Review: A thoughtful look back at Christmases past
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 12 23, 2011
Author Joseph Bottum gives a nostalgic and memorable account of his childhood Christmases on the prairie in South Dakata.  Living in Pierre, a small town, he remembers back to the days when Christmas was a family time, and the distress of walking home on a Christmas Eve with nothing for his mother because the store closed early. A kind man solved the problem for him, and his mother got a gift.What I liked best is that he says the facts don't flee our memories, but the feelings do.  He remembers the type tree that they had in different years, gifts that he and his sisters received, but not the emotions that went with them.  He also remembers the cold of the winters and lying on the floor next to the radiator propped up on cushions to read, his body too hot, but the draft from the radiator pipe gap causing his hands to be cold. I also loved it when he said that he decided that what his sister needed was a bank to keep her money in.  Although things didn't work out quite right on that one, it was the thought that counted while in the junk store.There is a lot of humor in this Kindle Single as Bottum tells about the food served the minute you walked in someone's home, and the gifts bought for family. I love the passage, "It was all too much.  By the time Christmas itself arrived, the season had taken us by the throats and shaken us into jelly. Who could stand against it?  For that matter, who could stand it?" (Loc.138)  It's a funny, serious and heartwarming look back at a time that we think was simpler, but I'm not sure the people who lived it thought so.The writing is wonderful and the story is true and honest.  I enjoyed this look back with the author, even though I've never been to South Dakota. That isn't necessary to enjoy this "Dakota Christmas."