Weird Santa & other Xmas Tales is magic realism with a dash of erotic spiciness. The ten independent stories in this collection range from “A Doggie’s Tale,” a boy-and-his-dog story appropriate for children, to “Never Too Old, Never Too Late” in which an old babushka recounts her Christmases in the Old Country. After receiving her magic gingerbread cookies, Ana’s young American friends, two couples, discover the depth of their passion for each other on a snowy Christmas Eve.

In the previous two volumes of short fiction the stories were interconnected. Here they stand alone and there is something in this anthology for everyone to enjoy, whether they hate the winter holidays or revel in them. More than one Scrooge is happily converted before the story’s conclusion.

This collection of Christmas tales is illustrated with wintry scenes from holidays past and present.

As Hypatia says in “Weird Santa,” the title story, “Many impossible things happen at Christmas, I guess, and if they happen, then they must be possible.”