The brevity of short stories leaves Binchy little room for character development in this collection. Themes drive these stories. Many of Binchy's characters may seem typecast, but that is because typecasting is a useful shorthand for conveying the kinds of difficult and irritating people who do make Christmas a chore. Binchy's lack of fine detail, however, is compensated by swift, deft brush strokes that create memorable (if uncomplicated) characters.

The two grannies in "The Best Inn in Town" appear on the scene rather abruptly and do not really do much. But readers come to know their characters when Binchy writes that one has "a lip that curled all of its own," and the other possesses "a tinkling laugh that would freeze the blood." The grandmother in "The Ten Snaps of Christmas" has a very minor role. Yet this woman reveals her character when, after unwrapping a gift of...