Christmas Memories
September, 1996
Published
64
Pages
illus.
Features
About Greene's Christmas Memories
“In the town where I was born and raised, everyone drove a few miles south to cut a tree… In that dry, windy country few of the cedars grew straight and full, so the major problem was to find the one least lopsided and wind-whipped.” Thus A. C. Greene, in ‘The Too-Big Christmas Tree,’ tells of a Christmas in the 1920s when his father cut a too-big tree and almost broke up the family. Long out-of-print and a collector’s item, this story is now coupled with ‘Christmas Shopping,’ in which a small boy sets out with his grandmother on his first shopping trip to buy Christmas presents for the family. “My grandmother and I boarded the little four-wheel trolley on the Fair Park loop—the men who were waiting all tipping their hats and letting the women and children on first. Pretty soon we were bumping and swaying up Sayles Hill on our way to downtown.”
“This attractive gift book… gives two vivid snapshots of Greene’s childhood and the values that shaped him… appropriate Christmas reading.”
“A great Christmas book… ‘The Two-Big Christmas Tree’ is a wonderful story, but Greene’s ‘Christmas Shopping’ is my all-time favorite… The ending of this sweet but never sentimental story will challenge anyone’s ability to remain dry-eyed. The illustrations are masterful, done by Greene’s son, Geoffrey, a New York graphic designer.” —San Antonio Express-News
“…a pair of stories about two Christmases, long ago, in the life of a man who has known 73 of them… the charm and meaning of his work has stretched beyond the boundaries of Texas.” —Atlanta Constitution & Journal
“Two nostalgic stories of an Abilene, Texas, childhood by one of the region’s finest writers… Wonderful gift book.” —Books of the Southwest
“…tender treatise on Christmas provides audiences with excellent seasonal gift options… evokes the sights and smells of the author’s childhood Christmas celebrations, from fresh-cut trees to an early Christmas shopping expedition.” —Midwest Book Review
“Anything that A. C. Greene writes is worth reading… an excellent wordsmith, he compresses a lot of action and feelings in a short space… there is probably no better writer in Texas today.” —TOWA News
About the Author
A. C. GREENE was born in 1923 in Abilene, Texas and after service in WWII he graduated from Abilene Christian College. He served on the staff of the Abilene Reporter-News, ran his own bookstore and headed the journalism department at Hardin-Simmons University. He joined the Dallas Times-Herald, serving as book editor and editorial page editor before being awarded a Dobie-Paisano fellowship during which he wrote A Personal Country. He wrote a column for The Dallas Morning News and wrote more than 22 books. He published numerous articles in The Atlantic, Texas Monthly, Southwest Review, Southwestern Historical Quarterly, New York Times Book Review, and wrote and narrated many television shows for PBS. He was a Fellow in the Texas State Historical Association and the Texas Institute of Letters.