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''"A Christmas Memory"'' is a
short story A short story is a piece of prose fiction that typically can be read in one sitting and focuses on a self-contained incident or series of linked incidents, with the intent of evoking a single effect or mood. The short story is one of the oldest ...
by
Truman Capote Truman Garcia Capote ( ; born Truman Streckfus Persons; September 30, 1924 – August 25, 1984) was an American novelist, screenwriter, playwright and actor. Several of his short stories, novels, and plays have been praised as literary classics, ...
. Originally published in '' Mademoiselle'' magazine in December 1956, it was reprinted in ''The Selected Writings of Truman Capote'' in 1963. It was issued in a stand-alone hardcover edition by
Random House Random House is an American book publisher and the largest general-interest paperback publisher in the world. The company has several independently managed subsidiaries around the world. It is part of Penguin Random House, which is owned by Germ ...
in 1966, and it has been published in many editions and anthologies since. The largely autobiographical story, which takes place in the 1930s, describes a period in the lives of the seven-year-old narrator and an elderly woman who is his distant cousin and best friend. The woman was Nanny Faulk, elder sister of the household where Capote’s wayward parents deposited him as a young boy. Nanny, whom everyone called Sook, was thought to be developmentally disabled. But Capote later wrote a friend, ‘’I had an elderly cousin, the woman in my story ‘A Christmas Memory,’ who was a genius.” The evocative narrative focuses on country life, friendship, and the joy of giving during the Christmas season, and it also gently yet poignantly touches on loneliness and loss. Now a holiday classic, "A Christmas Memory" has been broadcast, recorded, filmed, and staged multiple times, in award-winning productions.


Plot

Narrated by an unnamed, seven-year-old boy who is referred to as "Buddy" by his older cousin, "A Christmas Memory" is about the narrator's relationship with his older, unnamed, female cousin, to whom he refers throughout the story only as "my friend."  (In later adaptations, she is called Sook.)  Buddy and his cousin, who is eccentric and childlike, live in a house with other relatives—who are authoritarian and stern—and have a dog named Queenie. The family is very poor, but Buddy looks forward to Christmas every year nevertheless, and he and his elderly cousin save their pennies for this occasion.  Every year at Christmastime, Buddy and his friend collect pecans and buy other ingredients to make fruitcakes; although set during
Prohibition Prohibition is the act or practice of forbidding something by law; more particularly the term refers to the banning of the manufacture, storage (whether in barrels or in bottles), transportation, sale, possession, and consumption of alcohol ...
, this includes whiskey, which they buy from a scary—but ultimately friendly— "Indian" bootlegger named Haha Jones.  They send the cakes to acquaintances they have met only once or twice, and to people they've never met at all, like President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. This year, after the two have finished the elaborate four-day production of making fruitcakes, the elderly cousin decides to celebrate by finishing off the remaining whiskey in the bottle.  This leads to the two of them becoming giddy drunk, and the older cousin being severely reprimanded by angry relatives for letting the younger cousin imbibe.  She runs off to her room crying, but Buddy follows and comforts her with thoughts of Christmas rituals. The next day, Buddy and his friend go to a faraway grove, which the elderly cousin has proclaimed the best place, by far, to chop down Christmas trees.  They manage to chop and carry home a large and beautiful tree, despite the arduousness of the trek. They spend the following days making decorations for the tree and presents for the relatives, Queenie, and each other.  Buddy and the older cousin keep their gifts to each other a secret, and although Buddy knows that his friend desperately wishes she could afford to get him a bike, he assumes his friend has made him a kite, as she has every year.  He has made her a kite, too. Come Christmas morning, the two of them are up at the crack of dawn, anxious to open their presents.  Buddy is extremely disappointed, having received the rather dismal gifts of old hand-me-downs and a subscription to a religious magazine.  His friend has gotten the somewhat better gifts of oranges and hand-knitted scarves.  Queenie gets a bone, as she does every year. Then they exchange their joyful presents to each other, the two kites, and Buddy's friend tells him that the kite he made is her favourite gift that year.  In a beautiful, hidden meadow, they fly the kites that day in the clear, winter sky, while eating the older cousin's Christmas oranges.  The elderly cousin thinks of this as heaven, and says that God and heaven must be like this. It is their last Christmas together.  The following year, the boy is sent to military school.  Although Buddy and his friend keep up a constant correspondence, this is unable to last because his elderly cousin suffers more and more the ravages of old age, and slips into dementia.  Soon, she is unable to remember who Buddy is, and not long after, she passes away. As Buddy says later:
And when that happens, I know it.  A message saying so merely confirms a piece of news some secret vein had already received, severing me from an irreplaceable part of myself, letting it loose like a kite on a broken string.  That is why, walking across a school campus on this particular December morning, I keep searching the sky.  As if I expected to see, rather like hearts, a lost pair of kites hurrying towards heaven.


