Publications Christmas collection.

For lovers of academic introspection, even during the festive season, University Studio Press proposes a stunning monograph by one of the leading Greek Byzantinologists, Konstantinos D. Kalokyris (1916-2015). In “The Christmas Tree: Scientific Foundation of its Eastern Origin,” Kalokyris reinterprets Byzantine, Western and Eastern traditions and amplifies the Oriental origin of the semiotics of the festive tree by delving into the analysis of the manger, the Magi and the star of Bethlehem. In this third, augmented and remastered edition of his study, Kalokyris justifies his methodological approach as follows: “The subject of the Magi and the Star of Bethlehem was deemed necessary to be included here, even if only in a brief overview, in order to show their connection with the Christmas Tree. […] It was considered appropriate because it is customary to install the tree as an independent festive element of the Twelve Days without including the depiction of the Manger and the effigy of the star in a prominent position. Because, usually, instead of the star, the so-called “top” (pyramidal plastic) is placed high on the top of the tree, while the manger is usually omitted. However, all three of these elements must coexist in order for the meaning of the festive tree to be understood and presented in its entirety, i.e. as it should be.”

If one of the meanings of Christmas is love, then books like The Wake-Up Call (Metaixmio Publications) by Beth O’Leary will give readers the opportunity to further develop their empathy and humor. Dimitra Stavridou’s translation brings to life the English puns, the author’s versatility to move between Christmas atmosphere and screwball comedy, while the characters’ “arcs” hide surprises from the second chapter until the moment the last ring finds its recipient.

And if you are still one of those who are most satisfied with the webs woven by the great modern writers of crime fiction, then “The Last Party” (Metaixmio Publications) by Clare Mackintosh is a book for you. On New Year’s Eve, Reese Lloyd is found murdered at his resort in Lake Mirror. Fion Morgan, as another Miss Marple, will be tasked with shedding light on a mystery where every member of the small country community may be hiding unspeakable secrets. Even herself. What sets Mackintosh’s writing apart in a genre that has produced countless examples of writing over the past decade is her three-dimensional depiction of her characters. Her alter ego in The Last Party, Officer Fion Morgan, is an example of a “living” character, as the author herself, before establishing herself in the book industry, worked as a police officer for 12 consecutive years.

Camilla Lackberg places her heroes in an equally claustrophobic setting in the detective story “The Scent of Almonds” (Metaixmio Publications). Having published her first bestseller 21 years ago, the Swedish author has mastered a wonderful balance between the sober depiction of characters and human behaviour and the escalating suspense. Now the blizzard of the natural world represents the darkness of the human soul while the institution of the family seems to be going through a psychoanalytic crisis. The discerning Washington Post praises Lackberg’s work, “If Lackberg continues to write so densely and so vividly, before long they won’t be saying she’s the Swedish Agatha Cristie, but the reverse, that Agatha Cristie is the British Camilla Lackberg.”

Claire Keegan’s book ” Small Things Like This ” (Metaixmio Publications) takes readers to a small town in Ireland in the run-up to Christmas 1985. Through minimalist but always politically targeted writing (which inspired the recent film starring Cillian Murphy), this work both exposes the crimes of a local Catholic monastery while focusing, through the character of Bill Furlong, on human goodness. A moving story about a quiet hero of everyday life.

Starting from contemporary reality, Becca Freeman tells the story of Hannah and Finn in “The Christmas Orphans Club” (Dioptra Publications). This holiday season may be the last they spend together as Finn prepares to depart for Los Angeles. Freeman, evolving the writing of romantic comedy as audiences have enjoyed it through Nora Ephron and beyond, further develops on paper the New York neuroses and includes in her frame the inclusion and the many versions of a modern family.

Finally, for those who want to motivate their little ones to help with the Christmas dinner preparations, the book Moose-Mouse and the world’s most delicious cookies! will prove to be the best gift they could offer this year. With an illustration that focuses on detail, and a text full of solidarity and musicality, this book reads with great ease and hides recipes for both traditional and vegan cookies.

Holidays with a book take on a new dimension!