START A NEW CHRISTMAS TRADITION BY READING 'HOMECOMING'.

Byline: Scott Holleran Correspondent

While every year we hear from those who lament the loss of the real meaning of Christmas, some traditions deserve to die. Fruitcake comes to mind. Nat King Cole crooning Mel Torme's ``Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire)'' is an incessantly annoying presence to some, and there are those who don't regard Charles Dickens' ``A Christmas Carol'' as the definitive holiday classic.

Whatever one's traditions and sensibilities this time of year, several holiday classics hold the promise of some goodness during the holiday season.

Embrace the commercial spirit of Christmas in its full glory with advertising copywriter Robert L. May's celebration of individualism, ``Rudolph, the Red Nosed Reindeer'' (Applewood Books; $9.95). Both adults and children will appreciate this story of an unusual reindeer, whose distinct characteristic permits him to save Christmas for Santa Claus and thus achieve self-confidence. The original CBS television adaptation, first aired decades ago, continues to attract millions of children.

This authentic reproduction of the original edition of ``Rudolph, the Red Nosed Reindeer,'' written for the Montgomery Ward department stores, is the perfect antidote to the cranky old aunt who complains every year about how Christmas has become too commercial; the holiday favorite's origins are purely the product of ringing cash registers, tinsel and smiling faces on Christmas morning.

Settle in front of the fire - or around the lighted tree - on Christmas Eve and read holiday-themed excerpts from Louisa May Alcott's ``Little Women,'' Dickens and O. Henry in ``Christmas Classics'' (Modern Library, paperback; $12), a treasure for the holidays. There are stories, carols, poems and excerpts from Hans Christian Andersen, Arthur Conan Doyle and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

``Old Christmas: From the Sketchbook of Washington Irving'' (Chapman Billies; $19.95) is a handsome new edition of Irving's classic, with 110 Randolph Caldecott illustrations. Irving's storytelling evokes an early American Christmas feeling, with plenty of English themes and humor.

Earl Hamner Jr.'s story about the Spencer family's Christmas Eve on the Blue Ridge Mountains - ``The Homecoming, A Novel About Spencer's Mountain'' (Buccaneer Books; $23.95) - is a simple literary pleasure for the holidays. (It also served as the inspiration for the CBS TV series ``The Waltons.'')

The year is 1933, Franklin Delano Roosevelt is president, the nation gripped by the Great Depression and Clay Spencer is late in coming home for Christmas Eve. A blizzard is sweeping over the mountains and his hard-working wife, Olivia, is growing worried. Hamner's uncomplicated plot centers on the lives, thoughts and aims of the Spencer family as the tension over their father's fate rises.

Son Clay Boy sets out to find his dad, and his odyssey leads to revealing encounters with neighbors, members of a black church and a couple of old ladies who are rumored to dabble in moonshine. Along the way, the boy ponders gaining his father's approval in the face of a secret ambition. The boy's sense of rebellion is tempered by the growing realization that his father may be dead.

``Clay Spencer was a hard man to measure up to,'' Hamner writes. ``Like all the Spencer men, he was a crack shot, a good provider for his family, an honest look-'em-in-the-eye man, an enthusiastic drinker, a prodigious dancer ... a kissing, hugging, loving man whose laughter would shake the house and who was not ashamed to cry.''

``The Homecoming'' offers traditional elements of a Christmas tale: a snowy night, a house full of excited children clustered around Grandma and Grandpa, decorating the tree, a visit from Santa Claus, making preparations and baking in the kitchen - it even includes a recipe for Olivia Spencer's applesauce cake - plenty of religion and the birth of Jesus. But it's the overlooked blessings of Christmas that make ``The Homecoming'' a memorable delight.

When the Spencer children race to the town's post office, where a missionary is handing out gifts, they experience the innocent pleasure of receiving gifts: ``The grinding poverty of the Depression years had already stamped the older faces with a gaunt grya pallor, but the prospect of a gift, of some slight change from the ordinary, the elusive Christmas Spirit, had animated thin faces and brought hope to defeated eyes.''

Hamner's tale observes the joy of Christmas without sanctimonious narrative, and ``The Homecoming'' captures the sense of magic at Christmastime - Hamner calls it a ``miracle'' - that emanates from the celebration of values. From the homespun beginning to a gently fulfilling conclusion, Hamner's story is an enduring reminder that each individual's uniqueness matters no matter what the circumstances.