Silent Night: The Song from Heaven

Steve Pitt is a Toronto-based freelance writer and an award-winning journalist. He has written many young adult and children's books, including Day of the Flying Fox: The True Story of World War II Pilot Charley Fox.

A Christmas story within a Christmas story within a Christmas story is
the easiest way to describe this amazing combination of fiction,
nonfiction, and religious tradition by award-winning author Linda
Granfield. The central narrative revolves around the fictional
characters Hans and Maria, two young Austrian children who have been
given the honor of assembling their church’s Christmas crиche on
Christmas Eve, 1818. They ask each other questions about Christ’s
birth as they unpack the tiny wooden stable and its wax figurines and
try to see the first Christmas day from baby Jesus’ point of view.
Their activities and their images of the Christ child are mirrored in
gorgeous Scherenschnitt illustrations by Nelly and Ernst Hofer.
Scherenschnitt, an ancient folk art popular in early 19th-century
Europe, involved the fashioning of decorations made of elaborately
sculptured sheets of parchment to portray both religious and secular
scenes.

Music history provides a secondary narrative to accompany Hans and
Maria’s fictional adventure. On Christmas Eve, the organ in
Oberndorf’s parish church breaks down just hours before the service.
In desperation, the priest asks the organist to compose music for a
simple hymn he has just written. The resulting collaboration, which Hans
and Maria’s congregation hears for the first time that night, goes on
to become the most beloved Christmas tune of all time. Like a perfect
holiday feast, Granfield delivers a table full of treats and makes it
look easy. Highly recommended.