The short stories are mostly of a high quality, although the sheer mass of them (roughly double the amount of the average Short Trips anthology) mean they are generally rather short character pieces. Amazingly the authors manage to find enough ways to tackle Christmas, from the more subtle winter ghost stories to an outright meeting of the Doctor and Santa, with the stories being divided fairly evenly between light-hearted whimsy and more sombre tales. There are too many tales to go through individually, but some of the more interesting include a cautionary tale where time travel enables Doctor Who fandom to travel back in time and correct the series faults; the Doctor appearing on a Morecambe and Wise Xmas Special; a Dickensian Christmas theme planet under alien assault; and a trilogy of UNIT Christmas parties. Interestingly the stories are also arranged in a symmetrical fashion, so that the second half of the book is a sort of mirror image of the first. The poems are mostly slight but amusing, while I found the recipes and games largely a waste of space, in the context of Christmas fun these were appropriate enough.

Perhaps no real classic short stories, but a decent hit rate, and a book stuffed with enjoyable seasonal fare. Recommended.