The Romance of the Christmas Card (Girlebooks Classics) [Kindle Edition]

My tastes in literature lean toward science fiction, adventure in Antarctica, Christmas stories and Cozies. (“Cozy” is a term recently served up by the Wall Street Journal to describe a mystery novel of the type written by Lillian Jackson Braun. It usually involves a mysterious murder, little violence, eccentric characters, a cat or two, very little sex, and useful suggestions about arts and crafts.) Readers describe a Cozy as a book a woman can feel secure in passing on to her 14-year-old daughter.

When I began to read The Romance of a Christmas Card by Kate Douglas Wiggin, I expected it to straddle the genres of Christmas story and Cozy, albeit without the murder. About half way through the story, I had to revise my expectations. Although, Kate Douglas Wiggin is famous for her novels Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm (1903) and Mother Carey’s Chickens (1911), she can deal with some remarkably dark subjects for an obvious optimist. This Christmas story deals with depression, death, abandonment, dysfunctional families and parental alienation. Ms. Wiggin is still able to write a light-hearted story of the joy that surrounds the Christmas season. The Romance of a Christmas Card is ultimately a story of strange coincidences that ultimately lead to redemption. Originally released in 1916, this book is one that feel secure in passing on to a 14-year-old daughter for a pleasant read by the fireplace on a rainy December afternoon.

Two households in a quaint New Hampshire village experience yuletide joy in the 1880′s when the handmade Christmas cards of the minister’s wife are published and circulated nationally. This simple tale of family loss will appeal less to gradeschool children, since the main characters are all adults.

This slender book spirits us gently back to a simpler time, as two village prodigals have been gone for three years, leaving gossip and grief behind–not to mention a minister sorrowing over his rogue son and a sister with orphan twins to raise. This is a quiet, short read for a snowy evening. Makes us wonder what it is about a Christmas card which we find attractive enough to buy and send it–the verse or the picture. Someone had to design it, thus sharing a little bit of their own heart.