The Christmas Porringer

This is a great book. I would recommend this book to anyone. This book is about a little girl that lives with her grandmother. They become poor and have to sell some of their stuff to get some money. It’s a really good story for kids of all ages.

A Christmas Porringer is a great classic! A little girl named Karen wonders why she gets a gift on Christ’s birthday, and wants to give him one.She buys a little porringer (a bowl) and puts it out for Christ to come and get it. But a robber named Robber Hans takes the porringer. You should read the book to find out what happens next! I think that this is an amazing book for all ages and a good bedtime story for Christmas time.I would definitely recommend this book to anyone because it is such a classic by Evaleen Stein, who is a great author.–Review written by T, 6th grade

The Christmas Porringer by Evaleen Stein is a great book. A little girl named Karen doesn’t understand why she gets gifts on christmas and The Christ Child doesn’t. Karen goes out and buys a porringer for The Christ Child as a gift. When she puts the gift on her porch for Him, a robber steals it instead. After keeping it a while (for certain reasons) the robber returns the porringer to Karen. I loved this book! It was cool to see how even the worst of people can have a soft spot. I would definitely recommend this book to people of all ages. Evaleen Stein does such a great job at describing her thoughts to the fullest so anyone can see what she sees when they read her books.

Before reading this story to my kids, I wanted to read it myself to make sure it was a good story and that I understood everything in it so I could answer any questions my kids had. I’m glad I did. It isn’t just a good book for a child audience. It is a good quick read for adults too.The setting is in Bruges, Flanders (present day Belgium) and I would say the period is about the 1600s or 1700s. The story is about the difficult life of a little girl and her grandmother, and the redemption of a man named Hans. It is well written. I don’t want to give away the full story so readers can discover that for themselves, though I will add that it is overall a beautiful story centered around the theme of love with a wonderful Christian core to it.Unfortunately we live in an era that produces more ugliness than beauty. A story like this, from a not-so-long ago age, lets us know that there is beauty out there, if we seek it. It was a pleasure for me to read with a good, simple message, that was pleasantly woven onto the pages. If you are open to receiving the good message, it even makes you reflect on your own life. Do I help ease the lives of others around me or burden them (Hans’ life story perhaps)? Does how I treat others affect my own happiness? Does our own life become more fulfilled when we live for someone else (such as our family members or friends)? A beautiful book or story that makes you think and reflect is always worth the read.As a side note, I also find that older books were written with a higher intelligence expectation and a much wider vocabulary. I like this and it even keeps me on my toes when coming across words I have rarely (if ever) seen before. So be aware that The Christmas Porringer is on that level if you get it for your children. They may need some guidance when reading it and/or help reflecting on the meaning of the story.I highly recommend the Yesterday’s Classic edition of the book. The text is clear and large and easy to read. It is also well made (in the USA) and has held up well to my handling of it. I have a few other Yesterday’s Classic books and they are all made well and are overall good reproductions of past books.Here is a link to the Yesterday’s Classics book (or search ” The Christmas Porringer (Yesterday’s Classics) “:https://www.amazon.com/Christmas-Porringer-Yesterdays-Classics/dp/1599151936/

What a lovely book with a sweet lesson. It is a quick and heartwarming Christmas story worth reading. I will read this to my son next.