What Christmas Did for Jerusha Grumble

An early work from a writer who would later become a Grand Master of the Mystery Writers of America, this charming one-act play was written when John D. MacDonald was just twenty-three years old. The story follows Jerusha Grumble, a sour old woman whom the neighborhood girls have written off as impossible, her past disappointments having calcified into perpetual disappointment of others. When one girl discovers an unexpected gentleness in Jerusha a small kindness offered without expectation a coalition forms to reach further. What follows is a gentle campaign of Christmas cheer that sees the girls helping Jerusha transform a humble broom into a makeshift Christmas tree, revealing the joy she believed forever lost to her. For readers who know MacDonald only through his Travis McGee novels and dark crime fiction, this provides a fascinating window into a softer, more optimistic young writer who had not yet found his harder edges. The play ran on community stages for decades, its simple message of redemption through kindness finding new audiences each holiday season.