ONE OF THE JOYS of Celestine Sibley's writing is the people she tells us about. That's because "Celestine's People," whether fictitious or otherwise, are always real--the kind of individuals you'd like to sit down with and have a long conversation. this has never been truer than with the characters who populate Christmas in Georgia. Take for example, sightless Mrs. Tippen: "She was a funny looking old thing in her bunchy black clothes, hopping about on the doorstep like a tame crow, but she was good." And there is Mrs. Tippen's friend, ten-year-old Sukey Hart, who know how to do almost everything--from spinning and weaving to speaking perfect Cherokee--except how to keep her young heart from listening when she heard a wounded Tory soldier tell about his Christmases back in England before the Revolutionary War. There's no one you'll remember more than Henry Grady Huckaby, who, out of love for his sick brother, accidentally saved Christmas for his entire family. Or take cranky, rheumatoid-ridden Gramp Stanton, who makes Christmas come, even to Snout Island. Or get to know adolescent Araminta Morley, who, though "just the age to be cynical, even at Christmastime," will touch your heart and fill you with the holiday spirit. The stories here take place on Southern soil. But their themes and their characters are as universal as Christmas itself. They're the kinds of stories that families and friends whill cherish and read aloud to one another every holiday season--year after year.