This Podcast is intended as Entertainment for Grownups and to spread awareness of 826 LA, a non-profit writing and tutoring center for children ages 6 to 18.

For a full schedule of 826 LA's events and programs, including the Echo Park Time Travel Mart, visit 826.org.

And now here is the host of the Dead Authors Podcast, Mr. H.G. Wells. Welles.

G. Welles. G. Wells. G. Welles.

Once again, it is I. H.G. Wells, author, writer, scribe, synonym devotee.

Didn't expect to hear from me so soon, did you?

Well, if there's one thing you must learn about a man with a time

machine, it's that he often pops up when you least expect him to.

Let's just say there's a John Wilkes booth in an alternate timeline who would attest to that if he could.

But my reasons for being here with you today are much less violent, though equally heroic.

The fact is, the holiday season is my favorite time of the year,

and I couldn't resist giving you all your gift a bit early,

or a bit right in the middle for you Jewish listeners.

What follows is a chapter of the dead author's reading series featuring Charles Dickens and

O Henry, the minds behind two classics of Christmas literature, a Christmas Carol and the gift of the magi, respectively.

These seasonal stories are favorites of mine, and while I may not be a Christian in the strictest definition of the word,

I am not immune to the more profound aspects of this. in the

Christian definition of the word, I am not immune to the more profound aspects of this time of year.

In fact, I did once set the old time machine for the year zero in an effort to rub elbows with a man himself.

Of course it wasn't the most well-thought-out scheme

I'd ever hatched. Jesus had only just been born and wasn't exactly able to hang. Nor were Mary and

Joseph too keen on the betweeded stranger loitering about their manger without so much as a satchel of moor in hand.

...