Rating:
In the tradition of The Christmas Shoes and A Christmas on Jane Street, the heart-warming story of The Christmas Glass shows how, today as always, the Christmas miracle works its wonders in the human heart. In the early days of World War II in Italy, Anna, a young widow who runs a small orphanage, carefully wraps her most cherished possessions — a dozen hand-blown, German-made, Christmas ornaments, handed down by her mother — and sends them to a cousin she hasn’t seen in years.
Anna is distressed to part with her only tangible reminder of her mother, but she worries that the ornaments will be lost or destroyed in the war, especially now that her orphanage has begun to secretly shelter Jewish children. Anna’s young cousin Filomena is married with two-year-old twins when she receives the box of precious Christmas glass. After the war, Filomena emigrates to America, where the precious ornaments are passed down through the generations. After more than forty years, twelve people come to possess a piece of Christmas glass, some intimately connected by family bonds, some connected only through the history of the ornaments. As Christmas Day approaches, readers join each character in a journey of laughter and tears, fractures and healing, as Filomena, now an eighty-four-year-old great-grandmother, brings them all to what will be either a wondrous reunion or a disaster that may shatter them all like the precious glass they cherish.
This book would be a great book for a study group. Some of the themes throughout The Christmas Glass would make great discussions. It is amazing to see how attitudes can be passed on from one generation to another. I hesitate to say this because I think a lot of people will love this book and I did enjoy it, but it took me a bit to get into. What I love about The Christmas Glass was seeing how decisions or choices we make, can affect generations to come. It is beautifully written and a book that will have you appreciating family.
Click here to read the first chapter.
The Christmas Glass by Marci Alborghetti can be purchased here.
About:
Marci Alborghetti is the author of more than ten books, including: Prayer Power: How to Pray When You Think You Can’t, A Season in the South and Twelve Strong Women of God. Her devotionals have been featured in Daily Guideposts since 2000. Marci and her husband Charlie divide their time between New London, Connecticut, and Sausalito, California.
