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).