Book Club - Holiday Read Along

 

A Christmas Dream, and How It Came to Be True

By Louisa May Alcott

A young rich girl is bored with Christmas and her mother refers to her as a Scrooge.  Now interested in the story, she reads A Christmas Carol and then dreams about spirits and poor children, like Tiny Tim.

The next day she wants to be like the spirits, bringing Christmas joy to those in need, so her mother helps to prepare an amazing surprise.

It really was sweet, and it brought tears to my eyes to imagine those orphan kids.  But I was also struck with a sense of performance charity.  It was such a spectacle, and it was as much Effie's Christmas Special as it was for the poor kids.  I suppose they still walk away happy, and Effie still walks away with a new sense of caring, so all in all, it's a win.

Now Christmas is over and I wanted to do one more read-along for the New Year.

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

"The year in passing yields its many yesterdays."

There are many versions of this poem, but for this line specifically, I had to turn to the Brian Stone translation from 1959.

This is the best source I could find online.