Nibsy's Christmas and Other Christmas Stories

by Jacob A. Riis

It was Christmas-eve over on the East Side. Darkness was closing in on a cold, hard day. The light that struggled through the frozen windows of the delicatessen store, and the saloon on the corner, fell upon men with empty dinner-pails who were hurrying homeward, their coats buttoned tightly, and heads bent against the steady blast from the river, as if they were butting their way down the street.

Genres: Christmas, Fiction, Classics, Short Stories

50 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1893

About the author

Reports, including How the Other Half Lives (1890), of Danish-born American journalist and reformer Jacob August Riis on living conditions in city slums led to improvements in housing and education.

This Christian helped the impoverished in city of New York; much of his writing focused on those needy. In his youth in Denmark, he read Charles Dickens and James Fennimore Cooper; his works exhibit the story-telling skills, acquired under the tutelage of many English-speaking writers.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacob_Riis

Reviews

[Christine]

You can see why most people haven't heard of the title story.

[Emily]

Read this on Christmas Eve. How fitting.

Riis is a great writer, and these are true stories, to be sure. He certainly never wasted an opportunity to reach others with the truth, and I admire that greatly.

[Janis]

If you’re looking for uplifting Christmas tales, keep lookin’. This ain’t it. Suffering people living in abject poverty with no hope & no joy.

[Suzanne]

Sadly uninspiring ..

Review to follow

[Yusei Ishihara]

-Jacob A.Riis
-Time 11/20= 60 minutes
-7 words: Christmas eve - hard - become - dread - Santa Claus - come - Nibsy
-Discussion Question
1, What is your memory in Christmas? Do you have something happened especially?
When I was elementary school student, I broke a promise to my friends. Therefore, I was scored by my mother.
2, Do you believe that there is Santa Claus?
No, I don't. Because I had seen that my father wear a Santa Claus costume when I was elementary school student.

-time 11/27 = 80 minutes
-7 words: Santa Claus - come - on - Christmas - with - many - things
-Discussion Question
1, If you can wish for something you like, what would you like to wish?
I wish that I become a rich! Because now I don't have much money.
2, Which do you like summer or winter?
I like summer, of course. I like Christmas, but it's so cold for me. Summer is comfortable for me to live :)

[pdarnold]

This was a short, sad, joyless, heartbreaking book!!! There were I admit a couple spots of, what I assume the author was trying to get across, pureness of heart giving over to hopefulness... only to be crushed, destroyed and scattered to the four winds. This was written in a time period where, I guess, these types of stories were popular? Yet still, even Dickens gave hope to the reader. Still trying shake this one off.

[May Ling]

I"m not quite sure why they say this is a children's story. This is a depressing account of Christmas gone bad, when capitalism and worth get mixed with valuing others. Well, written though.

[Sandra Flores]

Wow! Amazing that a story wrote 119 years ago can be related to our current society. It's not a children's book, more a social criticism. It is wonderfully written though.