Karl Krinken

Every Christmas Eve, little Carl Krinken hangs up his stocking. Santa Claus, busy with gilt books, rocking-horses and sugar-plums for rich children, has never once thought of filling it, and yet Carl's stocking is never empty. In a drift-wood-lit hut on a wild, windswept coast, his fisherman father and his devoted mother fill it with everything they can spare: three rosy apples found by the roadside, a red cent, an old purse, a pair of new shoes, a little cork boat carved by hand, a pine cone, and an old book with a tarnished silver clasp.
Carl is perfectly content with his humble treasures. But on Christmas morning he remembers a curious dream: that every one of his presents told him a story. And then, to his astonishment, they begin to talk.
What follows is a charming, imaginative cycle of tales, each narrated by a different object: a self-important apple with grand opinions about her family tree, a proud little red cent who insists that even the smallest coin matters, a grumpy purse weary of being a purse. Their stories carry Carl from Thanksgiving tables and busy city streets to quiet English commons and humble factory floors, introducing him to children and grown-ups whose small acts of honesty, kindness and faith matter far more than they ever imagine.
Written by the sisters Susan Warner and Anna Bartlett Warner, the authors of The Wide, Wide World and Queechy, this nineteenth-century classic blends gentle humor, whimsical talking objects and warm moral feeling. A treasure for anyone who believes that love, not luxury, makes a Christmas, and a perfect listen for the holiday season, for children and nostalgic grown-ups alike.