Opening Sentence: ‘…It started snowing about midday, brief flurries that soon thickened and swirled into great heavy flakes, burying the outside in white…’

This book caught my eye on a sale table at my local newsagents and was a very quick read – 3 short stories all based on dragons and all set in and around Christmas:

The Knight, Before Christmas by Jeff Grubb
A family celebrates their midwinter holiday with the poetic telling of the tale a bold knight who confronts a dreaded dragon on Christmas Eve – cleverly based on the poem ‘It was the night before Christmas’ this was my favourite.

The Christmas Dragon by James M. Ward
The increasingly loud Christmas bell chiming of a small town really annoys a nearby sleeping dragon who stops the noise by stealing all the gold bells to add to his horde, soon he discovers the true meaning of the holiday season when his horde is coveted by an even meaner and nastier dragon.

Wrathclaw’s Wyrmtide, Or, The Secret of Treasure-Unlooked-For by Ed Greenwood
A heartless and greedy dragon, Wrathclaw, is forced to wake up to himself and look at his behaviour. In the past he drives off his beloved wife when he eats the eggs of their latest batch of hatchlings to avoid sharing gold. He kills his only son for begging gold to warm his mother’s winter bed – he says scornfully that no dragon gives treasure away! However, when the mystical ‘AllDragon’ gives a Christmas gem to Wrathclaw, its reflection shows more than he cares to see.

Nothing outstanding – but a great ’stocking stuffer’ for a dragon fan. ( )

We Three Dragons is a collection of Christmas fantasies featuring fierce and unpredictable dragon protagonists.

In “The Knight, Before Christmas” parents read their children a traditional poem of a brave knight who challenged a dragon and the unusual deal that was struck to avoid bloodshed. The real hero is revealed only after the children are tucked in bed.

In “Christmas Dragon”, Lava the Dragon does not take kindly to being woken from a centuries long sleep by stupid manthings ringing bells of gold. Gold — the precious metal that nests his bed and feeds his power! It is time to remind these irritants of the universal law that the weak serve the powerful (if only they didn’t taste so stringy). The silly townsfolk of Ding struggle to save their hides, but none is more surprised than Lava when he responds to a small girl’s plea for help.

In “Wrathclaw’s Wyrmtide”, readers meet the dragon incarnation of the Dickens’ character, Ebenezer Scrooge, a most wicked beast even among dragons. He drives off his beloved wife when he eats the eggs of their hatchings to avoid sharing gold. He kills his only son for begging gold to warm his mother’s winter bed. No dragon gives treasure away! When the mystical AllDragon gives a Christmas gem to Wrathclaw, its reflection shows more than he cares to see.

http://johnmiedema.ca/2007/12/18/we-three-dragons-by-greenwood-ward-grubb-book-r...