The Paper Bag Christmas

by Kevin Alan Milne

Book Overview

Dr. Christopher Ringle is the last person you'd expect to find moonlighting as Santa Claus at the mall on the day after Thanksgiving. But it is there that he meets a young man named Molar Alan, who desperately needs a new perspective on the underlying value of Christmas. Dr. Ringle recruits Mo and his older brother as volunteers at a nearby children's hospital for the holiday season. At the hospital, Mo is tasked to help bring holiday cheer to the...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1599950731
• ISBN13: 9781599950730
• Release Date: October 2008
• Publisher: Center Street
• Length: 160 Pages
• Weight: 0.54 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.5" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

Best book ever!

Such a heart warming story. I cannot imagine anyone who wouldn't love it.

Best Kept Secret

Not sure why this book doesn’t top the charts, but it is one of the most heartfelt, simple, and memorable Christmas stories I’ve ever read. I gift this book to people, and I recently bought 7 copies to share with my 8th grade students so we could have a Christmas book club read. Enjoy this book and share with others

Wonderful Christmas story for the whole family

A wonderful book that teaches the lesson that "beauty is only skin deep". Full of warmth, magic and love this is a story of what kindness of heart and self-sacrifice can mean in someone's life. And the tremendous power of love. A book recommended for ages 8 and up. It will warm your heart.

Great feel-good book that makes you want to do something good

Loved the book. Good story line with just enough humor to take the edge off the bittersweet parts. Makes you think about the true meaning of Christmas. It made me want to find a way to give back. Great book for those pre-teens/teens that think Christmas is about X-boxes and stuff, or anyone who needs a reminder that most people have it rougher than we do. Highly recommended.

A wonderful gift to readers at Christmas time

What would you think if Santa Claus told you that you that you wouldn't get all the "stuff" you asked for, but you would get the gift you never wanted for Christmas? That's what a special Santa Claus told Molar and Aaron Alan when they visited him at the mall, the day after Thanksgiving in 1980. The unusual Santa who "posed" as a pediatric oncologist and rode around in a colorful wheelchair enlists Molar and Aaron to serve as his elves in the children's ward of the local hospital. Molar and Aaron are each given a special assignment. Aaron meets a young Indian boy, Madhu, who is Hindu and is in need of a liver. Madhu has an interest in the Christmas story and has questions galore about the meaning of the season. He wants to be the fourth wise man in the hospital pageant - and he ultimately gives the greatest of all gifts to the Christ child. Molar's assignment is more difficult. Katrina is a sad and lonely girl who is dying. Her numerous surgeries have left her scarred and thus she keeps herself hidden from everyone. Madhu and Katrina have a Christmas wish but the Christmas spirit touches all of the lives of those in the children's hospital. And Aaron and Molar experience their first real Christmas, one that will follow them for the rest of their lives. The novella, The Paper Bag Christmas is just a feel-good story that will bring tears to your eyes, put a smile on your lips and fill your heart with love. And really, isn't that what Christmas is all about? The Christmas season lives through the story of a man who cared, children who believed and a hospital that became the stage for Christmas miracles that Christmas in Oregon in 1980. Armchair Interviews says: The Paper Bag Christmas is a Christmas gift from the author to everyone. Our gift to the author--buy his lovely Christmas story and live the message all year round.

Perfect holiday story!

