Every Christmas story needs to be sentimental, and involve magic or a miracle. That's my rule for Christmas books. Tom McCann's The Tree Nobody Wanted, a nostalgic view back at an earlier Christmas, meets that standard.
Thomas, an eleven-year-old boy, tells the story of Christmas in 1946, just after the end of World War II. He lived in the Brownsville section of Brooklyn with his grandmother, Nanny. Everyone in that poor neighborhood knew one holiday truth. At 8 p.m. on Christmas Eve, the men selling Christmas trees on the corners went home, and poor people could go get a tree.
When Thomas was sent to pick the family tree, something drew him to a small, ugly, misshapen one. He thought about that tree's past, and its feelings about the whole experience of being cut down, with a future in the city dump after the holiday. Thomas knew the facts of life in a poor neighborhood. His mother was dead; he never knew his father; and his uncle would later die of alcoholism. Thomas was drawn to that tree.
He and his Nanny had nothing to decorate the tree with, except cherished memories, pictures, letters, and childish artwork. The tree became personal and meaningful to Thomas, and after Christmas, he couldn't bear to take it to the dump.
Instead, he snuck it into the Brooklyn Botanical Garden, where it became a symbol of the power of love and faith.
The Tree Nobody Wanted is a very simple story, told in only 40 pages. At times, there are too many lists and descriptions of sites in Brooklyn. It's a very personal, even autobiographical, story. Despite its flaws, such as the wordiness when it comes to scenic description, this sentimental little book brings a tear. In addition, the cover illustration by Frederick Jillson is a work of art, with the small textured tree within the larger tree, symbolizing the original tree and its growth.
Tom McCann's The Tree Nobody Wanted meets the criteria of a sentimental Christmas story, with a message of the power of love to bring a miracle to life.
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