Sunday, October 5, 2008

"Santa Letters," A Pleasant Surprise


At the request of a friend I agreed to review The Santa Letters, a story about a young widow struggling through her grief to find the joy of Christmas. Although the book is beautifully constructed, the cover blurb seemed to tell of a trite plot and I put off reading it. When I finally did, what a pleasant surprise! Stacy Gooch-Anderson reaches beyond the over-used real meaning of the season and gives illustrations of how we can celebrate this holiday with a depth seldom thought of or remembered.

Emma, a recent widow, is surprised by a letter on her front porch sealed with the initials "SC." The children are certain they are from Santa and thus begins a series of gifts that take them through the Christmas Season. With each letter comes a gift at first but as the story continues, the family begins to give far more than they receive. As the last box arrives, I find myself still touched by its sweet message and looking forward to making our Christmas a better celebration than ever this year.

There is a reason this book is getting so much buzz- it deserves it.

5 comments:

Jewel's Gems said...

Great review. I love this book!

Tristi Pinkston said...

Thanks for the review, Christine!

Laurie LC Lewis said...

Nicely done, Christine. It makes me want to buy a copy right away!

laurie

Stacy G. Anderson said...

Christine,
Thank you so much for taking the time to be a part of this tour and for sharing your thoughts on The Santa Letters.

I'm glad you enjoyed it and that it gave you a new "Christ"-mas "perspective".

All my best,
Stacy

Shirley Bahlmann said...

You write a nice, brief review that contains all the salient points. Well done!