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Apple Tree Christmas Hardcover – Picture Book, September 20, 2005

4.9 out of 5 stars 405 ratings

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A heartwarming, nostalgic Christmas classic to be shared across generations

The old apple tree that stands near the Ansterburgs’ barn house is an important part of their lives. Its sweet, juicy apples go into pies, applesauce, lunch pails, and even decorate their annual Christmas tree. It’s also a favorite place for Katrina. There’s a special branch where she can sit and draw and dream. The branch is her studio.

But then an ice storm brings down the old tree, splitting it down the middle. There’s nothing left to do but chop it up for firewood. As Katrina listens to her father sawing at the tree, she’s angry and resentful. Doesn’t her father know she can’t draw without her beloved tree? Not even the upcoming Christmas holiday can cheer Katrina. Can anything make her feel better?

Inspired by the author’s childhood memories, this tender story reveals the joy of a very special gift and the love between a daughter and father.

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From the Publisher

Apple Tree Christmas book cover shown, red text overlaying snow to the right of the book cover.

Family with children playing near apple tree.

Red box with white text.

Children climbing and swinging on the apple tree.

Family around the Christmas tree, children receiving a vine swing, and a drawing table as gifts.
Everybody's Tree
The Night Henry Ford Met Santa
Winter's Gift
A Wish to Be A Christmas Tree (Holiday)
Customer Reviews
4.7 out of 5 stars 146
4.8 out of 5 stars 28
4.8 out of 5 stars 209
4.7 out of 5 stars 958
Price $10.95 $15.80 $15.79 $15.84
Description Over 80 years, a spruce tree and a little boy grow up. When the tree is chosen for a city’s holiday event, everyone comes together to celebrate. Did Henry Ford get his idea of an assembly line after a quick trip to Santa’s workshop at the North Pole? A lonely old man wants to forget Christmas, but a snowstorm and a surprise visitor needing help bring an opportunity for that most elusive gift of all, hope. A tall, lonely tree waits at the edge of the Christmas tree farm. He’s certain his days of being someone’s special tree are over.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

How will Katrina face Christmas knowing that her beloved apple tree has fallen in a blizzard?

About the Author

Trinka Hakes Noble is the award-winning author of numerous picture books including The Orange Shoes (2007 National Parenting Publications Awards Honors Winner), The Scarlet Stockings Spy (2005 IRA Teachers' Choice), The Last Brother, and The Legend of the Cape May Diamond. Ms. Noble also wrote the ever-popular Jimmy's Boa series and Meanwhile Back at the Ranch, both featured on PBS's Reading Rainbow. Her many awards include ALA Notable Children's Book, Booklist Children's Editors' Choice, IRA-CBC Children's Choice, Learning: The Year's Ten Best, and several Junior Literary Guild Selections.

Ms. Noble has studied children's book writing and illustrating in New York City at Parsons School of Design, the New School University, Caldecott medalist Uri Shulevitz's Greenwich Village Workshop, and at New York University. A member of the Rutgers University Council on Children's Literature, she was awarded Outstanding Woman 2002 in Arts and Letters in the state of New Jersey for her lifetime work in children's books. Ms. Noble currently lives in the historic Jockey Hollow area of Bernardsville, New Jersey.

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ 1585362700
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Sleeping Bear Press
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ September 20, 2005
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 32 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1610804732
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1585362707
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1 pounds
  • Reading age ‏ : ‎ 6 - 9 years
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 11 x 1 x 9 inches
  • Grade level ‏ : ‎ Kindergarten - 4
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.9 out of 5 stars 405 ratings

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Customer reviews

4.9 out of 5 stars
405 global ratings

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Customers say

Customers find this Christmas book to be a beautiful family story with depth. Moreover, they appreciate its reading level, with one customer noting it's suitable for ages 6 and up. Additionally, customers enjoy the fun narrative, with one mentioning they look forward to reading it every Christmas season.

37 customers mention "Story quality"37 positive0 negative

Customers love the story of this Christmas book, describing it as beautiful and touching, with one customer noting how it evokes memories of a much-loved apple tree.

"...Every other page is a full page full color illustration which portrays the personalities and feelings of each character in the story...." Read more

"...to understand, but that makes it a great history lesson as well as a nice story. Perfect to go along with Laurel I. Wilder enthusiasts." Read more

"...This is a Christmas classic, and a book that kept me awake at night for years, a book that I still can't get out of my mind even all these years..." Read more

"...It was a well thought out, wonderful story, coupled with beautiful illustrations. We will look forward to more books by the author." Read more

13 customers mention "Reading level"13 positive0 negative

Customers appreciate the book's reading level, with children enjoying it and one customer noting it's suitable for ages 6 and up, while another mentions it provides a sweet look at simpler times.

"...and strong boughs, so the "Apple Tree Christmas" possesses strong strands of family ties and boundless roots of love...." Read more

"...too old-timey for some kids to understand, but that makes it a great history lesson as well as a nice story...." Read more

"...It is delightful to catch them reading this book independently too!..." Read more

"...Such a charming, sweet, old-fashioned tale that takes you back in time and makes you feel like you're really there with the characters...." Read more

4 customers mention "Fun story"4 positive0 negative

Customers find the story fun, with one mentioning they enjoy reading it every Christmas season.

