Kurt Vonnegut's "While Mortals Sleep" (short story, Christmas, non-genre)

This is light hearted christmas story of a newspaper editor obsessed with his work & uninterested in fun things like christmas celebrations.

Circumstances put him on a committee that will judge the town's Annual Christmas Outdoor Lighting Contest. So we'll see him turning the job into a news making exercise...

Title comes from a Christmas song in the story (I don't know if the song is real or imaginary):
  For Christ is born of Mary,
  And gathered all above,
  While mortals sleep, the angels keep
  Their watch of wondering love.

Fact sheet.

First published: Kurt Vonnegut's "While Mortals Sleep: Unpublished Short Fiction" (2011).
Rating: B.
Related: Stories of Kurt Vonnegut.

Sydney J Bounds' "The Beautiful Martian" (short story, free): Fear creates hate creates destruction

A beautiful flame-being arrived in a strange ship in a village on Christmas eve. All village welcomed it, children were particularly happy, & "she" wanted only to contribute happiness.

In the morning, the news spread & the unwise men began arriving: soldiers, politicians, scientists, businessmen, priests, ... They brought fear, greed, hate. They evacuated the village, & they destroyed the visitor & her ship.

Fact sheet.

First published: Nebula Science Fiction, #14 (November 1955).
Download full text as part of the scans of the magazine it originally appeared in.
Rating: B.
Related: Christmas fiction.

Charles Stross' "Overtime" (novelette, satire, free): Life in a British government office

Probably the most readable story I've seen from Stross so far - at least the jargon doesn't come in the way, is much less than his normal, & appears late in the story.

There is a separate underlying nonsense plot of Santa Claus' visit to office on Christmas eve. Only this Santa Claus is evil! And hero must throw him out before any damage is done.

I've a feeling its appeal is likely to be uneven across locales.

Fact sheet.

First published: tor.com, 23 December 2009.
Download full text from publisher's site.
Rating: B.
Nominated for Hugo Award 2010 in novelette category.
Related: Stories of Charles Stross.

Robert Billing's "Harnessing the brane-deer" (flash fiction, weird physics, free): What if large masses could be made to show visible wave behavior?

When Santa Clause's sleigh developed trouble in Kent, UK on a Christmas night, a mere mortal got the opportunity to figure out what makes Santa's sleigh so magical it can deliver presents all over the world in such a short time! And an understanding of how to fix the present problem, though the presents will be delayed a few hours this Christmas...

See also.

1. Isaac Asimov's "Fantastic Voyage II: Destination Brain": Another story that features a gadget that can turn the Planck's constant into a variable!
2. James White's "Christmas Treason": Another (& hilarious) story involving worry about physical limitations of Santa's transport, & proactive work by some kids to ensure that at least their presents won't be missed!

Fact sheet.

First published: Nature, 25 December 2008.
Download full text from Science Fact & Science Fiction Concatenation.
Rating: B.
Related: Weird physics fiction.

China Miéville's "'Tis the Season" (short story, farce, free)

What if Christmas & the icons that go with it were copyrighted, & you needed a license to even say "Merry Christmas"?

A lighthearted look at the silly side of intellectual property rights.

Fact sheet.

First published: Socialist Review, December 2004.
Download full text from publisher's site. [via Best Science Fiction Stories]
Rating: B.

Looking for some Christmas humor?

Try locating James White's "Christmas Treason" - must be in several anthologies.

Hilarious story of a group of unusually gifted kids with overactive imagination who have drawn a very logical conclusion from stories they've heard from their parents: Santa Clause, the old man who drives a reindeer-powered buggy all the way from North to deliver gifts to children, cannot be delivering gifts to all children during each Christmas - simply because there are so many children.

So these kids set about ensuring that they won't be among those missed this Christmas, & end up making the world a better place!

Related: Stories about Christianity; stories about religion (very old annotated list).

Isaac Asimov's "Christmas on Ganymede" (short story, humor, free): Even fairy tales can have serious side effects!

Ossies (short for "ostrich" which they resemble), intelligent natives of Ganymede, have given strike notice to the management of Ganymedean Product Corporation, Inc, the human mining company that employs them there.

Their demand: Santa Claus should visit them too this Christmas now just a couple of days away, & then on an annual schedule as he does on earth! Only the Ganemedean year equals a week on earth! And they don't want just any visit - they want him to come in style the way a company employee told them he comes on earth - in a flying sleigh driven by 8 reindeer, & in full dress too!

How is the management going to handle this?

Ultimately a silly story, but made a light fun read.

Collected in.

1. Samuel Mines (ed)'s "Wonder Story Annual, Vol 2 No 1 (1953 Edition)".
   

Fact sheet.

First published: Startling Stories, January 1942.
Download full text as part of a larger package.
Rating: A.
Related: Works of Isaac Asimov; Christmas fiction; Stories set in the Jupiter system.

James White's "Christmas Treason" (novelette, humor): When little kids brought about global nuclear disarmament!

Today was Janmashtami (oops - day has changed! but no matter). Since I don't have an appropriate story about Lord Krishna's birthday, I thought may be I'll post about another holy birthday - even if from another religion, born on a different date, & according to a different calender at that! Picture alongside is, however, an artist's impression of Lord Krishna - the naughtiest & one of the most widely worshiped Hindu gods who has inspired so much art, philosophy & politics.

This story is a hilarious variant of Theodore Sturgeon's grim novel "More Than Human".

Story summary.

6 kids & friends - 2 from US, 1 each from UK & USSR, & 2 from Japan (Is Christmas as big an even in Japan as in other 3 countries?) Between them, they are capable of telepathy, teleporting, & telekinesis. So when the Japanese mom thinks the kids are playing in their room, they're in fact with their friends in US! Of course, they'll be back where mom expects them at dinner time!

Their unusually active imagination has them worried: how to guarantee that they'll get their gifts during Christmas a few days hence? You see, there is only one Santa Clause - & an old man at that. He comes on that sled & from some cavern in far North. And there are so many kids. How can he deliver them all their gifts during a single night? Of course, some kids are going to be missed. They just want to ensure they won't be the ones missed.

What follows are incidents that drive US & Soviet military commanders nuts: little kids querying about Santa Claus in underground missile facilities in the north! During their "Investigation" & with peculiar child logic, kids conclude that

1. Santa has long since given up sled & delivers toys in rockets now.
2. Bad guys have driven Santa's men out from these toy storage facilities & have put shiny green things in these rockets.
3. "Thieves" that neighborhood store owners become during festival season (according a child's mom) are the ones who've stolen Santa's toys.

Next thing the adult world knows & is still scratching its head in puzzlement is: nuclear missiles have been launched by both sides, but what came out of their noses at attack locations are kids' toys rather than nuclear bombs! And then there are those reports of large number of toys stolen from stores...

Collected in.

1. Isaac Asimov & Martin H Greenberg (Eds)' "Isaac Asimov Presents the Great SF Stories 24 (1962)".
   

Fact sheet.

First published: F&SF, January 1962.
Rating: A.