A CHRISTMAS TREE FOR LYDIA

Slim in substance, slim in size, this "stocking book" to be used instead of a Christmas card. The story scarcely warrants book form; somehow it fails of its purpose in enlisting the proper emotional response demanded of a Christmas item. Lydia is four and still believes in Santa Claus. Her brother, enough older to be fully informed, can't bear the news that his widowed mother can't cope with Christmas- no tree, no stocking. So he pleads for a week's postponement and- provides a whole grove of Christmas trees for New Year's morning- salvaged from the gutters of more fortunate households. For Lydia it is supremely satisfying- and even Eddy and his chum get a thrill out of feeling as though they were "camping out" in a grove.