Hopeful Homemaker

This gem of a story was another gift from a friend, and it makes me smile with joy each time I see it.  Patricia Polacco is a masterful storyteller, and her gift for weaving stories that mingle Jewish culture with Christian culture is marvelous.  I love everything about her work and this is no exception.

The Trees of the Dancing Goats is the story of a small farming community in Michigan, told from the perspective of Trisha, a jewish girl.  Her family is excitedly preparing for their Hanukkah festivities and she tells of the traditions her Grandma and Grandpa work hard to keep alive.


Her Grampa carved small wooden toys each year for the children and this year was no different.  When Trisha and her brother peeked at them, there were brightly colored dancing goats among the carvings.


Soon, however, disturbing news came which dampened the excitement for the upcoming holiday.   Most of the neighboring families contracted scarlet fever, and much of the community was bedridden.  Trisha’s friend Cherry and her family were among them, and Cherry cried with worry that Santa would forget them because they hadn’t got a Christmas tree.  Trisha’s family began their celebration and their Grampa handed them the first of their gifts with a troubled look on his face.  They began talking about their Christian neighbors and an idea came to them.


Excitedly they began their preparations, rushing out into the snow to cut small trees and decorate them with the wooden carvings.  They packed baskets of food and Trisha’s grandparents went out into the darkness to pay some Santa visits to their neighbors, sneaking into their homes to deliver trees and food.

I love the beauty of the story, and a surprise visit from Cherry and her family at the end of the book shows a lovely feeling of reciprocity and respect between friends of different faiths.   Patricia Polacco’s illustrations are vivid and full of character and this story she calls her “heart song” because it is written in memory of an incredible winter on her family’s farm outside of Union City, Michigan when she was a girl.  I love knowing the story is based in her own experience.

A great addition to your Christmas library !

Oh, this is a beautiful story, one that I especially love to read my children because it sends just the message I hope my children will learn about gifts and gift giving.

The Gift from Saint Nicholas by Dorothea Lachner and illustrated by Maja Dusikova is the story of a village with two little children living in it.  On this Saint Nicholas Eve the villagers are all in their own houses as a massive snowstorm continues to dump snow.  It’s too deep for the postman to deliver mail, or for anyone to make it to a ship.  The book says, “They just stayed in their houses and watched the snow pile higher and higher.”


The children are worried.  They’re tired of being indoors and so they decide to make a wish.  “If only Saint Nicholas would blow a path through the snow!”

The wish made it to Saint Nicholas, who went searching through his storeroom for the perfect thing.  Not anything would do on a year like this. It had to be something special.  He found it.  “It was an old thing, not much to look at.  But it was exactly right.”


Here is where I really fall in love with this book.  Look at that workroom!  Doesn’t it melt your heart?  I love the idea of Saint Nicholas hunting around for the perfect thing, and coming up with something that ISN’T brand new and sparkling and expensive.  I love that the perfect thing can be old and not much to look at.

And so Saint Nicholas gets on his skis and in the dark of night he leaves a large bag in the middle  of the village.  The villagers awake the next morning, see it, and begin digging walkways through the snowdrifts to get to it.


So Saint Nicholas didn’t blow a path through the snow.  What he did was give the villagers a reason to shovel their own paths.  They meet in the middle and begin what turns out to be a process of discovering what is in that brown bag.  It turns out to be something none of them wished for, but it’s just the thing they NEED.  It sparks their hearts and the villagers end up with a Christmas to remember.

I just love this book.  I love what it teaches.  Sometimes what we need and what we think we need (usually code for what we want ) are different things.  I love that the answer to their wish lay in their own effort.  I love the way the villagers accept this gift with happy hearts.  Most of all, I love the idea that bringing people together is the best gift of all.  I particularly delight in reading this book to my children and hope that as they hear it over the years it’s message becomes a part of them.  The Gift from Saint Nicholas was published in 1995 and is now out of print, but used copies are readily available.  Our copy is an ex-library copy that has held up well for years.  A special addition to any Christmas library.

Robert Barry’s Mr. Willowby’s Christmas Tree was originally published in 1963, then updated in 2000.

It is a delightful tale of Mr. Willowby’s fine tree, “Full and fresh and glistening green – The biggest tree he had ever seen.”

It’s delivered on a pink truck, but when it arrives in the house, the tree is too tall.  What follows is the tale of the top of a Christmas tree and how it gets snipped and moved from house to house, leaving joy in each place.


We love the rhyming text which is easy to read and even to memorize.  My children also love the idea of a tree that gets smaller with each cut, and yet is the perfect size for yet another creature every time.


And the final location of the tip of the tree?  Well, you’ll have to read the book to find out.

With happy colors, great illustrations and a fun vintage feel, this is one of our absolute favorites.  I’m usually asked to re-read it several times when we get it out.  This year we chose Mr. Willowby’s Christmas tree as our evening story on the day we put up our own Christmas tree.  This book was a special gift from a dear friend years ago and oh, how we’ve loved it over the years.  I highly recommend it!