The Christmas Letters by Lee Smith

8 Days Until Christmas

 

By now you know of my fondness for epistolary novels and when it involves Christmas letters – well, all the more enticing.  I’ve read this book almost every year since I received it as a gift from my friend Jane.  Turns out my copy (left) is a first edition and the cover was changed with subsequent editions (right).

Lee Smith is a Southern writer, most famous for Fair and Tender Ladies (add that one to your list) who writes compelling family sagas without slobbering or being sticky sweet.

This novella tells the life stories of several generations of women through their family letters at Christmas.  The women write of their struggles to cope with the hardships each generation is given–a husband off in WWII, a damaged Viet Nam veteran, divorce, loss of a parent, a child leaving home and the fate of being handed a life you can’t fathom but try to accept.

Not your typical “feel good” Christmas story – this is real life, messy and unforgiving, but still filled with love and family ties.  And it includes recipes – each woman shares what she has tried cooking and writes out how she prepared the dish.  The dishes range in time period, a simple custard during WWII to the novelty of processed food in the sixties, and then a back-to-the-earth vegetarian recipe.   Nicely, the talk of food in the letters set the tone without overpowering the story — when the Southern grandmother takes her first bite of a bagel, she exclaims “Whoever thinks this is good has never had a biscuit!”.

The ending leaves a big question making me wonder if Ms. Lee had plans to continue the saga – but sadly there have been no sequels.

Excerpted  from the back cover:

Dear Friends,

Like me, you probably get Christmas letters every year. I read every word and save every letter. Because every Christmas letter is the story of a life, and what story can be more interesting than the story of our lives? Often, it is the story of an entire family. But you also have to read between the lines with Christmas letters. Sometimes, what is not said is even more important than what is on the page.

I wrote this little book for the same reason I write to my friends and relatives every holiday–Christmas letters give us a chance to remember and celebrate who we are.

With warmest greetings, Lee Smith

The book is a lovely quiet holiday read, and it holds its standing as one of my favorite Christmas books to re-read each season, to remind me of what I hold dear about the holidays, the embracing of loved ones, good cheer and charity.