The Spirited Review - Night Tree

Night Tree written by Eve Bunting, illustrated by Ted Rand

Night Tree suggests a sweet alternative - or peaceful addition - to the hustle and bustle we often find in the midwinter season. The story takes us into Luke's Forest, where a boy and his family come every Christmas Eve to decorate a certain tree with popcorn strings, apples and tangerines, seeds and millet and honey, and nuts and breadcrumbs for the forest denizens. After the decorations are hung by mittened hands in the biting cold, the family settles down on a blanket in the dark, and sings to the night. Later, the boy thinks of the animals, "... [maybe] all there together, singing their own Christmas songs on Christmas Day around our tree."

Many communities around the United States are starting to reintroduce these kinds of seasonal celebrations, reinfusing holidays with a spirit of charity and a sense of resonance with our world. For families who find it difficult to move past the glamour of the season and the sensorial assault by Christmas merchandise that begins earlier each year, Night Tree shows how it is possible to make a real celebration of our lives on this earth; for families who have despaired of finding seasonal books that reflect such simpler ceremonies, Night Tree should be a welcome addition to the library. Fundamentally, this is a story that lives outside of cultural and religious boundaries; it is a tale of the simpleness - and the pleasures - of sharing this one Earth.

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