Recently released in July, A Simple Christmas on the Farm is a new addition to the world of Christmas picture books. It adorns simplicity, a heart of giving, connection to the natural world, generosity, and open-heartedness (a definition of family that extends beyond one’s immediate family).
Jeff took me to a new (to us) book shop a few weeks ago where I found this book. (As an aside—if any of my readers live in the Hanover, PA area, check out Reader’s Café—a super cute, small book shop in a remodeled old church building with wood beamed- cathedral ceilings and huge, store front windows that let in lots of lovely light. The owners are extremely warm and friendly, and will offer you a homemade salad or sandwich or an excellent cup of coffee. The shelves feature local authors, new releases, and an upstairs balcony section filled with used books!)
This year, a mom and dad tell their daughter, we’re going to do Christmas differently. Presents will be homemade, the celebration will take place in the barn, everyone is welcome.
This year, a mom and dad tell their daughter, we’re going to do Christmas differently. Presents will be homemade, the celebration will take place in the barn, everyone is welcome. Preparation is simple and unhurried, triggered by the change in seasons, rather than a change in commercial marketing or supermarkets touting Christmas decorations and announcing sales. The daughter works on making Christmas gifts with her grandma (who lives next door) and her mom, using found and reclaimed objects to create small, thoughtful gifts. The family continues some of their traditions, such as visiting the local nursing home (something they do every month), this time bringing homemade cookies, and attending their Christmas Eve service. Come Christmas morning, the family exchange homemade gifts before gathering in the barn with friends, neighbors, and farm workers for a potluck-style lunch and an afternoon of board games, lake-skating, parent v. kids snowman-building contest, and more. The final pages of the book feature instructions for readers to make their own homemade Christmas gifts: ornaments, painted rocks, and coasters.
Content: 4.5/5
There are so many things I love about the messages in this book:
- I love how the change of seasons—rather than commercial changes in sales and decorations—are what trigger the family to start thinking about and preparing for Christmas. I love that the preparation/decoration process is unhurried: “I want to buy a tree and start decorating right away,” the girl says, “But mama laughs and says to slow down.”
- I love the treasuring of the simple and imperfect over the lavish and pristine: when the daughter selects a large Christmas tree from the farm, the mom instead suggests a “small, scraggly one”.
- I appreciate how the emphasis is on giving instead of receiving: mom tells daughter that most of the cookies they bake will be for giving away.
- I appreciate the simplicity of the gifts the family creates and gives, gifts that find their value less in a dollar amount and more in imagination, creativity, and time spent. The family finds ways to re-use and re-purpose the materials and objects they already have or can find in nature: Mom and daughter make coasters out of old Christmas cards and paint rocks; grandfather builds a tool bench for the girl; mom and dad give a box of used tools and wood scraps of all sizes (what a brilliant idea!) to their daughter in order that she can create. These gifts—though all are “used” or “homemade” are just as precious, if not more so, since they come at the cost of the giver’s time, thought, and care (as indeed is the case for the best gifts of all kinds, whether purchased or made, new or used).
- I also appreciate the precedent set for year-round serving: the Christmas nursing-home visit that mom, dad, and daughter make to hand out cookies and sing carols is a monthly habit, not something that only occurs at Christmas.
- I appreciate how the author/illustrator portray racial, age, and family diversity, similar to what we find in our own corners of the world: the girl’s parents are a biracial couple, baby Jesus is dark-skinned (as he would have been as an Israelite), and the families who come to share Christmas in the barn all look a little different.
- In this vein, I love the generous spirit displayed by the family; the girl and her dad set up a large table in the red barn, “with room for everyone who wants to come for Christmas on the farm.”
Isn’t this the Spirit of Jesus? Welcoming each and every person, regardless of their background or current life situation, as long as they will come?
Isn’t this the Spirit of Jesus? Welcoming each and every person, regardless of their background or current life situation, as long as they will come? Finding more joy in giving than in hoarding or consuming?
While the text is not centered on Christ or the Christmas story, threads of both stitch it together. One could argue that these elements underlie each choice the family makes in their Christmas celebration.
While the text is not centered on Christ or the Christmas story, threads of both stitch it together. One could argue that these elements underlie each choice the family makes in their Christmas celebration. At their Christmas eve service, the minister talks about “Jesus, born in a manger, surrounded by farm animals,” and suddenly, everything makes sense—the barn, the simplicity, the open-arms approach to all sorts of folks.
While Christmas may (and does) look different from family to family and from year to year, whether gifts are bought or homemade, plenteous or few, I appreciate this story’s emphasis on the joy of giving, on caring for and welcoming in like family others in the community. However these principles fit into each of our Christmas traditions, maybe this book will stir our hearts to consider and prioritize the most important parts of Christmas—the parts that mirror the heart of the One we celebrate.
Style: 2.5/5
Like the emphasis of the book, the text is simple and unremarkable. I found myself slightly annoyed/tired of the repetition of the line, “Christmas on the farm,” wondering what significance this line held for the ultimate story line (can’t a simple Christmas happen—if in a different way or on a different scale—whether one lives on a farm or not?)
Design: 3/5
The illustrations are colorful and engaging, but not particularly remarkable. What caught my eye, most, were the individual people: the reader is introduced to the nursing home assistant and the vet and her children and later sees each walking to the barn for the celebration on Christmas day, a potluck dish in hand.
Overall: 10/15
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