The Bird's Christmas Carol by Kate Douglas Wiggin

By Al R. Young

The Birds' Christmas Carol by Kate Douglas Wiggin is a tender, sentimental Christmas story about the Bird family. They are a wealthy, but caring family, who would seem to have all that could be wished. Their daughter, Carol, however, is an invalid. The family secures for her all the best care and they lavish upon her truly thoughtful attentions, but she is dying. The story recounts her final Christmas wish to give a poor family, in the neighborhood, a sense of Christmas magic.

This is a prettily wrought story, and much less gloomy than the plot might suggest. There is humor and magic typical of Wiggin's writing, and an awareness early on that Carol will not recover, which renders the inevitable less painful. It is a sweet, rather than jolly, addition to the Christmas library, and can help imbue the season with more of its true spirit.