Christmas, A Story

When the factory in Old Trail Town shuts its doors, the hard times settle in like a bitter winter. The merchants, terrified of being stuck with unpaid debts, hatch a scheme to get the whole town to agree to abandon Christmas that year. If no one celebrates, no one shops. If no one shops, no one owes anything. It seems, on paper, like a sensible cruelty. But Christmas, this gentle novella reminds us, is not a commercial obligation to be canceled by committee vote. It's something that lives in the human heart like a stubborn flame, and no amount of economic anxiety can smother it. Zona Gale, the first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, wrote this story in 1924, during her own difficult period, and she infuses every page with a quiet, defiant hope. The book endures because it understands something many of us forget: that choosing generosity in lean times is not naive, but acts as a small but real act of rebellion against despair. For readers who believe that stories can be Christmas gifts unto themselves.