A lonely old woman, forgotten by the people of the nearby village and all by herself in the world, longs to celebrate Christmas in the festive way, with a tree, presents, candles, music and a feast. Up in the sky, Star Mother's Youngest Child also longs for a Christmas celebration, hoping to witness and experience such a joyous occasion before settling down to his role in the heavens. Dispatched by her mother to earth, in the shape of a homely little boy, the Youngest Child comes upon the old woman's cottage, where at his insistence, the two experience a Christmas with all the trimmings...

Originally published in 1975, and then reprinted in this 30th Anniversary Edition, this "Classic Christmas Story" (as it is styled), offers a celebration of the idea that it is the people around us who truly make a holiday. Through the old woman's interaction with the star child, the reader learns that by providing for others, as the old woman is prompted to do by her celestial visitor, we often are also providing for ourselves. The artwork by Trina Schart Hyman, one of my favorite fairy-tales illustrators, captures the almost folkloric feel of Moeri's story, and the emotional range of her two main characters. Recommended to anyone looking for Christmas stories that are a little bit different, as well as to any Trina Schart Hyman fans. ( )

This is a wonderful book for reading aloud at Christmastime. Both my daughter and I have used it for family church services on Christmas Eve, yet it would also be acceptable to non-Christians who celebrate a secular Christmas but would like some meaning with it. ( )

12 Books of Christmas

#1 Enough!

Christmas has become a children's holiday; so one's Christmas reading should begin with a children's book. Star Mother's Youngest Child (Houghton Mifflin, 1975) is our family favorite. Louise Moeri's story is very simple, as a good Christmas story should be, and absolutely unforgettable. Trina Schart Hyman's illustrations bring the Old Woman and the Ugly Child to life and show the reader what they're doing in and around her rough hut "on the edge of the forest."

"Ugly brat!" the Old Woman called him. "Well, you're not all that pretty either," he replied. His wrinkled nose looked like a potato -- or maybe a rock. Come to think of it, the Old Woman's nose looked sorta like a potato too -- or maybe an old rock.

That's the way their relationship began. The child kept telling her what they needed. A tree. A feast. Presents. And, exasperated and grumbling, the Old Woman somehow complied. The tree looked pretty good, not bad at all. The feast - well, actually it turned out something like a real feast. And, after all, they did find little presents to wrap for each other: the Old Woman and the Ugly Child.

The night before both had made their wishes: the Old Woman to her old dog, Uproar. "Just once," she had said, "I'd like to have a real Christmas."

Meantime, up in the sky, Star Mother was having trouble with her obstreperous Youngest Child. "Just once," he had wailed, "I want to celebrate Christmas the way they do down there!"

But you have to read the story aloud to experience it, you have to read it to a room full of children and to their parents and grandparents. My wife and I have used it as reader's theater for children and our church. We reversed rolls. I pulled on an old ragged quilt and a dark woolen head scarf, and read the part of the craggy, grumpy Old Woman in her hut. My wife wore the end of a mop on her head and became Star Mother's Youngest, with his "spiky, yellow hair that stood up like dry grass all over his head."

The story ends too soon. The readers and the children and their parents and grandparents want it to go on and on. But it doesn't. I won't reveal any of the few details about what happened. But I have to quote you the very last words: " 'it was . . . enough,' he said."

Read the story to find out what he meant, and why it was enough. I think you'll understand why those words have become our most glowing response . . . to the yuletide nseason, to a year, to our long life together. "It was . . . enough!" ( )

This is probably my very favorite story for my very favorite holiday. It is not a Christian telling of the Christmas Story, but a wonderful journey of understanding and peace, friendship and hardship, love and redemption, and is both heart warming and funny. We read this every Christmas time, as a family. ( )

Great imagination and heart. ( )