Reviewed by Annika

TITLE: Red Popcorn Strings and Gumball Rings

AUTHOR: Nell Iris

PUBLISHER: Self-Published

LENGTH: 47 pages

RE-RELEASE DATE: December 7, 2019

BLURB:

Young couple Ellis and Casey’s Christmas is set to be a lean one. Struggling financially, they’re only able to manage the most basic needs for their holiday celebration. They can’t afford luxuries like a turkey. Or decorations. Or presents. Between the recent death of Casey’s beloved momma, and Ellis’ estrangement from his family, all they have is each other.

When Ellis finds the saddest looking Christmas tree south of the Mason-Dixon line thrown outside his workplace and brings it home to Casey, things look up. Because what more do you need to have a Merry Christmas than enthusiasm, ingenuity, and someone to love?

REVIEW:

I’ve been lucky (maybe good?) this year. This is the second advent story I’ve read this year and they have both been amazing (The first one being Finding Yuletide Karol). I didn’t read the blurb before i picked this book up. I heard some of my fellow reviewers raving about it, how good it was and decided I needed to know too. And boy am I glad I did, because what an amazing story this was.

Red Popcorn Strings and Gumball Rings was originally part of the advent collection of a couple of years ago, but has now been re-released independently. This story was so beautiful, touching and moving. It was sad yet so full of hope at the same time. It’s a story that will make you appreciate what you have – and not the material things. The people you love. The people who love you. The small things in life that mean so much and enable us to change the world.

It’s as plain as day (well summer days, as these days are all mud grey, rainy and dark) to see that Casey and Ellis love each other. That they belong to each other. They also knew how lucky they were to have that love, the importance of it. They knew what really mattered in life. And it wasn’t the turkey dinner they couldn’t afford to make or buy, or gifts under the tree – which they also couldn’t afford. They didn’t have much, but they had each other, and they were genuinely and truly happy.

Just before Christmas Ellis brings home the saddest tree known to man, a tree destined for the recycling bin. It was crooked, scrawny and already starting to lose its needles. But it was a tree, it smelled like Christmas and to them it was the most beautiful tree ever. I too loved that tree. It symbolised so much, not the least that it’s the gestures that counts. Watching them watching their tree decorated with red popcorn strings in awe was, I have to say humbling and beautiful. I could see them before me lying there on the floor watching, basking.

I loved that Christmas tree, it symbolised so much, for them, but also in general. And it also made me long for a tree of my very own. There’s something about that smell that gets me every time. This book showed us what’s most important during Christmas – spending it with someone you love. It was beyond beautiful, and if this story doesn’t get you into holiday spirits (and melt your heart) I don’t know what will.

RATING:

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