Angelina Terry is a bitter old woman who thinks everyone is stupid and Christmas is not worth celebrating.......that is, until she is reminded that people are not what they seem at first glance. Ms. Terry's spitefulness seems to be due to being left by her one and only brother. When her childhood Christmas Angel comes to life to show her what is really going on she is stunned and a change of heart saves her world.This was a Librivox book. As introduction an excerpt from the beginning of The Christmas Angel:"Stuff and nonsense!" mused Miss Terry scornfully. "What is our Christmas, anyway? A time for shopkeepers to sell and for foolish folks to kill themselves in buying. Christmas spirit? No! It is all Humbug!"That might sound familiar--it reminds the reader of the Dickens tale "A Christmas Carol" which was written in 1843. This book was written approximately 50 years later but had a similar feel to it.I like to read the old stories now and again to be reminded of the simple roots of today's mass marketing of printed materials. This book is simple and predictable and very similar to Dickens Christmas story. The first letter in each chapter is illustrated in the old way and the book has delightful ink illustrations of key scenes in the story.The protagonist of this story is a bitter spinster woman who finds herself alone on Christmas Eve. Miss Terry has determined that it is time to clean the attic. She has the maid bring down her old toy chest prior to her leaving to join in the town's Christmas festival. Miss Terry uses the bellows to build up the fire and then reaches in for the first toy she is to burn. But for some reason she finds she is unable to burn these rememberances from her childhood.Miss Terry then decides to conduct a Christmas experiment. Each toy is tossed one at a time from the window onto the sidewalk below. Miss Terry hides in the draperies and watches the fate of each toy. She finds that her belief of Christmas being a humbug is true as each toy meets a miserable fate.After emptying the toy box she is left with a pink paper-mache angel that she and her brother at one time hung on their Christmas tree. She cannot bring herself to destroy the angel and so places it on her mantel. Miss Terry drifts off to sleep only to be wakened by a bright light. As she wakes she sees before her an angel--the Christmas angel.The rest of the story follows as the angel shows Miss Terry the real fate of each of the toys and how they brought the Christmas spirit into the hearts of the people who picked them up.This book is a short book of less than 100 pages, a quick and fun little holiday read.
Beautiful,mooving story of what happend on Christmas Eve to several people of different ages.
—Milary
tear jerker - not good when reading in starbucks :) lovely scrooge type story :)
—mgeorgis
Short story, easy reading, a nice reminder of what it should be all about.
—miri
Interesting take on A Christmas Carol. Predictable.
—sanjanazerin
