After finishing both Maggie Rose, Her Birthday Christmas and Little Women last week, I wanted something short and Christmas-y to read to my girls at night. I’ve had Classics For Christmastime – Five Novels About the Spirit of the Holiday for years–decades, even–and have never actually read anything from it. It contains
- The Story of the Other Wise Man by Henry van Dyke
- The Birds’ Christmas Carol by Kate Douglas Wiggin
- Brotherly House by Grace Richmond
- The Romance of a Christmas Card by Kate Douglas Wiggin and
- A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
Of all these, I chose The Birds’ Christmas Carol because I’ve seen it recommended on various lists. Also, I have a soft spot in my heart for Kate Douglas Wiggin, having enjoyed her Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm as a child (numerous times!) and also The Romance of a Christmas Card, which I re-read just a few years ago.
Reading The Birds’ Christmas Carol on the heels of Maggie Rose, Her Birthday Christmas was perhaps a wee bit unfortunate, for I think Carol Bird might have suffered in comparison to Maggie Rose Bunker. This short novella seemed a little on the saccharine side in comparison, with Carol Bird being the sickly youngest child and only daughter of doting parents. Like Maggie Rose, Carol has a Christmas birthday. However, unlike Maggie Rose, she’s perfect, as children go: her one desire is to give a large neighboring family of many children a Christmas they’ll never forget. She does this, as one might expect, in a completely selfless and moving way, and then she succumbs to her sad but expected end. The book is pretty predictable and yes, cloying, but I did find a lot of humor in the neighbor family’s preparations for going to the Birds’ house for the Christmas festivities. We enjoyed this story, and I would recommend it, but just be aware that it requires a certain tolerance for stories with sweet and saintly main characters who personify this definition by Mark Twain:
Heroine: Girl who is perfectly charming to live with, in a book.
It’s worth a few nights’ reading, and we’ll likely revisit it when the boys are old enough. However, it is mostly a Christmas confection that leaves one’s literary palate in need of cleansing by characters who aren’t quite so perfect. (1888)
Other Christmas chapter books we’ve read:
- The Best Christmas Pageant Ever by Barbara Robinson
- The Box of Delights by John Masefield
- A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
- The Christmas Mystery by Jostein Gaarder
- The Family Under the Bridge by Nancy Savage Carlson
- The Light at Tern Rock by Julia L. Sauer
- Maggie Rose, Her Birthday Christmas by Ruth Sawyer
- The Thirteen Days of Christmas by Jenny Overton
- The Twenty-Four Days Before Christmas by Madeleine L’Engle
A list of Christmas chapter books! hooray!
Ha! Ha! Love that Mark Twain quote.
I have to confess (gulp) that when I opened up this post to read it my first thought was, “I’ve never heard of Kate Douglas Wiggin.” But as it turns out, I have! I just didn’t know it. :X I’ve made notes. I will read her. I’m PRETTY sure I’ve read Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm but I had to have been around the age of 11 when that happened. Please don’t hate me and I’ll correct this!