Holiday Horsiness: Winter's Gift

This week I have been pulling out all my holiday decorations and decorating our home. In one tub were all my Christmas books - I always stack them out on the coffee table so the Pony Pals and Cowpokes can enjoy them. (Many are from my own childhood.)

Winter's Gift by Jane Monroe Donovan is a new addition to that pile of books. If I remember right, I read a review in The Chronicle of the Horse about horse-centered holiday books, and this was one they took a look at.

The first time I read it, I did not like it very much, but after several readings it began to grow on me.

The story takes place on Christmas Eve on a farm at the edge of a small town that has just experienced a heavy snowfall. The main character (who is never named and simply called "the old man" throughout the book) is sad and depressed despite it being Christmas.

Many of the illustrations have a horse in them - see the cross stitch horse sampler framed on the wall?

Life no longer holds any meaning for him as his wife had died the past spring and he is still grieving her loss.

One of their Christmas Eve traditions was to go out into the woods and cut a tree, then bring it back to the house and decorate it together. An old and very beautiful star that was kept in a wooden box was aways the last thing they would put on their tree.

But now his wife is gone and he has no interest in celebrating the holiday.

That night, a wild horse trudges from the woods and into a clearing behind the old man's house. She has become separated from her herd and is lost. 

Tired, cold, and hungry, she finally gives up and with a loud groan, falls onto her side in the snow.

The old man is washing his supper dishes and hears the groan. Curious, he puts his coat on and heads out into the night. (See the brass horse in the window?)

He encourages the mare to her feet and takes her into the barn where he gives her feed, water and a dry stall.

Tired himself, he then ends up falling asleep on the hay that is stacked in a corner.

During the night, the mare gives birth, and to the old man's surprise, the foal has a perfect star on its forehead, just like the star in the wooden box that he and his wife hung every year on their tree.

The mare and foal give purpose and meaning to the old man's life and while the story doesn't give any details, the illustrations show him contentedly patting the mare in the springtime.

Winston Churchill said, "There is something about the outside of a horse that is good for the inside of a man," and no doubt that is why this story grew on me. 

Advent calendar - December 3

Two bales of hay.