Christmas

Christmas is the homecoming at the heart of Anne Shirley’s first holiday break from Redmond: after examinations and an invitation to spend the season elsewhere, she returns to Green Gables, where familiar affection gathers around her and falling snow completes a white Christmas. The holiday also places her homecoming beside Philippa Gordon’s very different celebrations in Bolingbroke, linking the warmth of belonging with the changing choices of young adulthood.

Choosing Home

The approach to Christmas follows the end of Redmond’s first term. The students emerge from their examinations, and Anne, Gilbert Blythe, and Philippa Gordon have shared the distinction of leading the freshman classes. On the night before leaving, Anne can scarcely believe that the next day she will be at Green Gables. Philippa is bound for Bolingbroke to visit Alec and Alonzo and urges Anne to come with her, promising dances, drives, and festivities. Anne is touched by the invitation but declines: she longs too much for home to spend this Christmas away. Her choice makes the journey more than a convenient holiday visit; it is a deliberate return to the relationships and place she has missed.

Welcome at Green Gables

Anne’s arrival is met first by the exuberant welcome of Davy Keith, who hugs her knees and shows her the bonfire he has made because he is glad she is coming home. Dora Keith clings to Anne’s hand. At the kitchen door, Marilla Cuthbert stays partly in shadow, trying to hide how close she is to tears of joy; Rachel Lynde stands behind her, as kindly and familiar as ever. Anne is welcomed by the old ties she had longed for, and the loaded supper table, her bright laughter, and the rosebud tea-set give the reunion its domestic shape. Diana Barry is staying the night, restoring a closeness that recalls earlier days. Before joining her friend upstairs, Anne keeps faith with Davy’s request that she put him to bed.

Confidences and the First Snow

Anne and Diana spend the night talking together, though the narrator leaves the substance of their confidences unrecorded. Their fresh, bright-eyed appearance at breakfast hints at the late hours they have shared. As Diana crosses the old log bridge on her way home, the season changes visibly: the first snow begins to fall over the fields and woods, and the distant slopes soon fade behind it. The snowfall makes the promised white Christmas real. During Christmas morning, letters and gifts from Miss Lavendar and Paul Irving arrive at Green Gables. Anne reports that they have settled into their new home and reads a letter from Charlotta the Fourth, who is homesick in Boston; Miss Lavendar also asks Anne to visit Echo Lodge while she is home and air it by lighting a fire.

Two Versions of the Holiday

A letter from Philippa Gordon offers a counterpoint to Anne’s homecoming. In Bolingbroke, Philippa is enjoying the snow and the holiday entertainments, but she cannot decide whether Alec or Alonzo is the right man to marry. The thump of her heart at each brother’s appearance, she writes, has failed to guide her as romantic stories would suggest. Her playful uncertainty and wish that Anne had come to help her contrast with Anne’s settled desire to return to Green Gables. Christmas thus holds both the comfort of enduring attachments and the unsettled prospects of the future: Anne finds familiar love at home, while Philippa weighs the choices that may shape hers.