First Christmas of New England

by Harriet Beecher Stowe

This Christmas story, written by the well known author of Uncle Tom's Cabin, is set in Massachusetts in 1620. "Let us look into the magic mirror of the past and see this harbor of Cape Cod on the morning of the 11th of November, in the year of our Lord 1620, as described to us in the simple words of the pilgrims."

Genres: Christmas

44 pages, Hardcover

First published September 1, 2002

About the author

Great political influence of Uncle Tom's Cabin , novel against slavery of 1852 of Harriet Elizabeth Beecher Stowe, American writer, advanced the cause of abolition.

Lyman Beecher fathered Catharine Esther Beecher, Edward Beecher, Henry Ward Beecher, and Harriet Beecher Stowe, another child.

Harriet Elizabeth Beecher Stowe, an author, attacked the cruelty, and reached millions of persons as a play even in Britain. She made the tangible issues of the 1850s to millions and energized forces in the north. She angered and embittered the south. A commonly quoted statement, apocryphally attributed to Abraham Lincoln, sums up the effect. He met Stowe and then said, "So you're the little woman that started this great war!" or so people say.

AKA:
Χάρριετ Μπήτσερ Στόου (Greek)

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

Reviews

[Yibbie · Rating 1 out of 5]

Okay, I didn’t expect this to be such a fictionalized story. I don’t know what I expected, but this certainly wasn’t it. From the way it opened, I thought it might actually be a pretty solid historical account. Then it turned completely fanciful. She did keep it relatively low-key but considering that these were of the strictest of the Puritan sect it is still rather more celebration than we have evidence for. The only difference to Christmas day, actually recorded, was that they had beer with dinner. There is no mention of singing carols ( I highly suspect they did not, especially carols about feasting), special holiday decorations (Outlawed later), and no record of a special sermon (Somehow, I just can’t see a Separatist or Brownist minister using Shakespeare as a sermon illustration), and no longing for the celebrations of Old England (They were running from that sort of thing remember.)
I’ve read two of Stowe’s novels and I think a couple of her short stories. Each one has some extra spiritual child and some sort of supernatural visit. I had forgotten that about her works until now. What purpose is that supposed to serve? Give the reader hope for the afterlife? Pretty shallow when compared to eternal faith demonstrated in the pilgrim’s writings.
I wouldn't bother with it again.

[K. Anna Kraft · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have arranged my thoughts on this short story into a haiku:

"Moods turn infectious
When the weary share quarters.
Cheer is but a choice."

[Anonymous Reader · Rating 1 out of 5]

I feel bad to give this one star, but I just really didn't care for it at all. It's part-fictionalized retelling of the first Christmas the pilgrims experienced in New England, and part-historical artifact. I think part of the problem is that dissonance; Stowe should've picked one lane instead of switching between them. But another issue is that 80% of this (just like with Stowe's other work that I've read — UNCLE TOM'S CABIN) focuses on Christian religion, which simply isn't a huge interest of mine. There's also like 20 pages of songs in this, which bored me to no end, because I don't know what the tunes were to any of them, so, like, what was I reading? Oh and also, Stowe described the different trees the pilgrims saw three separate times. Super boring! And there's not much festive energy to this either; it's bible verses then songs then descriptions of trees then bible verses again. Eh. Not for me.

Btw, another story I read (THE CHRISTMAS GIFT THAT CAME TO RUPERT by Bret Harte) isn't on Goodreads, so I'll review it here before adding it to my ranking below. Harte's story is super short and memorable. It's basically about a geeky boy named Rupert who everyone thinks is a prodigy, and for Christmas he gets a toy drum that causes him to go mad. It's a very clear anti-war allegory, which I thought was really well-done. I'd read more by Harte for sure.

20 Christmas Classics ranking:
1. A CHRISTMAS CAROL
2. THE NUTCRACKER AND THE MOUSE KING
3. THE FIR TREE
4. THE CHIMES
5. A VISIT FROM ST. NICHOLAS
6. THE MATCHSTICK GIRL
7. THE CHRISTMAS GIFT THAT CAME TO RUPERT
8. THE BATTLE OF LIFE
9. THE CRICKET ON THE HEARTH
10. THE HAUNTED MAN AND THE GHOST'S BARGAIN
11. THE FIRST CHRISTMAS OF NEW ENGLAND

[Fay · Rating 3 out of 5]

This short story originally appeared within a volume of multiple stories in 1876, but there was a clamor to publish it as a stand-alone book and so it was. Harriet Beecher Stowe takes us back to the first Christmas celebrated in America in 1620, a month after the Mayflower arrived in Plymouth. Not having time to build shelter on land since their arrival, the Pilgrims spent the winter on the ship. This is not a story of Christmas as usual in our minds, but of the males going ashore to cut trees and clear a space for their settlement while some if not all the women remained onboard going about their usual chores. The path that these brave souls chose reflects the birth of Christ in a manger among hardship and that was their celebration.

[Mariacristina · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interessante immergersi in questa ricostruzione (che stento a credere accurata e non distorta) ma un po' mi turba

[Christine · Rating 3 out of 5]

Stowe’s retelling of the first Christmas celebrated by the pilgrims is, perhaps today, a bit too white centric. That aside it does make for a rather pleasant Christmas tale that reflects the meaning of the time of year. IN other words, no Santa Claus and plenty of real carols. It is rather lovely.