The Paper Bag Christmas is a perfect example of the greatness of quality rather than quantity. Often it is very easy to forget the true meaning of Christmas, with all of the materialistic hype that revolves around the holidays. However, with The Paper Bag Christmas, author Kevin Alan Milne brings to light the true meaning behind this celebrated time of year. It is not what we get or even what we can give material wise, but rather what we can give of ourselves and in return receive the greatest gift of all - or rather, as stated within The Paper Bag Christmas, the gift that is "everything you've never wanted for Christmas". Molar and his older brother Aaron, help a pediatric oncologist, Dr. Chris Ringle, by assisting as Santa's elves, in a very special hospital children's ward. Though Molar and Aaron do not voluntarily begin this task, they soon realize the happiness they can bring to the other children and develop some very special bonds with the children - especially a young girl who wears a paper bag over her head to hide her "ugliness" and a young boy whose religion does not celebrate Christmas, and who knows very little of it's true traditional meaning. Though these two children appear the least likely, they are actually the ones to forever change Molar and Aaron's lives - as well as many around them. Molar also learns the truest meaning of friendship as well as the fact that just a few kind words and gestures can mean so very much to someone. The Paper Bag Christmas is a wonderfully beautiful and heart warming story that will bring laughter, as well as tears. It is a story that you will want to read again and again and also a story that you will want to recommend to others. There are few books that forever touch the heart, and The Paper Bag Christmas is one of those. I highly recommend this and know that it will make a beautiful addition to anyone's library.

It's a terrific story with a lot of meaning

Reviewed by Lori Plach for Reader Views (11/08) Do you think Christmas is too commercialized? Do you feel that the true meaning of Christmas gets lost in the hustle and bustle of buying the perfect gifts? Are your kids making out their Christmas lists to be so long and costly that you know they just won't be satisfied with just a couple of things off the list rather than the whole list? Young Molar Alan and his older brother Aaron think they are too old to go see Santa. With the insistence of their father claiming that is a tradition worth keeping, the boys go to visit Santa at the mall. They are given a slip of paper to write down what they want for Christmas. Of course, all the latest and greatest toys are named on the list. However, this year "Santa" is different from all the previous years' Santas. He is a children's oncologist who has become friends with the boys' father who is dentist. The two medical professionals come up with a plan to help show the boys why it is wrong to be so materialistic. The boys must come and help as Dr Ringle's elves at the children's hospital for the weeks prior to Christmas. Dr Ringle has a plan which is two-fold. He wants to help the young boys learn the real reasons of Christmas and also bring some sunlight to his young terminally-ill young patients' lives. Aaron becomes friends with Madhu who desperately needs a transplant, while Alan meets Katrina. Katrina believes that she is ugly and no one would ever want to see her face so she wears a paper bag each time he comes to visit. The Christmas pageant approaches and both children have specific ideas of what part if any they should play. Whoever heard of a fourth wise man or an ugly angel? Molar creates a plan of his own aided by the prettiest girl to make it a Christmas pageant that will never be forgotten. "The Paper Bag Christmas" is a wonderful book to inspire your holiday season. It will get to you emotionally and move you in a way that you won't expect. I found myself laughing in some parts especially with the fourth wise man and crying in the emotional and stirring end. You would never guess that Kevin Alan Milne is a first time novelist. I certainly hope he continues to write more books. "The Paper Bag Christmas" could easily become a classic and I certainly wouldn't mind seeing it becoming a movie. It's a terrific story with a lot of meaning and you won't look at a paper bag the same way again. Have yourself a wonderful "Paper Bag Christmas!" Reviewed by Leslie Granier for Reader Views (12/08) Set in 1980, "The Paper Bag Christmas" tells the story of two brothers, Aaron and Molar (ages eleven and nine, respectively), who are taken to the mall to give their Christmas lists to Santa. In actuality, their parents set up a meeting with this special Santa to teach them more about the spirit and meaning of Christmas. "Santa" is a pediatric oncologist at a children's hospital who enlists Aaron and Molar to act as his elves to collect the wish li

This book is heartfelt and inspiring; a must have!

Typically, one would find my wife and I having dissimilar tastes in what we read. She prefers to soak in the 'suspenseful heart-wrenchers', while I tend to enjoy more of the adventurous and humorous stories. We do, however seldom, find a work of Literature that satisfies us both. "The Paper Bag Christmas" is one such gem that we discovered, love and have added to our family collection. I would highly recommend you do the same. Milne writes in such a way that you quickly become woven into the fabric of the story, hardly able to stop reading once you have begun. The experiences of the characters become personal and you share every tear and laugh along the way. A more appropriate recommendation would be to buy two: one for yourself, and one as a gift for a loved one. You are guaranteed to want to share it after you read it. Buying them together will save you on shipping.