Sacred Heart Church - Southbury, Connecticut, U.S.A.


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The Inquiring Mind

Reading aloud is not intended only for children
Reading aloud is not intended only for children. Granted, within the next few weeks, countless children will listen with rapt attention to Grandma or Uncle Joe reading Clement C. Moore’s, A Visit from St. Nicholas (familiarly known as A Night Before Christmas.) Many of us have pleasant, vivid memories of having been read to as children, whether before bedtime, or in the library, or by a beloved teacher. And many of us have had the good fortune to be able to read to dearly-loved young ones. What I am suggesting is that grown-ups give themselves the treat of reading aloud or being read to by another adult. Material available is endless, but I would like to introduce selections that are particularly appropriate for the Christmas time. If any of these are already familiar to you, all the better.

I have a particular fondness for folk material, finding that it resonates with the most human of experiences, while at the same time it can enrich the creative imagination. One such collection is The Long Christmas, by Ruth Sawyer, herself a storyteller of some renown. Published first in 1941 by Viking Press, my copy dates to 1956. The designation “Long” in the title refers to the duration of the Christmastime, from Advent through Candlemas Day. Long also is her reach back through the ages and over many countries, drawing out treasures told over and over to generations of listeners. Among my favorites are “The Voyage of the Wee Red Cap,” an Irish tale for the Feast of St. Stephen, “The Crib of Bo’Bossu,” a tale from Brittany, and “Schnitzle, Schnotzle, and Schnootzle,” a tale from the Austrian Tirol. Although the book is no longer in print, I have had no difficulty finding copies at used book dealers to give to the younger generation for their children. And the local library is always a good bet.

If you have the inclination to take a tale in three small gulps, -one a night, - Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol might be a good choice. The unique flavor of your own voice will give it a quality unmatched by all the presentations on TV or DVD. A shorter treat might be O. Henry’s The Gift of the Magi, or “Dulce Domum,” from Kenneth Grahame’s The Wind in the Willows. I can recall, as a child having been put to bed, hearing my father reading to my mother Tolstoy’s tale of “Martin the Cobbler.”

Nor should one forget poetry. Doubtless it might be easier and less challenging to make use of famous recorded voices, but both reader and listener would be depriving each other of the intimacy that the immediate live circumstance can offer, as well as the warm and generous memory which is being created. And here again the choices stretch until next Christmas, but there are two poems I would never omit. The first, A Child’s Christmas in Wales by Dylan Thomas, I have been in the habit of presenting to family members newly married or about to be, with instructions that they read it to each other every Christmas. And finally, on the Twelfth Day of Christmas, at the climax of festivities, one should never forget T. S. Eliot’s Journey of the Magi. Then, just perhaps, one might be encouraged to continue, perhaps with Tolstoy, perhaps with some other new found treasure, to go on reading aloud, “to drive the cold winter away.”

Maureen F. McDermott

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