My Favorite Christmas Book

Long, long ago, in a land not too far away, an author named Barbara Robinson wrote a book called, The Best Christmas Pageant Ever. A friend of hers, who is also a friend of mine, gave our firstborn a signed copy and once she was old enough to understand it, we read it to her and then to her sisters every Christmas for years. You can see it's a little worn from so much love.

In the story, the woman who usually coordinates the church Christmas pageant breaks her leg and dumps the whole  project on the mother of the child who tells the story. On the first day of rehearsal, five siblings, probably "the worst kids in the history of the world," show up because they heard there would be cookies. All the other children bow out because they've all been terrorized by them, leaving the mom with just them and her own two kids to work with.

She decides that not only will she make it work, but it will be the best Christmas pageant ever.

There's lots of humor and some poignant lessons about people. We all love it.

There's also a good tv version, featuring Loretta Swit (in a very different role from Hot Lips Houlihan in tv's M*A*S*H). It's not as good as the book--in my opinion, movies and tv shows are almost never as good as the books they're based on--but it's definitely worth watching.

At this point in the blog year, I usually share some of our more unusual Christmas decorations, but this year we're not unpacking them. My younger grandson is over-the-top curious and it would just be a headache for all of us. We will have a tree with the unbreakable ornaments I got when our older grandson was this age. But I had gotten this book out to share with the older one and thought I'd share it with you, since it doesn't seem to be that well known.

Family is coming early and staying late this year and they get all my attention,

so I'm wishing you and your loved ones

a Very Merry Christmas and a Wonderful New Year!

See you in January!