The Romance of a Christmas Card

by Kate Douglas Wiggin, Alice Ercle Hunt (Illustrator)

This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery.

Genres: Christmas, Fiction, Classics, Romance, Holiday, Historical Fiction, Short Stories

60 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1916

About the author

Kate Douglas Smith Wiggin

Kate Douglas Wiggin, nee Smith (1856-1923) was an American children's author and educator. She was born in Philadelphia, and was of Welsh descent. She started the first free kindergarten in San Francisco in 1878 (the "Silver Street Free Kindergarten"). With her sister in the 1880s she also established a training school for kindergarten teachers. Her best known books are The Story of Pasty (1883), The Birds' Christmas Carol (1886), Polly Oliver's Problem (1893), A Cathedral Courtship (1893), The Village Watchtoer (1896), Marm Lisa (1897) and Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm (1903).

Reviews

[Tadiana ✩Night Owl☽ · Rating 4 out of 5]

I came across this 1916 Christmas-themed novella while on the search for online short stories about Christmas and the holidays, for the Retro Reads December group read.



Highly recommended if you like sentimental, nostalgic stories about bygone days, but it has a few fun sprinkles of spice along with its sweetness.

The Romance of a Christmas Card involves a spirited minister's wife with a penchant for writing poems and painting pictures, which she decides to turn into a little extra cash (her correspondence with the manufacturer of the greeting card company is hilarious!), a couple of wayward young men who left town three or four years ago and are estranged from their families, and a selfless sister who's taken care of her brother's motherless twins since the day they were born (he's one of the aforesaid young men). Top it off with a dollop of small town gossip, affection and occasional cattiness.

The ending was a bit too abrupt - I really needed a couple more scenes for closure, even though it's perfectly clear what's going to happen - and I wanted to slap some sense into the martyr sister and her irresponsible brother. But overall I really enjoyed it, in a nostalgic turn of the century kind of way.

Free online here at AmericanLiterature.com (it' s also on Project Gutenberg, where you can download it). There are some sweet, old-fashioned illustrations for the story on both sites.

And yes, I'm going to recommend it to the Retro Reads group. :)

[Elizabeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 stars! My only real complaint is that I wish it were five times the length. This was so charming! Engaging characters and writing, a simple but wholesome and sweet plot, lovely Christmas/winter feel. The Project Gutenberg version has the original illustrations and they’re lovely!

[QNPoohBear · Rating 3 out of 5]

In Beulah, New Hampshire, one Christmas Eve, Reba Larabee, the minister's wife, is struck with inspiration seeing her friend Letty sitting by an open window keeping watch over her twin nephews. Reba intends to draw a picture of Letty's quaint sitting room and sell it to a greeting card company. Letty has been burdened with the care of one family member after another for most of her life. For the last three years she has had the care of her wayward brother David's twin babies. Unwanted and unloved by their father, Letty does her best but she wishes David would show some interest in his own sons. As the months change and Christmas rolls around again, surprises are in store for the good folks of Beulah.

This is a sweet Christmas tale very similar in vein to Lucy Maud Montgomery and Louisa May Alcott's children's stories. This one is an adult story, told from the perspective of adults, but with all the wholesomeness of the children's stories. It's a little less preachy than children's stories but still tells the tale of the prodigal son. The plot is predictable except the story ended sooner than I wanted it to.

I really liked Reba. She seems to have shaken up the town a bit with her energy and liveliness. She and her husband have such a sweet, loving relationship. I felt bad for Letty. She never has an opportunity to be selfish or do anything for herself. The townspeople are amusing for all their narrow-mindedness. They're very much flatter versions of Lucy Maud Montgomery's staunch Presbyterian Prince Edward Islanders.

The illustrations are beautiful. This edition has a couple of lovely color plates in addition to black and white drawings. The cover image is important to the story.

If you like Victorian moral tales, you will probably enjoy this one too.

[Rebekah Morris · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was such a sweet and delightful story! I loved the small town feel, the nosy, gossipy neighbors who think everything that happens is there business, the pastor's wife, and Letty. And Dick and David, though I had to think to remember which was the pastor's son, and which was not, pulled at my heart and begged for my sympathy.
And the ending–yep, the ending was perfect.

