The Christmas child: and other verse for children

The Christmas child by Nora Archibald Smith is a collection of children’s poems written in the early 20th century. It blends reverent Christmas pieces, folktales, and seasonal songs with playful animal vignettes and gentle moral lessons, all pitched to delight and guide young readers.

The opening of The Christmas child centers on Christmas, first praising the “Christmas child” as generous and kind, then staging a processional of the Magi alongside modern pilgrims, lively Santa songs, and tender Nativity scenes where animals share the Christ-night. Brief fables and legends follow—a benevolent gnome gifts forest creatures, a good fir becomes a Christmas tree, a German thief is banished to the moon, a wren warms the Holy Babe, and a “Christ-Flower” blooms where an infant was found—while child-voiced pieces revel in secret gift-giving and gently chide selfishness. The section widens to winter and New Year cheer, kindness to birds in Norway, and light, imaginative sketches (a boastful snowflake, a bustling Goose Fair, a fairy ring), keeping a warm, musical tone and clear, simple morals throughout.