The Christmas Letters

Here, in a letter of her own, Lee Smith explains how she was inspired to write this celebrated epistolary novel:

Dear Friends,

Like me, you probably get Christmas letters every year. I read every word and save every letter. Because every Christmas letter is the story of a life, and what story can be more interesting than the story of our lives? Often, it is the story of an entire family. But you also have to read between the lines with Christmas letters. Sometimes, what is not said is even more important than what is on the page.

In The Christmas Letters, I have used this familiar format to illumine the lives, hopes, dreams, and disappointments of three generations of American women. Much of the story of The Christmas Letters is also told through shared recipes. As Mary, my favorite character, says, "I feel as if I have written out my life story in recipes! The Cool Whip and mushroom soup years, the hibachi and fondue period, then the quiche and crOpes phase, and now it's these salsa years."

I wrote this little book for the same reason I write to my friends and relatives every holiday--Christmas letters give us a chance to remember and celebrate who we are.

With warmest greetings, Lee Smith

It's an epistolary novel told through the yearly Christmas letters of three generations of rural women, and spans the geography of West Virginia and North Carolina. The letters are somewhat typical of that sort of structure, recounting births and deaths and achievements, yet tell the story of the women's lives, their relationships, their struggles to cope with the hardships each generation is given--a husband off in WWII, a brother brokenly and miserably surviving Viet Nam, divorce, loss of a parent, a child leaving home and choosing a lifestyle you can't understand but try to accept. By the end, one of the letter-writers has come to a point where she addresses her letter frankly, and reveals the subtext behind all of her cheery soldier-on previous letters, and you can go back and see exactly how those emotions were definitely present beneath the surface of the writing of the earlier letters (some you'll pick up as you read them the first time around, others will be a surprise).

The book is a lovely quiet holiday read, and one that for me will take its place beside A Christmas Carol as a book to read every Christmas season, to remind me of what I hold dear about the holidays, an embracing of family, heritage, goodwill, charity...in short, the Christmas Spirit.


I couldn't put it down!   November 21, 2002
 0 out of 1 found this review helpful

I read this book in one sitting! Not your traditional "feel good" Christmas story, nonetheless, it still grabs your interest and simply will not let go. The recipes are interesting in that they make no attempt at being detailed,fancy or gourmet. Rather they evoke a very accurate image of each generation, from the simple custard representative of long-past generation's idea of what people who are ill should eat through the quick, easy, processed, food of the sixties and finally a back-to-mother-earth ethnic vegetarian recipe that reflects the character's new life(style). What I really liked was that the recipes set the tone without overpowering the story. So many books written in this style are all recipe and no story but that is not the case here. My only complaint is that the story ended with a mystery clouding it. What is up with the twin-thing? And what happend to "Rachel" mentioned in the first few letters from Birdie? She just disappears. Is she the twin to Margaret Hodges Long mentioned in the final chapter by Melanie? If not, then what is the story with the disappearing twin and where, exactly, did Rachel go? Mary tells us something about her sister Ruthie and we get a sense of loose ends tied up, but Birdie leaves us hanging. I sense another story. I hope so! I want to know about the twins from Birdie's generation!