All together this was a lovely Christmas story that I plan to read again.

[Amber · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a great story about a minister's wife who made two Christmas cards that brought her son and her friend's brother home for Christmas in this great tale of forgiveness.

[Gina House · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.75🌟 A new vintage Christmas favorite! I'm becoming more and more fond of Kate Douglas Wiggin's books. The story was very sweet and satisfying, with lovely characters. I can see myself reading this every year a few days before Christmas!

Although there's always a moral message in her novels (at least the ones I've read so far), the spirit of the message is usually still relatable in the present day. I don't find her books very preachy, but they do make me think (in a good way). This book is especially lovely because it's short and to the point—filled with warmth, tenderness and Christmas spirit.

In some ways, I liked that it was a quick read, but I also wished the story went on longer and the reader was able to celebrate with all of the characters on Christmas Day. I didn't want this story to end.

I also recommend my all-time favorite Kate Douglas Wiggin book, 'The Birds' Christmas Carol' (soo touching!). I enjoyed 'The Old Peabody Pew' as well, especially since my edition has a lovely Christmas border on every page. Definitely worth reading.

The Romance of the Christmas Card is a must-have for vintage Christmas book collectors/readers. Loved it!

[Mela · Rating 2 out of 5]

I did get to the end, and I liked the sweet idea for this story, but it was too short, and the conclusion too abrupt to truly enjoy it.

[Carolien · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lovely, sweet Christmas tale to end the year. Reba, the local minister's wife, is a talented artist and has started to create illustrated Christmas cards which are sold by publishers across the country. Her cards are seen and touch the lives of various persons to bring about a hopeful ending.

[Miriam Simut · Rating 4 out of 5]

So heart-warming! ❤️

[Sterlingcindysu · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 rounded down. A very short novella that is currently free for Kindle readers on Amazon. Written in 1916 and by the author of Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, this is a sweet (but not too sweet) story of two women who do what needs to be done. The minister's wife has skills beyond picking the hymns and editing the weekly sermon. Not real sure if the moral is to be, or not be, a "prop" to help out the men.

Surprised that the "good" card cost .15. That seems like a lot, but google says .15 then is equal to $3.75 now. A stamp then was .02, equal to .50 now.

I can remember my grandparents receiving hundreds of cards in the 1960s, and my parents receiving dozens in the '70s. Another tradition that is slowly fading.

What did Christmas look like in 1916? Well, unfortunately--

[Abigail · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reba Larrabee, the wife of the Rev. Larrabee, minister of the Conregational church in Beulah, New Hampshire, effects a heartwarming reconciliation between the generations in this charming Christmas tale, bringing two prodigal sons home to the village through her Christmas cards. The Rev. Larrabee's own son, Dick (Reba's step-son) had long since left the village, tired of his highspirited antics beings judged so harshly, simply because he was the minister's son. David Gilman had also left, after a disastrous and shortlived marriage, abandoning his twin children with his half sister, Letty (Letitia) Boynton. Reba's painting of Letty's cottage, used in two very different Christmas cards, brings both young men home, to the satisfaction of all...

I enjoyed The Romance of a Christmas Card, finding it, much like Kate Douglas Wiggin's The Old Peabody Pew: A Christmas Romance of a Country Church , an entertaining and heartwarming seasonal read. As a minister's child myself, someone who is well aware that such children are often scrutinized and judged to an excessive degree, I found the story-line involving Dick Larrabee quite interesting. I don't know that the book as a whole really moved me that deeply - somehow, I could never really become that deeply involved in the characters' struggles, emotionally speaking - but it was pleasant and sweet, with a satisfactory ending entirely in keeping with the Christmas spirit. Recommended to anyone looking for heartwarming, old-fashioned Christmas stories with a New England flavor.

