Few festivals have been as meaningfully captured in literature as Christmas, as you will find in this eclectic selection
Army shoes for Marmee
One of the most memorable opening scenes in Christmas literature is the one in Louisa
M Alcott’s classic 1868 novel, Little Women:
“Christmas won’t be Christmas without any presents,” grumbled Jo, lying on the rug.
“It’s so dreadful to be poor!” sighed Meg, looking down at her old dress.
“I don’t think it’s fair for some girls to have plenty of pretty things, and other girls nothing at all,” added little Amy, with an injured sniff.
“We’ve got Father and Mother, and each other,” said Beth contentedly from her corner.
In a few brisk lines, Alcott not only apprises us of the March sisters’ less-than-affluent circumstances but opens little windows into their personalities: Joe’s a good-natured grumbler, Meg seems acutely conscious of being poor, Amy is jealous, and Beth virtuous. Beth’s quiet admonishment—a nice spot of greed shaming—hushes the grumbling. The sisters are immediately reminded that Father is away fighting in the American Civil War, and Mother, whom they call Marmee, is out working hard to keep the family fed. As the girls warm her worn slippers before the fire, they decide to pool their meagre Christmas money to buy gifts for Marmee instead of indulging themselves. And so Meg buys her gloves, and Joe a pair of army shoes. Beth’s contribution is “handkerchiefs all hemmed”, and as for Amy—she initially buys a small bottle of cologne after secretly keeping back some money to buy herself coloured pencils, but feels so guilty about it on Christmas morning that she exchanges the tawdry bottle for a “handsome flask” of cologne. Amy’s tussle is a nice touch—she’s a little girl after all. Even big-hearted Joe feels a pang when she wakes up to see no stockings hung at the fireplace. But it’s a fleeting pang and Marmee’s joy makes their sacrifice worth it. Alcott’s exquisitely restrained description of Marmee’s reaction —she “smiled with her eyes full”—demonstrates what a fine novelist she is. The addition of one more word, the obvious ‘tears’, would have ruined that brimful line. Instead, its shimmering absence throws the Christmas tableau of the March family into bittersweet relief.
Surprise! Oh, No!
Red and Blue with Cold
A Raj Celebration
(This story appears in the Nov-Dec 2014 issue of ForbesLife India. To visit our Archives, click here.)