The Romance of a Christmas Card

By Kate Douglas Wiggin

Book Overview

"My door is on the latch tonight, The hearth fire is aglow. I seem to hear swift passing feet -- The Christ Child in the snow."

Reba, the minister's new wife, was spirited, vigorous, courageous, and clever. She was also invincibly, incurably happy -- so that the minister seemed to grow younger every year.

Reba doubled his joys and halved his burdens, tossing them from one of her fine shoulders to the other like feathers. She swept into the quiet village life of Beulah like a salt sea breeze.

Now she has a plan -- one involving a few small verses she has penned. For there are rebellious youths and some contention in the church that threatens to split it . . .

The Romance of a Christmas Card is a quick, sweet holiday read that makes it hard for the reader not to feel festive and appreciative for all the gifts in their life. Taking the reader to a tiny village in New Hampshire sometime in the early 1900s, this story is one of forgiveness, redemption and a powerful kind of love that makes anything, including a popular Christmas card, seem magical.

Kate Douglas Wiggin (1856 - 1923) was an American educator and author of children's stories, most notably the classic children's novel Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm.

She started the first free kindergarten in San Francisco in 1878 (the Silver Street Free Kindergarten). With her sister during the 1880s, she also established a training school for kindergarten teachers.

Kate Wiggin devoted her adult life to the welfare of children in an era when children were commonly thought of as cheap labor.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1835523374
• ISBN13: 9781835523377
• Release Date: April 2024
• Publisher: Atlas Vista Publisher
• Length: 48 Pages
• Weight: 0.30 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.1" x 8.5" x 11.0"
• Age Range: 4 to 12 years
• Grade Range: Preschool to Grade 7

Customer Reviews

A pleasant read by the fireplace on a rainy December afternoon

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.