The New York herald., 1922-12-03
What Are the Great Christmas Stories and Why


OF this little tree with big ambitions
dreaming on it's native hillside of growing
straight and tall and some day becoming a
mast on some stout vessel, and proudly
visiting the furthest countries In the
world, Is subtle allegory of life, the
deeper meaning of which most children
will miss. Real life, the little tree learns
is very different from dreams and ambi-
tions; for it is cut down early, has its
brief hour of glory one Christmas Eve in
blaze of color and tinsel and lighted
candles. and then it is cast out to the OBJ
security of a barn loft and ends pitifully
upon wood pile-but up to the last it
guards upon its topmost branch the tails
man of golden star But whether a child
quite grasps or not the symbolism of that
Guiding Star of Faith held fast through
adversity and defeat what he will get
from this story is that rare gift, which
only the best of fabulists possess, of
whimsically anthropomorphising birds
and beasts and plants just far enough to
gain picturesque and often droll effect
from their very physical differences. Only
a writer with a perfect understanding of
child psychology would have had the
happy flash of inspiration to say of the
little Fir Tree that "he thought until he
had bark-ache with longing-and bark
aches with trees are as bad as headaches
with u.s."
story which just misses real bigness.
and which has more than a touch of the
above named qualities. is Jimmy Scare
y hxy
Freeman. 1t is fantastic tale of an un-
happy wooden scarecrow spending his
first winter in the midst of desolate corn
stubble, and of how little Betsy in spite
of her happiness over her Christmas
presents feels so sorry for Jimmy that
she secretly steals out, wraps him up
snugly in one of Aunt Hannah's crazy
quilts and slips her new baby doll into
the ragged pocket of Jimmys coat When
Santa Claus happens along a little later.
the whole proceeding tickles the old fell
lows fancy so nightly that he then and
there decides that Jimmy is the very
scarecrow he has been looking for to take
back home with him and scare off ex-
plorers from discovering the North Pole
which, as any one will agree, is a much
more dignified life job than soaring crows.
incidentally, he takes the baby doll and
the crazy quilt along with Jimmy, admit
ting that the quilt is probably quite
harmless even if it is crazy" But a year
later when he brings them both back
Aunt Hannah's quilt is no longer crazy.
for all the squares have been carefully
matched; and Betsy's baby doll is a year
older and can say Mamma" and Papa"
Ill
Probably few admirers of William Dean
Howells are aware that he once wrote a
whimsical story entitled, Christmas Ev-
cry Day." 1t tells of little girl who was
so greedy for presents and holidays that
she wrote letter to the fairies begging to
have Christmas every day in the year.
At first it was delightful to wake up every
morning to find her stocking "all lumpy
with packages of candy and oranges and
grapes and pocketbooks and rubber balls"
and to have the doorbell ringing all day
long, with messengers leaving heaps upon
heaps of presents. But by the end of the
first week all the family were sick from
eating too many sweets and so MANY peo-
pie had lost their tempers that you could
pick up lost tempers anywhere" So il
went on and on, and it was Christmas on
St Valentines and Washington's Birth
day. and it didn't even stop the First of
April, though everything was counterfeit
that day. and that was some little relief.
With Christmas turkey every day, real