Christmas Quiet | Festive Stories to Listen to

December nights are traditionally for story telling. Pour yourself a glass of something and settle down this Christmas Eve to listen to three short stories that we enjoyed when we ran a festive fiction competition back in December 2015.

And don't forget - we print a Bedtime story in every issue of The Simple Things.

A very Merry Christmas from The Simple Things team. X

Christmas Eve by Jennifer Gray

Merribelle’s Gift by Emma Richardson

Wassail by Helen Duncan

Music by Dominic Halpin. Stories read by Anna Hope. Anna Hope trained at RADA and acted for many years before completing an MA in Creative Writing at Birkbeck College. Her first novel 'Wake', which tells the story of three women in London in 1920 dealing with the aftermath of the First World War, was published by Doubleday in January 2014. She's delighted to be reading the short stories for the Simple Things competition. This blog was first published in December 2015.

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More fun for Christmas Eve…

More reading magic…

Storytelling

Once upon a time...

...we used to tell stories and now we probably don’t so much. It’s National Storytelling Week this month (28 Jan–3 Feb) – a great reason to rediscover the delights of the spoken story

Many of us stop reading aloud or making up stories when we don’t have children to read to, but there’s nothing to stop you from reading to your partner or a friend – it can be a surprisingly bonding experience, great for a winter’s night.

Or, you could offer to read to an elderly relative or neighbour or volunteer in a local care home. To Read Aloud by Francesco Dimitri (Head of Zeus) is a collection of 75 extracts from different writers with time taken to read aloud from just 3 to 15 minutes. Choose from themed chapters (change, love, nature etc).

As you get more confident with reading aloud, try making up your own stories. Base them on your own experiences if you find it easier and visualise (rather than write) the beginning, middle and end, before you start. For inspiration, try going to a storytelling event – there are plenty this month (see sfs.org.uk).

For a bit of fun at home, play a storytelling game, such as Rory’s Story Cubes, where you roll the ‘dice’ and create a tale using all the pictures. Board games such as Tell Tale (for younger families) and The Awkward Story Teller (for adults and teenagers) work well, too.

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View the sampler here.

More from the January issue:

More reading:

Bedtime story illustrator: Christine Rösch

Meet illustrator Christine Rösch, whose work illustrates May's Bedtime Story, Fireflies. Christine Rösch is a German illustrator based in Scotland. She has studied in both Germany and Israel. Her images often incorporate hand-drawn typography and have become more colourful over time which she attributes to her constant desire for summer and spring. In addition to her freelance work, she participates in a creative group called the Pencilcase Collective. See more of her work on her website and at the Pencilcase Collective.