Spotify’s range of audiobooks is quite impressive, and it’s got a whole slew of classic Christmas books available to help get busy literary fanatics in the mood.
‘Skipping Christmas’
If you’re unfamiliar with this book title, perhaps you’re more familiar with the film adaptation – Skipping Christmas by John Grisham was adapted to Christmas with the Kranks, the modern classic holiday film starring Jamie Lee Curtis and Tim Allen (this time not as Santa Claus). While the recording of the book is about twice as long as the film, purists will tell you it’s worth it, especially given the work comes from Grisham.
‘A Christmas Carol’
Is there any Christmas novel more classic than A Christmas Carol? You’ve seen all the film adaptations of the book and the adaptations of the adaptations. This year, take some time to hear the original version from Charles Dickens himself. No, he’s not the voice actor behind the audiobook, but this is as close as you can get to Dickens without, you know, actually reading the book.
‘Little Women’
Little Women isn’t exactly a Christmas book, per se, but the story being bookended by Christmas celebrations has enough fans of this Louisa May Alcott classic returning to it every year. (We’ll categorize it as spiritually Christmas.) Fair warning, most of the audiobook recordings are longer than the amount of monthly listening Spotify allows Premium users, so if you want to hear the story in its entirety before Christmas, you need to start listening today (or you can purchase extra listening hours).
‘The Nutcracker and the Mouse King’
We’re all so familiar with the ballet, we forget that this narrative started as a short story by E.T.A. Hoffman. The audiobook is an easy listen with versions ranging in time from just under two to three hours. If dance moves don’t naturally translate to words for you, check out the audiobook this Christmas season to hear one of the most enduring holiday stories of modern times.
Bonus: ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas’
We can’t talk about Christmas stories without including ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas. This poem has plenty of recordings to choose from on Spotify, including one narrated by the inimitable Jeff Bridges (why has he never played Santa Claus?). If you’d rather play the audiobook than read ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas aloud yourself this year, Spotify’s got you covered.
Each of these audiobooks is streaming now on Spotify.
