Christmas with Anne and Other Holiday Stories

Like most of the author's other collections, this one is a hit and miss. Some of the stories really are great, and some others were obviously written to teach lessons. Now, I get that the author wrote some of these stories for magazines and the like (as many other stories in her other anthologies but some of the stories here are just so saccharine-sweet. Still, if you are a fan of L.M. Montgomery, give this book a chance, you'll like at least a few of the stories in it.

This is a collection of short stories set around the Christmas holidays. It begins with our lovely Anne Shirley and an early Christmas with Marila and Matthew, and the “puffy sleeves” fashion trend.

There is one other story that involves Anne, but most do not. The plots involve lonely people taken into the fold of neighbor families, poor families making the best of the season, rich families sharing their bounty with those less fortunate. I took my time reading this, having begun it in December, and reading a story or two every couple of days.

After a few stories, they become rather formulaic, but they are all heart-warming and charming. And isn’t that what the holidays are all about?

Best known for her beloved children's classic, Anne of Green Gables, and the seven sequels which followed upon it, Canadian author L.M. Montgomery was also a prolific short-story writer, selling her creations to religious and secular magazines and journals beginning in the late 1800s. These stories, numbering over 500, had largely disappeared from the public eye, until Montgomery scholar Rea Wilmshurst began collecting them in themed anthologies, beginning with the 1988 publication of Akin to Anne: Tales of Other Orphans. This collection of sixteen holiday stories is the eighth such anthology created by Wilmshurst, and contains both original stories and excerpts from the "Anne" novels, all of which are sure to please the Montgomery show more aficionado.

Christmas with Anne opens, appropriately enough, with Matthew Insists on Puffed Sleeves, the twenty-fifth chapter of Anne of Green Gables. This story of shy Matthew Cuthbert, who decides that Anne must have a fashionable dress with puffed sleeves for Christmas, was as charming as ever. Matthew's appreciation of the fact that sometimes "frivolous" things are necessary, is a nice counter-balance to Marilla's more Puritanical sensibilities.

Christmas at Red Butte struck me as a fairly unremarkable morality tale - Theodora is rewarded for her self-sacrifice in giving up her beloved locket, by the safe return of her brother. I did find it interesting that through the virtue of selflessness, the image is exchanged for the reality...

The End of the Young Family Feud was vintage Montgomery, and such a pleasure! The theme of estrangement being conquered through "accident" (or providence, as the case may be), is a common one in Montgomery's work, and I thought this story really anticipated some of her later, more accomplished tales.

Aunt Cyrilla's Christmas Basket, with its good-hearted message that generosity and kindness are the true spirit of Christmas, which has no room for false pride, was pleasant and satisfying. I did feel that there was so much going on - the orphaned shop girl finds a home, the two older women connect over the death of their children, the young relative learns to see the value of her elder's customs - that it almost felt like an over-stuffed buffet of Montgomery themes.

The Osbornes' Christmas, in which the well-to-do Osborne children gain a better appreciation of the holiday spirit when they decide to "give" Christmas to those less fortunate than themselves, was a little too treacly for my taste, and had a rather pedantic, moralistic tone. Montgomery's work is usually so character-driven that the requisite moral seems a natural part of the narrative, but the brevity of this tale prevents her from developing her characters enough to compensate for the preachiness. I'm also always a little irritated when Montgomery includes any French Canadian characters, as her throw-away remarks reveal a regrettable condescension.

The Unforgotten One was probably the most sentimental of all the tales in Christmas with Anne, but despite being perfectly aware of Montgomery's deliberate tugging on my heartstrings, I still found myself tearing up while reading it. The saintly Miss Avis, remembered with love and devotion by all her relatives one Christmas, is the classic virtuous "homebody," so often encountered in sentimental Victorian literature of this type.

Clorinda's Gifts was another selection (like The Osbornes' Christmas) in which the tale is overwhelmed by its didactic purpose. Aunt Emmy's point, that the gifts which can be bought are rarely the most precious, is well taken. But as the reader has little opportunity to enter into Clorinda's thoughts and feelings, as she comes to understand what this means for herself, it is impossible to really feel strongly about her eventual decisions. This would have been a much stronger story, if Montgomery had allowed the reader to share more of Clorinda's internal struggle.

Katherine Brooke Comes to Green Gables, excerpted from Anne of Windy Poplars, is one of my favorite stories in this collection. The tale of an unfriendly, and very unhappy young woman, who unfolds in the right environment, it has that sense of hope and potential - of the possibility of change for the better - that I find so appealing in Montgomery's work. The reader will probably have a deeper appreciation of it, if they have already read Anne of Windy Poplars, and know more of Katherine's behavior prior to this episode.

A Christmas Mistake was another tale of a long estrangement, this time between two stubborn cousins, which is healed when an invitation to Christmas dinner is accidentally given to the wrong family. Sentimental and sweet, it will appeal to Montgomery lovers, who will instantly recognize the theme of "accident/providence" having a hand in healing old disputes.

The Christmas Surprise at Enderly Road was probably the least impressive selection here. The story of two young men who decorate a neighboring village's schoolhouse for Christmas, in an effort to be kind, it sometimes seemed a little smug and patronizing to me. More to the point, it also felt very "flat," with little conflict or struggle (internal or otherwise) to give it any interest.

