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my favorite christmas tradition
mood: 
nostalgic
nostalgic
A CHRISTMAS MEMORY by Truman Capote
(Knopf, 2006), ages 8 and up
For me, Christmas is just not Christmas without my treasured dose of Truman Capote.
All the other parts of the holiday -- shopping, baking, visiting with friends and family, decorating -- are enjoyable (or not) in their own way, but somehow, this touching autobiographical story, originally published in Mademoiselle (1956), gives me what I always long for year after year.
I have often said that if I could write just one story this good in my lifetime, I wouldn't need to write anything else. It begins on, "a coming of winter morning more than twenty years ago. Consider the kitchen of a spreading old house in a country town. A great black stove is its main feature; but there is also a big round table and a fireplace with two rocking chairs placed in front of it. Just today the fireplace commenced its seasonal roar."
The story is narrated by 7-year-old Buddy, who compares his 60-something-year-old distant cousin and best friend to a spritely bantam hen with sherry-colored eyes. She looks out the window, as she does every year in late November, and exclaims, "It's fruitcake weather!"
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