Having a Simple Christmas

I am a huge Laura Ingalls Wilder fan, have been since I was a little girl when my Ma gave me my first set of Laura's books. I could never get enough of the adventures of Laura, Mary, Pa, Ma, baby Carrie and Grace. Since I have a little boy, I thought that I would never be able to share my love of the Ingalls family with him, but I was wrong. I have already read him Little House In The Big Woods, which he loved by the way. I think it was the stories about the forest, bears, and hunting that intrigued him.



I was so happy when I was thrifting to come across My First Little House Books, which have been adapted from the original Little House Books. We have quite a few of the books in our home library which are frequently in the rotation to read. It took me a while, but this summer I finally found Christmas In The Big Woods. I put it in with our Christmas books, but when I have tried to read it to my son he has refused, until bedtime last night.

This book is an adaptation of the Christmas story from the original Little House In the Big Woods book. As I read the story to my son, the thought occurred to me that our lives are way too complicated. Here is a family who lived a hard life, but took pleasures in simple things. Children who had way more responsibilities in their their lives, than the teens of today. Yet, they delighted in homemade gifts, a piece of candy, making pictures in snow, maple candy, and pancake men.

Even though this story is fiction, there probably is a lot of truth to it, in the sense that this is the way things were on the frontier. Maybe people took pleasure in the simple things. Home, hearth, working with their hands, cooking, growing their own food, and time with their families. Then again, maybe I am wrong. I do know one thing, there will be pancake men and the making of maple candy in our very near future. I am going to cherish every simple moment this holiday season.