Have a Dickens of a Christmas this year

NEW YORK - Dec. 13, 2013 - PRLog -- FOR RELEASE 12/13

Charles Dickens was the master spinner of Christmas ghost stories:  Just

think about what his popular Christmas tale really is. His storytelling

genius lives on as does the  warmth of his conviction that Christmas is a

time for generosity and for families to celebrate around the table.

       The fact is that when Charles wrote his very first Christmas story in

1835 most English speakers worked on and off the farm on Christmas day.

Even the repentance of Scrooge was several years in the future when the

young journalist Charles Dickens published A Christmas Dinner challenging

readers with his vision of an extended family together at Christmas Eve

and on Christmas Day in their London home.

        "Would that Christmas lasted the whole year"  the un-named but clearly

young and excited narrator of that very first story proclaims before

describing grandfather's walk to the market to purchase a live turkey

for the following day's dinner. On December 24  the grandmother wraps

simple gifts  and in the evening  three generations gather in the

kitchen to pit plums and stir the great pudding (cake batter) for the

next day; then upstairs they  sip various punches (including wassail)

while enjoying chicken pie and cheese rarebit, share ghost stories,

tease one another with mistletoe and play jolly games such as blind

man's bluff.

       The description of Christmas Day in A Christmas Dinner includes  spirited

housecleaning, a churchgoing party, a roaring fire, the surprise return

of a prodigal daughter and her family, more stories, "wine, jokes and

winks" plus songs and a grand dinner, replete with  challenging feats of

carving and many foods.

         A Christmas Dinner has been  republished by Red Rock Press  with an

introduction by Dickens biographer Peter Ackroyd, full-color

illustrations and dozens of contemporaneous Christmas recipes, many of

them hailing from the Dickens family, offered as originally presented

and then as adapted by the distinguished culinary historian Alice Ross.

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A copy of the Cheese Rarebit Recipe from the sources mentioned above is available on request.

Also, please let us know if you would like a high rez image of the cover of A CHRISTMAS DINNER.  All requests should be sent to publicity@redrockpress.com

Richard Barth

Red Rock Press