I didn’t buy Caroline Kennedy’s A Family Christmas last year, when it was first published. It just didn’t come into my consciousness, wasn’t called to it in any way. This year, it felt like a good idea. And so it turned out to be.
A red cover with a green satin pagemarker, with over 300 pages of classic old and new Christmas stories, commentary, press releases, poems, carols and drawings. Not much overt sentimentality, some humor, covering many cultures and time zones. Caroline made a variety of excellent choices, including the drawing of an angel on the front by her mother, and the family picture on the back cover. I would have liked a longer introduction, more personal details, comments on the various choices.
I had never read – or heard of – Mark Twain’s Letter from Santa Claus. Delicious. The Hispanic carols, stories, and poems were a definite treat. And the green satin bookmark holds the place for A Christmas Sermon on Peace, by Martin Luther King, Jr. Which will be the first thing I re-read during Christmas 2009.
This is a good book, worth having.