['Nathan Burgoine · Rating 3 out of 5]

Despite the seriously Christian overtness and "family is everything!" of this one, I ended up quite liking it. It's a classic Christmas Story I hadn't bumped into before, I like the little mechanic of magic Christmas Cards finding the two wayward sons so perfectly, and while its ending is relentlessly heteronormative in it's "happy-ever-after means man+wife+children" (see above, re: seriously Christian overtness), there's much to enjoy here besides, and the back-and-forth with the publisher scene had me laughing out loud. I listened to this one performed as an audio, and part of the reason I picked it was it's time for me to turn my head toward my annual queer holiday story retellings, and this one? Oh, this one fits the bill for getting queered up.

[Elisabeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

This Christmas story is the very definition of 'heartwarming' and 'touching.' If you're easily affected by the books you read, you'll certainly get a lump in your throat reading this one. Lonely Letty Boynton, who has sacrificed her own happiness and a chance at love in order to care for her wayward brother's motherless children, unwittingly provides warm-hearted minister's wife Reba Larrabee with inspiration for a Christmas-card illustration she is working on. The minister has his own troubles—a son who quarreled with him and left home several years before. But Reba's Christmas cards eventually fall into just the right hands to bring unexpected happiness back to both families. Like the best of Wiggin's work, The Romance of a Christmas Card brims with honest sentiment and feeling, with a sparkle of cheerful humor to lighten it at the right moments. A real short gem of a Christmas tale!

(Although The Romance of a Christmas Card takes place in a village named Beulah, as in Wiggin's Mother Carey's Chickens, and some of the supporting characters from that book (notable the Pophams) appear, in this story the village is in New Hampshire, not Maine, and there is no other real connection between the stories.)

[Danette · Rating 4 out of 5]

A sweet story of forgiveness at Christmas which all started with a Christmas card.
I enjoyed seeing some of the characters from the movie, "Summer Magic."

2018 A book of my choice

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a sweet, nostalgic story, but some scriptures were misapplied so that took away from my enjoyment. Anyway, I loved the many characters.

[Dominique Wagemaker · Rating 2 out of 5]

A little too religious for my taste, but a sweet small town short story none the less

[Colleen Turner · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Romance of a Christmas Card is a quick, sweet holiday read that makes it hard for the reader not to feel festive and appreciative for all the gifts in their life. Taking the reader to a tiny village in New Hampshire sometime in the early 1900s, this story is one of forgiveness, redemption and a powerful kind of love that makes anything, including a popular Christmas card, seem magical.

Reba, the minister's wife in Beulah, New Hampshire, was a model of cheerfulness. After seeing a beautific view of her friend sitting before her front window, candle burning and door open, seeming to wait for someone one lonely Christmas Eve, she decides to make a Christmas card using the image and send it off for publication. After another Christmas card - this one of the front of the same house and poetically talking about the folks back at home - is published they both serve to bring two wayward son's of the village home, both seeking redemption for the wrongs they have done and both finding forgiveness and love waiting for them where they left it.

This short story is very endearing but, for me, the true measure of a great short story is when I leave it wanting more. More from the characters or setting or something. After reading this story I feel it ended well and I don't necessarily feel like I need any more. The characters aren't ones I will miss now that I finished reading about them, although I have to say that it was enjoyable reading this short snippet into a small, religious village blanketed in wintery wonder. The beautiful illustrations definitely added to the whimsical, old time feel, something you don't often find in books nowadays. It thoroughly put me in the giving, festive mood of the holidays, which is always a good thing.

[Tracey · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 stars rounded up.
A delightful old fashioned story of the Providence of God and love, from the author of Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm. A great story for Christmas time.

My door is on the latch tonight
The hearth fire is aglow
I seem to hear swift passing feet
The Christ child in the snow.

My heart is open wide tonight
For stranger, kith or kin
I would not bar a single door
Where Love might enter in!

