A Simple Christmas on the Farm by Phyllis Alsdurf

I kept wanting to like this one soooo much! And actually, I did like it -- about half of it rather enormously. The problem: the whole premise of a 'simple Christmas' in many ways typifies much of how I actually grew up celebrating Christmas and quite a few things I incorporate now in our own home. So therein lies the problem, because the little protagonist in the book isn't sure she'll enjoy it all -- the "focusing less on getting and more on giving", the making of homemade gifts and the giving away of cookies -- (and then, of course, she comes to find out that she has a marvelous time and it's all wonderful ;)), but you can see the issues that might create for a child who hasn't ever experienced... I don't know... a "normal crazy Christmas" (I guess ;)). It's all about frame of reference. 

And note: personally, we're not against the purchasing of gifts and the layering on of festivities, because on the flip side we also don't want to create an impression of stinginess -- the whole point of Christmas is that Christ came in real flesh and blood; and God still loves His people with wildly overflowing, tangible blessings, and we want to imitate that.

Don't get me wrong, selfishness can always rear its ugly head and we definitely have to keep focusing on the giving to others, but that said (especially I think, too, since we do gifts on Easter, Ascension Day, and Pentecost as well -- thus spreading the gift giving out over the year + hopefully creating equal weight and anticipation in the character shaping process) "what I'm getting" actually hasn't been the first thing to pop up in discussions with the Small Person -- family Advent traditions, decorations, and experiences seem to crop up first (which makes Mama very happy *cue happy sniffles* ;)).

Randomly, it took me awhile to pinpoint it exactly, but it is true that everything in the story is very squeaky clean / Pottery Barn-esque (none of which are a bad thing!), but for an (apparently) working dairy farm, the family does seem to have a lot of free time to do all these hands on activities, go to town, and relax on the couch. xD I kinda wish the whole conflict had been tweaked ever so slightly to be more of a general "come and experience a sweet Christmas with us". As it stands, for the characters, the homemade 'simplicity' is all kind of voluntary (though, to be fair, it never really discusses the reasons the parents chose to do it). Either way, by inference it kind of makes it sound like A. if gifts are purchased v. hand made there's not as much behind them (whereas finding and selecting the perfect gift for someone can be an entirely meaningful and careful process ;D) and B. it also doesn't really take into account those who have a very simple Christmas for reasons they can't control (financial or otherwise).  

I debated keeping it for future use, but age-wise we're already kind of the target audience; and if we do ever want to experience it, I can find someone reading it aloud on YouTube + space is at a premium in our Christmas book box. In the end, I've decided it's not hitting our 3 Strikes list, because it is a sweet story (and others might find it perfect for them!), but it just doesn't work for us. :p Planning to give it away and maybe someone else will love being able to have it. <3