Christmas Every Day, but Maybe Not This Year

December 22, 2006 5:49 AM

Years ago my wife and I read a story by Heinrich Böll which I remembered being titled "Christmas Every Day," but its real title is apparently Nicht nur zur Weihnachtszeit (Christmas Not Just Once a Year). This year we'd like to read it to our son, who is now old enough to appreciate its black humor. I thought this would be easy to find in print or online, but I've looked up web and down Foyles, and have had no luck. Can anyone tell me the name of an anthology where the story appears ... or scan it and be my friend forever?
posted by lukemeister to writing & language (10 comments total)

I should have said - I'm looking for the story in English translation. My German is pretty much limited to über and "mit Schlag". Thanks.
posted by lukemeister at 5:52 AM on December 22, 2006

It's in this collection. I couldn't find it at Amazon, but Powells claims to have two copies available.
posted by trip and a half at 6:25 AM on December 22, 2006

trip and a half: Thanks a lot. abebooks seems to have a lot of copies. I'd like to get one before Christmas, though.
posted by lukemeister at 6:46 AM on December 22, 2006

It may be out of print, but I have a Scholastic anthology of Christmas stories that I'm 99% sure has this story in it. They adapted it to a Family channel movie several years ago also.
posted by dr_dank at 6:55 AM on December 22, 2006

If you're just looking for a copy of the story to read, it can be found here:

http://www.wsu.edu/~campbelld/wdh/xmaseday.html
posted by silverstatue at 8:05 AM on December 22, 2006

silverstatue - thanks, but I'm looking for the one by Böll. Maybe that's why I misrembered the title. I hadn't realized there was a story by Howells.
posted by lukemeister at 8:17 AM on December 22, 2006

Good luck to you, I remember this story very well from my own childhood. My grandfather put it on a primitive sort of "audio book" where he would just read stories onto tapes that I would then listen to over and over and over and over again. I don't have access to his book collection at the moment, unfortunately.

It seems that my answer is rather pointless, other to say that I really love this story.
posted by grapefruitmoon at 9:31 AM on December 22, 2006

grapefruitmoon: Your answer wasn't pointless, since I hope it will inspire others to read the story!
posted by lukemeister at 10:15 AM on December 22, 2006

You can read a few pages of the story here, via Google Books. (It's the anthology mentioned upthread -- maybe a later edition.) Search for "Böll Christmas Not Just Once a Year" without the quotes in Google Books if the link doesn't work. Most importantly, you can go here to search for it at a nearby library.
posted by sentient at 11:30 AM on December 22, 2006

The Howells story is indeed the one in my Scholastic anthology.
posted by dr_dank at 8:23 AM on December 23, 2006