The Falsom's Christmas Dinner is yet another tale in which a quarrel is resolved at Christmas, when brother and sister Stephen and Alexina Falsom are reconciled to their close friends and neighbors, Duncan and Josie Tracy. Naturally, their orphaned poverty is also resolved...

A Christmas Inspiration concerns a group of girls at a boarding house who, unable to go home for the holidays, are determined to have a good time. When inspiration strikes Jean Lawrence, the other girls fall in with her idea of putting together a holiday surprise for Miss Allen, the unfriendly older woman who lives in the same house. The idea of befriending, or doing a kindness for, someone who seems unfriendly and/or unreceptive, is another common theme in Montgomery's work, and plays out with satisfactory results in this story.

In The Josephs' Christmas, a prairie family who "keep Christmas in their hearts," despite their poverty, are the beneficiaries of a most unexpected pair of Santa Clauses. I particularly enjoyed Montgomery's description of the little Josephs, and the air of mystery that pervaded their home in the month of December, as they all contrived to make gifts for one another.

In Uncle Richard's New Year's Dinner, Prissy Baker hears her estranged Uncle Richard telling a shopkeeper that he will have a cold meal on New Year's, and decides to cook a meal for him in secret. This was the first of three stories devoted to the New Year's celebration, rather than Christmas, and (once again!) concerned the healing of an old breach, this time between two brothers.

When one of her mother's delicious fruit cakes is misdirected to the "other" Ida Mitchell, in Ida's Near Year Cake, heroine Ida decides to let her "namesake" enjoy it, rather than ruin her belief that someone has remembered her at the holidays.

And finally, in Bertie's New Year, a poor young delivery boy finds some new friends and a much-needed new position, through his kindness in loaning his mittens to his sick young cousin.

All in all, this was an enjoyable collection of stories, and makes excellent reading material for the Christmas season. While I certainly wouldn't describe it as one of Montgomery's more inspired works, I think that her many fans will appreciate it. Many of the themes I have come to associate with Motgomery are present, as is the sense of warmth and home. show less

Very very sweet stories all variations on some themes: 1) a very poor family cannot afford anything for Christmas and something happens that means the family can have traditional Christmas food and the kids gifts, and 2) there’s been some rift in the family (normally over inheritance of land) and something happens to heal the rift. I would have preferred some diversity in themes. Short and good for a low-anxiety read.

This collection of stories pulls together a couple of seasonally appropriate chapters from the Anne books and some stand-alone stories. The stories take place mostly at Christmas, although two of them take place at New Year’s. They deal in similar themes: the importance of family, remembering departed ones, the idea of it being better to give than to receive, and happy accidents leading to much better Christmases than would have originally been the case.

This is a collection that is better for dipping into and out of throughout the Christmas season rather than reading in one shot, given how similar the stories are. I would perhaps recommend this to people who like the Anne books or who like boarding-school stories and other show more children’s books of the era in which LMM was writing; some of the younger girls’ dialogue certainly reminded me of Malory Towers or St Clare’s. show less

Lovers of the Anne series will enjoy these short stories, and they may also make you long for a simpler time when dolls and skates and nuts and fruit are all it took to create a wonderful Christmas.

Not the best of Montgomery’s short story collections, Christmas with Anne focuses on stories during the holiday season - Christmas, New Years and the time surrounding. Most of these were cute, but that’s it. Not interesting. There was no real climax in a good portion of these. They are just sweet little stories about the holidays. If that’s what you’re looking for in a bunch of holiday stories, then this one is for you. I think in the future, when I pick this up, I will read one or two stories but not the whole collection straight through as I did this time.

Some of the ones that I enjoyed most, though, were the ones where estranged families and friends came together after a long time and forgave old feuds - The End of the Young show more Family Feud, A Christmas Mistake, The Falsoms’ Christmas Dinner and Uncle Richard’s New Year’s Dinner.

The highlight of the book for me was Katherine Brooke Comes to Green Gables (a selection from Anne of Windy Poplars). Now, I have a confession to make. I hate Anne of Windy Poplars. It’s a boring, dull book. Horrible dull. But Katherine Brooke Comes to Green Gables, held one of the very few good points of that book - Katherine Brooke. Really, it’s no secret that I have a soft spot for orphans in fiction - especially in Montgomery’s work. We don’t see Katherine Brooke, though, with the normal cheer and positivity that Montgomery’s characters eventually have - she’s had a hard life and has let it affect her to the point where she is so bitter that she won’t let anyone in to her life anymore. Her story is definitely the most enjoyable part of that particular Anne book. So, it was wonderful to be able to read this bit with her in it when I don’t normally (rather when I never) pick up Anne of Windy Poplars.

Some other thoughts on some of the short stories… Let’s see… Matthew Insists on Puffed Sleeves actually made me dig out Anne of Green Gables to read a couple of chapters that I liked better than this one. A Christmas Inspiration reminded me too much of Cyrilla’s Inspiration, a short story in the Across the Miles collection, to be thoroughly enjoyable. And the rest in the collection just didn’t stick out in my mind. They were alright, but nothing super spectacular.

This is the second last collection of Montgomery’s short stories that I had left to read - only At the Altar left! show less