Adaptations and recordings


Television

"A Christmas Memory" was adapted for television for ''
ABC Stage 67 ''ABC Stage 67'' is the umbrella title for a series of 26 weekly American television shows that included dramas, variety shows, documentaries and original musicals. It premiered on ABC on September 14, 1966, with Murray Schisgal's ''The Love ...
'' by Truman Capote and Eleanor Perry. The production starred Geraldine Page and Donnie Melvin, and Truman Capote was the narrator. Both the
teleplay A teleplay is a screenplay or script used in the production of a scripted television program or series. In general usage, the term is most commonly seen in reference to a standalone production, such as a television film, a television play, or a ...
and the program's star, Geraldine Page, won Emmy Awards.Geraldine Page – Awards
at the
Internet Movie Database IMDb (an abbreviation of Internet Movie Database) is an online database of information related to films, television series, home videos, video games, and streaming content online – including cast, production crew and personal biographies, ...
The production also won a Peabody Award. This production is available on video under such titles as ''ABC Playhouse 67: A Christmas Memory'' or ''Truman Capote's "A Christmas Memory"''. This version starring Geraldine Page was also released in cinemas by Allied Artists in 1969 as part of '' Truman Capote's Trilogy''. The story was also adapted for
Hallmark A hallmark is an official mark or series of marks struck on items made of metal, mostly to certify the content of noble metals—such as platinum, gold, silver and in some nations, palladium. In a more general sense, the term '' hallmark'' can a ...
television in 1997. This production starred
Eric Lloyd Eric Lloyd (born David Eric Lloyd Morelli; May 19, 1986) is an American actor, musician, and producer. Lloyd is best known for work as a child actor in such roles as Charlie Calvin in Disney's ''The Santa Clause'' film trilogy and the follow-u ...
as Buddy and
Patty Duke Anna Marie "Patty" Duke (December 14, 1946 – March 29, 2016) was an American actress and mental health advocate. Over the course of her acting career, she was the recipient of an Academy Award, two Golden Globe Awards, three Primetime Emmy Awa ...
as Sook. Eric Lloyd was nominated for a
Young Artist Award The Young Artist Award (originally known as the Youth in Film Award) is an accolade presented by the Young Artist Foundation, a nonprofit organization founded in 1978 to honor excellence of youth performers, and to provide scholarships for young ...
for Best Performance in a TV Movie/Pilot/Mini-Series – Young Actor Age Ten or Under. This version was criticized as being inferior to the previous film. The story has also been adapted as part of ''Short Story Anthology'', a 16-part series available from Children's Television International. "A Christmas Memory" comprises episodes 11 and 12 of the series.


Recordings

For the live-audience '' Selected Shorts'' series, broadcast nationally on
NPR National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other ...
stations, actor
John Shea John Victor Shea III ( ; born April 14, 1949) is an American actor, film producer and stage director. His career began on Broadway theatre, Broadway where he starred in ''Yentl (play), Yentl,'' subsequently winning his first major award, the 1975 ...
recorded "A Christmas Memory" in the late 1990s. Shea's sensitive reading was anthologized and sold on cassette, and the anthology, ''Selected Shorts, Vol. XII'', was the winner of ''AudioFile Magazines Earphones Award in 1999. A CD of the story read by
Celeste Holm Celeste Holm (April 29, 1917 – July 15, 2012) was an American stage, film and television actress. Holm won an Academy Award for her performance in Elia Kazan's '' Gentleman's Agreement'' (1947), and was nominated for her roles in ''Come to ...
is included in Knopf/Random House's 50th Anniversary 2006 printing of the book. Truman Capote's own reading of "A Christmas Memory" was recorded in 1959 and issued on LP. An abridged version of the 1959 LP was featured on the
NPR National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other ...
radio program '' This American Life'' in 2003. Capote was also recorded in 1976 reading the story to a live audience at the University of North Dakota Writers Conference.


