Almost everyone knows of Charles Dickens A Christmas Carol. Few, though, know that that story was merely the first of a set of five Christmas stories he wrote between 1844 and 1848. This book contains those other Christmas stories: The Chimes (Toby Trotty Veck, a poor working man, learns the harsh lesson that anyone, no matter how good, may descend into degradation, despair, and ruin if sufficiently driven by circumstances); The Cricket on the Hearth (Things are not always as they appear, and what one thinks the truth to be might be something else entirely -- original Illustrations by George Alfred Williams); The Battle of Life (The story follows the fortunes of Dr. Anthony Jeddler who does not take the world or life seriously, regarding it all, as he puts it, as a gigantic practical joke.); and The Haunted Man and the Ghost's Bargain (The story follows the Chemist Redlaw after he makes a disastrous bargain to forget the sorrows and wrongs of his past, and the consequences on those around him).