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Free Christmas Audiobooks – A Christmas Carol and Classic Holiday Stories
Classic Christmas stories, free to stream in full with no account. These are public-domain recordings, so you can play them at a family gathering, on a long drive home for the holidays or as a bedtime tradition.
Charles Dickens did more than anyone to shape the modern Christmas story, and his five Christmas books are all here, along with the best-known American holiday stories by O. Henry, Henry van Dyke and Kate Douglas Wiggin.
1. Christmas CarolScrooge and the spirits of Christmas Past, Present and Yet to Come (1843). A few hours long, and the obvious place to start.
2. Christmas BooksDickens's Christmas books collected in one recording, for listeners who want more after A Christmas Carol.
3. The ChimesDickens's 1844 follow-up: a poor ticket-porter, Trotty Veck, and the bells of a London church on New Year's Eve.
4. The Cricket on the HearthA gentle 1845 fairy tale of home life, centred on a carrier and his young wife.
5. The Haunted Man and the Ghost's Bargain (version 2)Dickens's last Christmas book (1848): a chemist is offered the chance to forget his painful memories.
6. The Gift of the MagiA young couple with almost no money each try to buy the other a Christmas present. Ten minutes, and famous for its ending.
7. The Story of the Other Wise ManA legend of a fourth wise man, Artaban, whose journey to find the newborn king takes a different path.
8. The Birds' Christmas CarolA short 1887 story about a girl born on Christmas Day who plans a Christmas dinner for the large, poor family next door.
9. Little WomenIt opens on a hard Christmas for the four March sisters, and holidays return through the book. A family favourite.
10. Christmas Stories from French and Spanish WritersChristmas tales by French and Spanish authors such as Alphonse Daudet and Benito Pérez Galdós, in English translation.
Ideas for listening
- A Christmas Carol in five nights. The book has five "staves" (chapters). One a night in the week before Christmas is an old family tradition.
- Short ones for little listeners. The Gift of the Magi and The Other Wise Man are short enough for one sitting.
- For a ghostly Christmas Eve: Victorian readers told ghost stories at Christmas. Try our free horror audiobooks for M. R. James.
More for families: free audiobooks for kids.