The Ansterburg family lives in abject poverty. Their home is a barn which they share with filthy farm animals. Their lives are a constant struggle against the elements. So desperate is their plight that they are forced to scrounge for the ancient apples produced by a vine infested tree and turn them into apple butter. The girls must give up their aspirations of an education and stay home to work alongside their mother as they anxiously try to get the work completed before a massive storm threatens their very existence.

When the storm does come, it nearly collapses the barn-home and the girls are terrified to the point of hysteria. (You may need to skip this part for younger audiences who might, like the girls in the story, start to lose control of themselves with fear). After the sickening ice storm passes, it has wreaked total havoc on the lives of the Ansterburg family. It has destroyed the moldy old apple tree, the single gleaming point of light in their otherwise bleak existence. The heartless father begins to chop it into pieces for firewood to keep the family alive for one more day.

After Christmas comes, it turns out the father was actually sacrificing the best interests of his family (keeping them warm) to mollify his two whiny daughters who were on the verge of catatonic depression over the loss of their Apple Tree. The father has turned portions of the tree into a drawing board for one daughter, and a swing for the other. These diversions likely eased the girls into the next few months of blinding snow storms and brutal cold, as the family desperately forged ahead into an uneasy future. Their fates are not made clear in the book, except for a haunting charcoal drawing left behind by on of the girls. It illustrates the last happy moment the family had together, the day they collected apples from the dead apple tree. In a subtle metaphor, the author hints that like the tree which was doomed from the start, the family too, may not live out the rest of the winter.

If your children are very brave they may enjoy this story. The cheery drawings are in strange contrast to the harsh and frightening quality of the story, and provide a little respite from the dreadful hopelessness of the tale. This is a Christmas classic, and a book that kept me awake at night for years, a book that I still can’t get out of my mind even all these years later.
Rating: 5 / 5

I was delighted to find Apple Tree Christmas is in print again. As a child who grew up in the area where Trinka grew up, I cherish the images the story churns up in my own childhood. The story is a perfect illustration of the real meaning of Christmas. It captures the snowy whimsical nature of Christmas in Michigan perfectly. A must have for any mid-western child, or any child that matter!
Rating: 5 / 5