"...story with wonderful illustrations that our family enjoys reading every Christmas season...." Read more

"...We made apple butter together after reading. So many fun activities and learning opportunities to be enjoyed alongside this sweet story." Read more

"This is a fun story with pretty illustrations about a family and their apple tree...." Read more

"Very fun title..." Read more

Top reviews from the United States

  • Reviewed in the United States on November 7, 2011
    Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase
    "Apple Tree Christmas" by Trinka Hakes Noble is a delightful 9 3/8 inch by 11 3/8 inch children's Christmas book. Just as a huge apple tree has deep roots and strong boughs, so the "Apple Tree Christmas" possesses strong strands of family ties and boundless roots of love. Every other page is a full page full color illustration which portrays the personalities and feelings of each character in the story. Children will love the illustrations which add to the meaning and feeling of the story. The reader readily recognizes that Trinka Hakes Noble is writing from her personal experiences from growing up on a small farm in southern Michigan.

    An old beloved family apple tree, barn living, a tremendous snow blizzard and ice storm, and the simple Christmas where family ties and love are more important than an elaborate Christmas celebration, all add up to a wonderful Christmas children's tale.

    Katrina and her sister, Josie, Mamma, Pappa, Mrs. Wooly and her lambs, Old Dan the family horse, and Sweet Clover, the family cow all live together in a barn. Near the barn stood an old apple tree overgrown with wild grape vines. It is late in autumn and snow is coming. One day the girls stay home from school to help pick and sort apples. They sorted apples in piles for cider, applesauce, pies, apple butter, lunch pails, food for Old Dan, and decorations for their Christmas tree. After all the apples were picked, Josie used one of the wild grape vines for a swing and Katrina climbed up on a limb that made a perfect drawing board. Katrina would dream and draw on this limb until the sun glowed low in the winter sky. One night a tremendous snow blizzard batters the barn and continues for three days. On the third night the blizzard turned into a heavy ice storm. After the storm the family discovers that their beloved apple tree split in half and lies dismembered in the snow and ice. Everyone is really sad. No more apples for cider, pies, applesauce, apple butter, and Christmas decorations, but most of all there won't be a grapevine swing for Josie or a drawing board for Katrina. You will want to read this book to find out how this dead old apple tree provides a wonderful Christmas surprise for the family.

    This book is a wonderful portrayal of farm life at Christmas on a southern Michigan farm in 1881. The only negative that I found was the fact that no mention is made of the true meaning of Christmas anywhere in the book. That would normally result in me giving a four star rating but because the book was so meaningful and nostalgic I gave it a five star rating.
    41 people found this helpful
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  • Reviewed in the United States on January 24, 2025
    Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase
    It may be too old-timey for some kids to understand, but that makes it a great history lesson as well as a nice story. Perfect to go along with Laurel I. Wilder enthusiasts.
  • Reviewed in the United States on February 14, 2009
    Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase
    The Ansterburg family lives in abject poverty. Their home is a barn which they share with filthy farm animals. Their lives are a constant struggle against the elements. So desperate is their plight that they are forced to scrounge for the ancient apples produced by a vine infested tree and turn them into apple butter. The girls must give up their aspirations of an education and stay home to work alongside their mother as they anxiously try to get the work completed before a massive storm threatens their very existence.

    When the storm does come, it nearly collapses the barn-home and the girls are terrified to the point of hysteria. (You may need to skip this part for younger audiences who might, like the girls in the story, start to lose control of themselves with fear). After the sickening ice storm passes, it has wreaked total havoc on the lives of the Ansterburg family. It has destroyed the moldy old apple tree, the single gleaming point of light in their otherwise bleak existence. The heartless father begins to chop it into pieces for firewood to keep the family alive for one more day.

    After Christmas comes, it turns out the father was actually sacrificing the best interests of his family (keeping them warm) to mollify his two whiny daughters who were on the verge of catatonic depression over the loss of their Apple Tree. The father has turned portions of the tree into a drawing board for one daughter, and a swing for the other. These diversions likely eased the girls into the next few months of blinding snow storms and brutal cold, as the family desperately forged ahead into an uneasy future. Their fates are not made clear in the book, except for a haunting charcoal drawing left behind by on of the girls. It illustrates the last happy moment the family had together, the day they collected apples from the dead apple tree. In a subtle metaphor, the author hints that like the tree which was doomed from the start, the family too, may not live out the rest of the winter.

    If your children are very brave they may enjoy this story. The cheery drawings are in strange contrast to the harsh and frightening quality of the story, and provide a little respite from the dreadful hopelessness of the tale. This is a Christmas classic, and a book that kept me awake at night for years, a book that I still can't get out of my mind even all these years later.
    17 people found this helpful
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  • Reviewed in the United States on September 29, 2024
    Format: KindleVerified Purchase
    We really loved this book. It was a well thought out, wonderful story, coupled with beautiful illustrations. We will look forward to more books by the author.
    One person found this helpful
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  • Reviewed in the United States on December 11, 2020
    Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase
    Im new to the whole good parenting and reading with your children, wholesome correctness, so it is at times very hard to get my boys off the xbox and into the new tradition of holiday spirit and reading. My 11 year old son read this out loud to me and my 8 year old son, and they actually got emotionally caught up with the story line and paid attention to the details in the illustrations.

    Id give this book 10 stars for that alone if I could. This trial and era period of finding books to engage my boys has been quite the process, so i cant say enough about a book that makes it easier because it captivates and engages them. This book wasn't a chore or something mom was forcing them to do. This was a book they enjoyed and engaged with. An absolute blessing!
    18 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

  • Dana Atkinson
    5.0 out of 5 stars Best Christmas story
    Reviewed in Canada on June 13, 2023
    Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase
    I give it to all the new babies as a baby gift
  • Sarah
    5.0 out of 5 stars Classic
    Reviewed in Canada on December 18, 2019
    Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase
    Our newest Christmas book and it’s an absolute favourite! My three year old want to read it 20 times a day 🤣 It’s a beautiful story