[Literary Chanteuse · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very unique christmas story based around a small town and it's array of towns people. A christmas card painted of a scene from this town manages to bring it's former residents back and rekindle the love between them and their families. Heart warming and perfect for christmas! 3.5 stars

[Katja Labonté · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars & 4/10 hearts. This story is already pretty nostalgic to me, for I’ve read it a couple of times and usually around Christmas, I guess! It’s quaint and very beautiful and humorous in parts, though I do not agree with everything. :)

A Favourite Quote: “‘There is always so little spare money in the village that we get less and less accustomed to sharing what we have with others. I want to remind the people that there are different ways of giving, and that the bestowing of one's self in service and good deeds can be the best of all gifts.’”
A Favourite Beautiful Quote: “Winter had melted into spring, burst into summer, faded into autumn, lapsed into winter again,—the same old, ever-recurring pageant in the world of Nature, and the same procession of incidents in the neighborhood life. The harvest moon and the hunter's moon had come and gone; the first frost, the family dinners and reunions at Thanksgiving, the first snowfall; and now, as Christmas approached, the same holiday spirit was abroad in the air[.]”
A Favourite Humorous Quote: “‘Ossian said to Luther the other day: “Maria ain't hardly to blame, parson. She come from a gloomy stock. The Ladds was all gloomy, root and branch. They say that the Ladd babies was always discouraged two days after they was born.”’”

[Jenn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sweet story that has a classic feel to it. I reaally wanted more to the ending though instead of just eluding to what happened. But otherwise a quick endearing Christmas read.

[Tim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Charming 1916 novella. Heavy on traditional gender roles for the time but the relationships mostly reflected a mutual respect. The reverend and his wife were on obvious equal footing. Interesting to find a minor character with postpartum depression. The doctor was matter-of-fact about it as a not uncommon condition though of course there was no such label. Downloaded from Gutenberg.org with my project of reading Christmas themed books throughout history.

[Anne (In Search of Wonder) · Rating 4 out of 5]

So the idea of a Christmas romance is not a new one. This short story was published over a hundred years ago, and has similar sentimentality and feel to a modern Christmas romance.

In this story, we have two prodigal sons who are drawn home at Christmas time by means of a Christmas card that depicts a home much loved by both of them, albeit for different reasons. The New England setting, the lovely illustrations, the small town Christmas celebrations all evoke a lovely Christmasy feeling. The cast of characters is beautifully written, and with the short length, you are left wanting more of them.

[Samantha Pinazza · Rating 5 out of 5]

Un meraviglioso racconto di Natale.
Letty è una donna generosa, che ha sacrificato la propria vita per crescere i nipoti mentre il fratello è lontano. Conduce una vita triste, mesta, fino a che la cartolina dipinta dalla sua cara amica Reba non compie un piccolo miracolo.
Il racconto è breve ma delizioso, con personaggi perfettamente tratteggiati e un'atmosfera magica che mi ha subito trascinata nel cuore della vicenda. Ho apprezzato l'ottima traduzione e la cura dell'edizione, arricchita da splendide illustrazioni.
Sicuramente il miglior modo di aspettare il Natale.

[Sylvester (Taking a break in 2023) · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wanted to read something Christmasy and this definitely filled the bill. It wasn't terrible, but it was too sweet for my taste. I'll take a little grit and gore, or even swash and buckle with my syrup, please!

[Pam · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the picture on my copy of this novella which was originally published in 1916 and this picture shows what it is about perfectly. My copy was part of the Family Christmas Library. 9x6 paper copy, 58pages, with a few illustrations.
The author I discovered is the author of "Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm" which probably only women in my age bracket ever heard of but many of us who are readers probably read way back in the day-just an interesting little fact.
I'm sending this to someone who would appreciate it as their Christmas Card but I had to read it first. Quiet story, religious overtones and fairly simple; the ending was a little too short, even though the outcome was obvious it would have been nice if the author had filled in a little more detail.

[Chrisanne · Rating 3 out of 5]

KDW is always hit or miss with me. This one was a hit until it ended prematurely. Now I'm bitter and want to retract my stolen time. Even with several wise observations, the touching reunion, and the picturesque descriptions I still wanted just a bit more(2 sentences at the least) of a resolution.

[Rachel {bibliopals} · Rating 5 out of 5]

So wonderful🥰

[Tiffany · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fiction, Christian fiction

This is a sweet little Christmas story, old-fashioned and absolutely adorable. I'm thankful my friend introduced it to me!

I will probably read again next Christmas!

[cloudyskye · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lovely little Christmas story.