Book Review: Red Boots for Christmas

This year, I took a gamble with this 1968 out-of-print vintage softbound Red Boots for Christmas by Paul Chrystoph purchased used from Amazon.com.
I love the illustrations which are similar of that of Astrid Lindgren though I was a little disappointed that quantity wise, there were not as many as I would of liked. Still, this translated tale of redemption is a pearl. The writing, though translated, still comes out nuanced in its quiet humor.

This story is weaved around the German legend of the Christ Child that visits children with gifts on Christmas Eve. Han, a grown up cobbler, is a lonely orphan who is disenchanted with Christmas because he has no family to share Christmas cheer; nor as he complains, does the Christ Child or anyone for that matter, visit him on this festive holiday. An angel, however, appears with a mysterious message that the Christ Child will personally visit him this Christmas and soon, Hans is filled with the joy of preparing for the Christ Child's visit. In anticipation, among all his other preparations, he crafts the finest pair of red leather boots with silver nails to give as a gift to the Christ child. While waiting for this special visitor, Hans encounters a mailman and a newspaper woman, and overflowing with the love of Christ, he treats them kindly. But with the appearance of the Christ Child lacking, he becomes embittered and angry until the angel visits again, telling him that when he served his guests with love, the Christ Child was beside him, "happy to have a place in his heart." And in the end, Hans, with the help of the angel and his pet crow, finds a poor village girl in dire need of shoes and gives the lavish pair of boots to her.

The take home message is that there is blessing in giving, rather in receiving.

The modernized animated book and movie version omits the German legend Christ child and adds a more evangelical message of the significance of Jesus' birth being the ultimate gift.