Beautiful artwork reminiscent of a Dickens era Christmas grace the pages to tell a charming story about a young boy who only wants new skates for Christmas.

It seems almost impossible to believe there once was a time when children wanted something as simple as just a single pair of ice skates considering now it’s not Christmas without enough presents to practically hide the tree and there must be at least one $500 video game system in the bunch.

Taking into account the emphasis on gifts in modern culture this is the perfect book to be part of your holiday season. Poor Georgie who normally loves finding the perfect tree and decorating it doesn’t want to participate in the magic around him because his father told him he may not get the much desired skates. That would be the huge negative in teaching our kids to believe if they are good enough then they’ll be showered in presents and since not everyone can afford them what values are we really teaching year after year?

His mom has to point out that Christmas is not ‘ruined’ as many kids have a habit of believing when that perfect gift they wanted looks out of reach. Maybe the focus needs to be more on helping others instead of what we can buy.

It’s a lesson Georgie soon took to heart and did something truly glorious for his parents. Even better when Georgie received his skates his parents explained all the hard work they had to do in order to get them so he would understand that it was their love and not some mythic stranger who wanted to get him his present.

As a parent of kids who struggles every year to fulfill those Christmas present wishes I loved this book because the lesson it teaches truly exemplifies that the season is supposed to be about.