I was propelled to read this lovely book based on a review written by one of my Goodreads friends. I enjoyed this little book with a heartfelt story of Ivy, an orphan girl wishing for a toy and a grandmother she does not have. Concurrent to Ivy's story is Holly's. Holly is a beautiful Christmas doll whose wish is to be held and loved by a little girl. In a way, one can say this is a story of wishes and the magic of Christmas.

When Ivy becomes the only orphan who is not picked to go a home for Christmas, the Supervisor at the orphanage puts Ivy on a train to go to an Orphanage for Infants just for Christmas. Ivy, however, miraculously comes up with a destination of Appleton to see her non-existent but wishful grandmother. She gets off at this destination and then her little adventure begins as she traverses this lovely little town.

Holly, the Christmas doll, is not purchased for Christmas and her future of winding up in stocks (inventory) saddens her. An obnoxious toy owl scares her with all his doomsday predictions. Anyways, the beautiful writings, descriptions, and charm of a small town make this little book, a delightful read. I absolutely love the illustrations. A great gift for a young person especially since all's well that ends well.

This is absolutely a magical and wonderful Christmas story full of warmth and delight that will guarantee to tug at your heart strings. The way the author arrange all the events to finally let the three main lonely characters - Ivy the little girl, Holly the doll and Mrs. Jones, who all wanted someone to love and somewhere to belong to - meet one another is absolutely masterly!!! It kept me reading on and on and on till the miraculous and beautiful ending. This story highlights the importance of wishing and kindness, and the illustration as well as the Christmas description in this book just made me want Christmas to come sooner :))

Holly was a doll dressed for Christmas in green and red in the toyshop window. Ivy was was an orphan who had nowhere to go for Christmas. Mrs. Jones has no children, but she decides to decorate for Christmas anyway.

All three come together in this lovely little holiday story of the power of wishing.

J- 5 ⭐
S- 5 ⭐

Charming Christmas story ~ beautiful illustrations.

This book was so long and so boring that I quit 40 minutes in while reading it as a bedtime story for my 2 and 4 year old. It wouldn’t have been so bad if the story wasn’t so agonizingly transparent or if it were much much shorter. Yes yes blah blah the orphan girl and the old woman who never had children find each other blah blah and the poor anthropomorphic toy who wasn’t sold in time for Christmas miraculously gets to be the little orphan girl’s Christmas present. Heartwarming.
It’s a 30 page book but each page has 2 chapter book pages worth of text on it. The author milked the story to death.

I checked it out because I instantly recognized Barbara Cooney’s illustrations and they were as charming as I assumed and the second star is for her illustrations. They were so delightful you could have just had the pictures and the story would have told itself.

The illustrations are 5 star. The text is 1 star, what a waste of time. I’m honestly concerned for everyone who gave this 5 stars and apparently reread it every year. I didn’t think they still performed lobotomies.

This is an absolutely enchanting and extremely moving Christmas tale for children. It centres on a little orphan girl, called Ivy, who is shunted off on Christmas Eve to the Infants’ Home, as there is nobody to look after her. Stubbornly, Ivy declares she will go to her ‘grandmother’ but she has no grandmother and so Miss Shepherd puts her on the train. However, Ivy gets off and goes in hunt of the home that must belong to her.

In the toyshop, a pretty doll called Holly is dressed for Christmas and longs for a little girl of her own to love her. When Ivy sees her through the window, they both know they belong together – but Ivy has no money and the glass separates them and then the shop closes…

Meanwhile, a lady called Mrs Jones puts up her Christmas tree and waits for her policeman husband to return from his beat. Mr Jones scoffs kindly at her preparations, but knows that she longs for a little girl of her own. The way that Rumer Goden brings together these three characters is absolutely masterly. This is story telling at its best, which will undoubtedly leave you feeling a little wrung out, but absolutely cheering at the end! If you read one story to your children at Christmas which absolutely invokes the spirit of the season, this should be it. At under 100 pages it is ideal to be read aloud to children of 4+.

Every Christmas I check this out of the library to read to my kids. It is super sweet and heartwarming.

UPDATE: Now I just read this to myself.

This story was published in 1957. Though sweet on one level I found it to be quite contrived. If you want an old fashioned type of picture book about wishing and holidays this is the book for you.

Reading this book brings two stories to mind--the Little Matchgirl and Corduroy.

Ivy is an orphan. All the orphans are sent to different people for Christmas to visit. Ivy doesn't want to go to the home for younger children as she's supposed to do. She is sent off on her own and decides to try and find her grandmother, even thinking she knows where her grandmother lives. When she gets there, she sees Holly the doll in the window and wishes she was hers. She has to figure out how to stay warm and comes close to freezing. She shows kindness and ends up with the Joneses. Intermixed with Ivy's story is Holly the doll's story and the Jones' story.
The story is told beautifully, without too much melodrama, and with lots of nostalgic charm. It is a story of little "what if" moments and wishes.

Little long for a one sitting reading (depending on ages) but possible to break up into two reads.

A sweet Christmas story.

One of my favorite Christmas books ever that my mom used to read to me. Today I read it to my six year old and it was lovely