The Season of Giving! November 18 2025
St. Martin’s Day — Veteran’s Day — appropriately marks the beginning of the gift giving season. Martin’s gift of being a selfless leader of men, thinking only of others, and not of himself, leads to the tale of his gift to a freezing beggar, ignored by all excepting Martin. Drawing his sword, he cut his warm, woolen cloak in two, giving one half to the beggar. To stop and do this generous act meant that the doors of the city were closed by the time he was finished with the gift, and he could no longer enter the city and enjoy a warm meal and a cot on which to lie. He slept with the beggar outdoors that night.
It is the time again this year for expressing to those we admire, appreciate, and love, our gratitude for having these important people in our lives—often with a gift. This practice is a heartwarming one that pushes us to think of things that might delight the recipient, filled with meaning and riches of the heart that will give the receiver of our gifts the whispering message, the feeling of wonder we feel at our good fortune to have special people in our lives to whom we can give gifts.
On the other hand, gift giving can engender a frantic feeling, supported by the general mood of frenzy that often accompanies the season of gifts. Settling for something as a gift that really does not mean a lot and just fills in the space of “something to give” instead of finding that perfect thing that says it all, never feels right.
As a librarian, I always recommend books as gifts. In the magical world of books, one can find anything to match the personality or interests of another. There are many offerings from Waldorf Publications: www.waldorfpublications.org.
For children under the age of ten, there are many fantastical books for them: Tales of Gnomes and Trolls, The Sun with Loving Light, and all the marvelous stories by Jakob Street, including a new one soon to be out in time for the Christmas, The King Child and the Shepherd Child with legends from Jesus’s boyhood. There are also the stories of Lindamere Woods and the Gnomes who live there by Siglinde de la Francesca; or Reg Down’s remarkably delightful and engaging stories about Tiptoes Lightly, the fairy who lives in a tiny acorn. Of course, there are effective and highly entertaining readers for the early grade children in your life — the Morrow readers, or the Pittis readers, all stories filled with light from around the world.
For youngsters nine years and older, there are Stories from the Old Testament from that ancient literature and Eric Müller’s classics, The Invisible Boat, and The Invisible Boat and the Molten Dragon. For middle school youngsters and high schoolers there are biographies: Copernicus; Louis Braille; Susan Cook’s Biographies for the Eighth Grade; A Brief History of Chemistry, filled with biographies of remarkable chemists.
For adults, especially teachers and parents, there are too many to mention in this letter but topics in child development, aspects of the curriculum, books for self-development, books from the Pedagogical Section Council of North America, and books to cultivate artistic capacities in music, painting, form drawing, sculpture, knitting — with needles and without them, woodworking, and more.
And please, do not forget to join us for “Buy Nothing Day,” our twelfth annual festival of quiet working with hands, parent hands and children’s. So, the world around us loses itself in the frantic world of buying things, we recommend that the day after Thanksgiving can be an engaged and engaging day of making things by hand. Now THIS is an inspiring answer to your gifting needs — a gift made by hand! Every year a friend of the Library Lady offers lovely stress-free projects that result in beautiful possibilities as gifts: mobiles, songs, verses, weavings, and so much more. By engaging in Buy Nothing Friday, you are likely to end up with the most perfect gift of all — something hearts and hands made by you or by a youngster! What can better than that!
Yours in generosity and wonder,
