Not All Gifts Are under the Tree: Christmas Day in the Morning by Pearl Buck and Mark Buehner

Pearl Buck's classic, Christmas Day in the Morning, is a tale of the gift that keeps on giving. It begins with a 65-year-old man waking very early on Christmas morning and remembering the Christmas when he was fifteen.

He loved his father. He had not known it until one day, a fews days before Christmas, when he overheard what his father was saying to his mother.

"Mary, I hate to call Robert in the mornings. He's growing so fast and he needs his sleep."

Robert knows how much his father needs him for the pre-dawn milking and feeding of their dairy cows in the barn, and he decides on a gift for his dad that will mean more than his usual necktie. Robert forces himself out of bed before 3:00 a.m. on Christmas morning and has all the barn work beautifully done just in time to hop under the covers and feign sleep when his dad comes to wake him. Pretending to be too tired to move, he grins to himself as he waits for his surprised dad's return from the barn. Then, as his father comes in with a hug of gratitude, Robert realizes that he has given his father another gift, his first chance ever to be in the house when all his children wake up to see the Christmas tree decorated and surrounded by gifts.

"The best Christmas gift I ever had, and I'll always remember it, son, every year on Christmas morning so long as I live." his father says.

Mark Buehner's illustrations for Pearl Buck's story are absolutely lovely. Solid and realistic, but softly rounded, with the glow of fond memory, he shows the small starlit farmhouse in the snowy fields, the sleepy teen yawning with his dog as he drowsily tugs on his flannel shirt, the gangly boy milking a patient cow, with the waiting cat at his feet in the barn, and the family sharing their Christmas morning in the small, worn living room. Each painting is work of art on its own, and together they make this edition of Pearl S. Buck's short story of Christmas love a classic to share each year.