Book Description

The "Christmas Child" in this book isn't Jesus, but rather a boy born on Christmas Day, named "Chris". After his father forgets both Christmas and Chris’ birthday (not surprising as the father is an impoverished, overworked surgeon) He runs away from home and finds himself in a park, where he meets the fairy-queen. She tells him that all children born on the 25th of December have the gift of talking to the fairy-folk. What follows is an account of Chris’ adventures and meetings with the fairy folk and the stories they tell him. Some of the tales Chris hears, are stories of shape-shifting princesses, doomed supernatural lovers and peasants rewarded for kindness or punished for laziness and cruelty. A fairy persuades a knight who loves her to tear a page from a Bible inscribed with his dead mother's handwriting, When he presents her with the page she laughs, or rather cackles, at him and disappears. But what happens to the knight and the fairy? It is common knowledge that fairies always reward anyone who shows a stranger hospitality. Chris is always treated well by the fairies he encounters, though it's implied that this is only because he has special status as a "Christmas Child". He narrowly avoids being kidnapped by fairy women and forced to spend the rest of his life in an underground city. He is released because he coincidentally mentions the day of his birth. All the stories are accurate to original myths and folklore. In all, this is an endearing, if somewhat forgotten, work of fiction, wonderfully illustrated in colour and black-and-white by the late, great Willy Pogany (August 1882 – July 1955) 10% of the profit from the sale of this book are donated to charity. ===================== KEYWORDS/TAGS: Fairies and the Christmas Child, adventure, folklore, fairy tales, myths, legends, childrens stories, fables, Lilian Gask, Willy Pogany, Fairy Ring, Princess, Sea-Green Hair, Rose-Marie, Poupican, Bird, Window, White Stone, Happiness, Seven, Fair Queens, Pirou, Dwarf, Palace, Silver Horn, Little White Feather, Wild, Huntsman, White Princess, Favourite, Fates, Rock the cradle, fancy, wee brown men, dancing Elves, Fairy Princess, toss, hide, curtain, Madame Marguerite, Lord, Argouges, snow-white bird, Elberich, jeer, Otnit, old man, dance, maiden, Lower, window, rope of pearls, tickle, monster, Pepita, Christmas day, birth, Chris, fairy queen, forest,