While Everyone Is Home. New Year's Series

Olaf Jones decorated the library for Christmas when everyone was called to the main hall in an alarm. It turned out that someone had told the Emmi (the natives of Ganymede) that people would soon be celebrating Christmas. And the Emmi wanted Santa Claus to come to them as well. Otherwise they simply refuse to work.

Chrono: 0:45:46

02. Robert YOUNG - Santa Claus

Description: When the devil appeared in a pentagram, Ross said he’d like Santa Claus to visit him at Christmas with gifts. Lucifer replied that there’s nothing especially difficult about it—though there are some nuances. Ross didn’t bother to look into the nuances, and he and the devil struck a deal…

Chrono: 0:24:52

03. Gordon DICKSON - A Christmas Gift

Description: A story about the friendship between a boy on Earth and a local resident on the swampy planet Sydor.

Chrono: 0:21:07

04. Clark Ashton SMITH - The Icy Demon

Description: In search of King Halor’s treasures, two jewelers from Ikva and a hunter named Kwanga head to the frozen peninsula of Mu Talan… They will find both a cave and treasures… But how far will the Icy Demon let them go?

Chrono: 0:45:41

05. George MARTIN - The Icy Dragon

Description: Adara has always kept apart. She was a serious little girl who rarely played with other children. Above all, she loved winter, because as soon as the world plunged into cold, the Icy Dragon appeared. It was a strange friendship—between a little girl whose heart held winter and the Icy Dragon, whom no one had ever been able to tame…

Chrono: 0:45:54

06. Truman CAPOTE - One Christmas

Description: One day, around Christmas, eight-year-old Buddy is sent to visit his father, who lives in New Orleans. The boy doesn’t even know his father and is very nervous about the meeting. And he has every reason to be—he’s disappointed by a gigolo-like dad and by the fact that there’s no snow in New Orleans…

Chrono: 0:20:53

07. Vladimir NABOKOV - Christmas

Description: To be stuck at Christmas in a cold country house, realizing that your child will never return here again… Perhaps Slietsov never thought he would spend Christmas Eve sorting papers, fishing nets, and other items of his son’s hobbies. It seems there is no hope and life is no longer worth living. But even then life can create a small, almost unnoticeable miracle.

Chrono: 0:16:02

08. Clive BARKER - Yettering and Jack

Description: Yettering is one of the lower-ranking demons sent to Earth. His master gave him a mission: capture the immortal soul of Jack J. Polo—a modest, nondescript corn-cane merchant. Yettering sets him up with the most disgusting traps, breaks his things endlessly, and wrecks everything in Polo’s house. But Jack J. Polo doesn’t care. He just keeps repeating: “whatever happens, happens.”

Chrono: 0:57:06

09. Agatha CHRISTIE - An Adventure at Christmas

Description: A representative of the British government, Mr. Jessmond, asks Hercule Poirot for help to get back an invaluable ruby stolen from the heir of a friendly Eastern country. The great detective will have to spend Christmas in the English countryside at Kings Lacey and solve a tricky problem.

Chrono: 0:36:26

10. Sergei LUKYANENKO - A Girl with Chinese Lighters

Description: Presenting a netsuke as a Christmas gift to a great sculptor is something only a true collector would understand. After barely managing to deliver the antique item, Valery hopes for the sculptor’s favor and for a profitable commission. But a beggar with lighters ruins all his plans…

Chrono: 0:22:07