Every Christmas season, we find ourselves awash in a new wave of Christmas entertainment.

Every network and streaming service releases dozens of new Christmas movies and specials.

A new batch of Christmas romance novels hits store shelves and audiobook platforms.

Countless recording artists release new Christmas albums.

We're spoiled for choice, and the next season, the cycle repeats.

So now, ask yourself, 10 years from now, 20 years. How much of this will anyone remember?

How much of it will we still be talking about? If each year produces more content than any

single person could possibly consume,

it stands to reason that not much of it can stay impressed on our memories as the years go by.

This isn't a new phenomenon.

Before there were mass-market Christmas romance novels or Sappy Made for TV movies,

there was an annual onslaught of Christmas literature mostly in the form of short stories. Yes, plenty of Christmas literature from the 18th and 19th century is still known to us today, but most of it isn't.

Now, let's reframe that. If you're ready to discover something new to you and different than the Christmas entertainment cranked out year after year in these times,

then look no farther than the seemingly endless trove of literary gems from Christmas past.

Today I'll be speaking with Thomas Roy Smith, a professor of literature and culture.

His new book is The Last Gift, The Christmas Stories of Mary E. Wilkins Freeman.

Then I'll narrate one of the stories in that

collection, one that had almost been lost to history until recently. I'm Brian Earl. This is

Christmas Past. Mary Wilkins Freeman was born in 1852 in Randolph, Massachusetts, which borders my

childhood hometown of Stoughton, Massachusetts.

She was, as Professor Smith describes, a popular and prolific writer of her time.

Mary Wilkins Freeman was active from the 1880s to about the 1920s, and she's probably most

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