The Spirit of Christmas, as Found in Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Books

The last book in the series, published long after the others, was edited by Laura’s daughter, Rose and an editor who Rose had selected, based on Laura’s notes and early drafts. As a result, the book is very different from the earlier books.

When Laura and Almanzo got married, Laura’s one hesitation is that she never wanted to marry a farmer, because “a farm is such a hard place for a woman” with the chores and helping with harvest and cooking for the farmer’s helpers. And “besides a farmer never has any money” because he’s always at the mercy of the people buying the crops. “I won’t always want to be poor and work hard while the people in town take it easy and make money off us.” But Almanzo has invested his efforts in three homesteads: two for crops, and one for trees, and he doesn’t want to give up on what he’s invested. They agree to give it a try for three years, and then make a decision. (And, at the end of the third year, they agree to try for another year.”)

A First Christmas Together

The first year starts off with promise: Almanzo builds Laura a beautiful home with all the modern conveniences, a full-stocked pantry and a cellar; he gives her a horse of her own. But the crops don’t produce as much as hoped and winter strikes suddenly and harshly, with a blizzard and a polar vortex. They agree with Laura’s family that they will spend Christmas with the family and the family will spend New Year’s at Laura and Almanzo’s home.

But it’s a somber Christmas, nonetheless, “Christmas presents were hardly to be thought of the way the crops had turned out, but Manly made handsleds for Laura’s little sisters, and they would buy Christmas candy for everyone.” And Laura and Manly go through the new Montgomery Ward catalog and pick out a gift for themselves: a set of glassware for their table, with serving plates and a platter. But “Christmas was soon over.” And that’s it for the first Christmas.

The Second Christmas

The second year, Laura gives birth to their daughter, Rose, in early December. Laura is unwell and Almanzo spends money they don’t have on a hired girl to take care of Laura and Rose.

Laura describes Rose as “a grand Christmas present” but then, on Christmas Eve, Manly goes to town and comes back with a grandfather clock, exquisitely carved, with gilt and a glass door. Laura questions if Almanzo should have spent the money but he dismisses her cares (so like Pa with Ma earlier in Laura’s life).

“Christmas was a happy time even though it was a stormy day, and they stayed quietly at the home.”

And that’s it about Christmas in year, too: Christmas is a new baby and a clock they can’t afford.

Year Three’s Christmas

The chapter about the third year starts with Christmas: Almanzo buying a new stove, so that Rose, who is crawling, has a warm floor. Laura knits Almanzo a long-sleeved undershirt from Shetland wool to keep him warm, and intends to knit “its mate easily” after Christmas – I’m unsure if the “mate” is long underwear pants or a matching shirt for Laura. That’s it for the second Christmas.

Following that Christmas, however, things go badly for the young family. Laura catches diphtheria and there are doctor’s bills – and then Almanzo comes down with a really bad case of it, and is left crippled afterwards, unable to put in the effort to maintain his land. The person renting the tree claim left and Almanzo couldn’t work all of his land by himself; they end up selling the farm and Laura’s dream house, and moving onto the tree claim. They sell a colt and buy a herd of sheep. A drought hits, taking out what meager crop they had been attempting to grow.

The Final Year

At the end of the third year, they weigh their gains and losses, and agree to give it another year. Almanzo buys more livestock and plants another crop.

In December, Laura begins to suffer from morning sickness again and cannot leave the house. A kind neighbor stops by with a huge grain sack that he upends – revealing an enormous pile of books! Laura is delighted, taking refuge in the works of Sir Walter Scott. But there’s not description of Christmas that year.

When summer comes, they sell the harvest and wool from the sheep but when Laura does the math in her head, it’s not adding up. If they had been able to harvest good crops and cover the land in trees, the government would have allowed them to keep the land. But they didn’t, so they have to pay for the land in order to keep it. It pretty much wipes them out. That year brings yet another drought, cyclones, and the birth of their son (which means paying a hired girl to help Laura and care for Rose). Their son dies. And then Laura accidentally burns the house down, saving only a handful of possessions.

In the end, there is no Christmas that year. They are living in a hastily-built three-room shack and have to agree that, financially, they are no better off than they were when they got married.

The book ends with Manly singing happily in the barn, and Laura reflecting that, “We’ll always be farmers for what’s born in the bone comes out in the flesh.”

Yet there is no Christmas that year.

The introduction to this book says that Laura had drafted it but hadn’t fully built it out because, after Almanzo died, she didn’t have the heart to read and write about those years again. I wonder if she had continued to work on it, whether it would have included more about Christmas which I believe was always one of her happiest memories from her childhood.

So what do we learn about Christmas in this book? Christmas doesn’t have to be expensive: the first Christmas together, their presents to Laura’s family are simple. At the same time, they make a mistake that young couples often make, overextending themselves with a set of glass serving dishes, then a new stove, and a grandfather clock.