Theatre

In 1991, a musical stageplay adaptation by Malcolm Ruhl and Russell Vandenbroucke, ''Holiday Memories'', was published, which combines both "A Christmas Memory" and "The Thanksgiving Visitor." In 2010, Capote's "A Christmas Memory" was adapted into a full-length musical by Broadway veterans Larry Grossman (music) and
Carol Hall Carol Hall (April 3, 1936 – October 11, 2018) was an American composer and lyricist. She was best known for composing the music and lyrics for the Broadway stage musical '' The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas'' (1978, adapted as a film in 1982) ...
(lyrics). Duane Poole, who had written the original teleplay starring Patty Duke, wrote the musical's book. ''A Christmas Memory'' received its world premiere at TheatreWorks in
Palo Alto, California Palo Alto (; Spanish for "tall stick") is a charter city in the northwestern corner of Santa Clara County, California, United States, in the San Francisco Bay Area, named after a coastal redwood tree known as El Palo Alto. The city was es ...
on December 4, 2010, starring Broadway veteran,
Penny Fuller A penny is a coin ( pennies) or a unit of currency (pl. pence) in various countries. Borrowed from the Carolingian denarius (hence its former abbreviation d.), it is usually the smallest denomination within a currency system. Presently, it is th ...
. The musical had its Off-Broadway premiere at the Irish Repertory Theatre in Manhattan, starring Tony Award-winner
Alice Ripley Alice Ripley (born December 14, 1963) is an American actress, singer, songwriter and mixed media artist. She is known, in particular, for her various roles on Broadway in musicals, including the Pulitzer Prize-winning ''Next to Normal'' (2009 To ...
as Sook. It ran November 25, 2014 – January 4, 2015 at the Irish Rep's temporary home, the DR2 Theater in
Union Square Union commonly refers to: * Trade union, an organization of workers * Union (set theory), in mathematics, a fundamental operation on sets Union may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Music * Union (band), an American rock group ** ''Un ...
.


Opera

In 1992, Capote's "A Christmas Memory" was adapted into a one-act opera by American composer Samuel Jones. The opera was first staged by Gaitley Mathews at the Deep Ellum Opera Theatre in Dallas in December, 1992, to critical acclaim. The composer fashioned the libretto from the story and the Eleanor Perry/Truman Capote television screenplay, with their personal approval. The composer also created an orchestral suite from the opera.


Sequels

Truman Capote further explored the lives of Buddy and Sook in his story " The Thanksgiving Visitor," which also was adapted for television. The 1967 television production of ''The Thanksgiving Visitor'' earned Geraldine Page a second Emmy Award. Capote's third short story about Buddy and Sook was " One Christmas", published in 1983, and televised in 1994.''One Christmas'' (1994)
at the
Internet Movie Database IMDb (an abbreviation of Internet Movie Database) is an online database of information related to films, television series, home videos, video games, and streaming content online – including cast, production crew and personal biographies, ...


See also

*
List of Christmas-themed literature The following is a navigational list of notable literary works which are set at Christmas time, or contain Christmas amongst the central themes. Novels and novellas *Agatha Christie, ''Hercule Poirot's Christmas'' *Charles Dickens, ''A Christmas C ...
* List of Christmas films


References

;Notes ;Further reading * * *


External links


"A Christmas Memory"
readable online
50th Anniversary 2006 printing
which includes audio CD read by Celeste Holm * ''A Christmas Memory'' (1966) at the
Internet Movie Database IMDb (an abbreviation of Internet Movie Database) is an online database of information related to films, television series, home videos, video games, and streaming content online – including cast, production crew and personal biographies, ...
* ''A Christmas Memory'' (1997) at the
Internet Movie Database IMDb (an abbreviation of Internet Movie Database) is an online database of information related to films, television series, home videos, video games, and streaming content online – including cast, production crew and personal biographies, ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Christmas Memory, A 1966 short stories Christmas short stories Fiction set in the 1930s Short stories by Truman Capote Southern United States in fiction American memoirs Works originally published in Mademoiselle (magazine) Random House books