David's life is disrupted when his parents leave the country for reasons related to WW1. David goes to stay with former servants and Christmas of any description is in serious doubt. But David discovers "the way to Christmas" even in his isolated new home.

Some magic (or imagination) is involved but the book is primarily a collection of Chistmas legends from various places around the world. (Note the book does use some now dated language / terminology that I edited on the fly as I read aloud. Be aware of that if you're handing this one to an independent reader.)

My 13 year old daughter was enchanted and we're both glad this one jumped into my cart at a thrift store this year, because I had never heard of it and wouldn't have looked for it otherwise except it had "the look."

Sweet story of how a lonely boy learns the true meaning of Christmas.

Warning: This book was written long before political correctness and has retained some words that might be offensive. Taken in the context of the time it was written, it was accurate.

This is one of those books that has been sitting on my shelf for quite some time, bought because I love the author and it had a pretty cover. After seeing Melody's review on livejournal, I finally decided that maybe I should read it. It's a charming little book, and I loved the incorporation of several culture's holiday stories. A few little things made me twitch (portrayal of African Americans--and some of the words used to describe them), but a beautiful book.