12/10/2025
It's a beautiful gift when someone believes in you. 🥰📖
In a deeply moving, newly republished essay, Harper Lee recounts the Christmas that changed everything. Working as an airline reservations agent in New York, struggling to find time to write, she received an envelope on the Christmas tree from her dear friends Michael and Joy Brown. Inside was a note: "You have one year off from your job to write whatever you please. Merry Christmas."
Stunned, Lee protested: "It's a fantastic gamble," she murmured. "It's such a great risk." Her friend looked at her and said softly, "No, honey. It's not a risk. It's a sure thing."
As snow fell that Christmas morning, she stood at the window: "A full, fair chance for a new life. Not given me by an act of generosity, but by an act of love," she reflected. "Our faith in you was really all I had heard them say."
That year of freedom gave the world "To Kill a Mockingbird," transforming one act of love into a gift for generations.
To read her short essay “Christmas to Me,” which was originally published in 1961, visit https://wapo.st/4oAWRov
This essay is included in a new collection of Harper Lee's essays and newly discovered short stories, "The Land of Sweet Forever: Stories and Essays," at https://bookshop.org/a/8011/9780063460515 (Bookshop) and https://amzn.to/48oJhQr (Amazon)
To learn more about her beloved novel, "To Kill a Mockingbird," recommended for ages 12 and up, visit https://www.amightygirl.com/to-kill-a-mockingbird
For an excellent graphic novel adaption of this classic for ages 12 and up, visit https://www.amightygirl.com/to-kill-a-mockingbird-graphic
For an inspiring picture book about Harper Lee and her famous novel, we highly recommend "Alabama Spitfire: The Story of Harper Lee and To Kill a Mockingbird" for ages 5 to 9 at https://www.amightygirl.com/alabama-spitfire
For a historical fiction novel about real-life friends Harper Lee and Truman Capote as children, check out "Tru and Nelle" for ages 9 to 12 at https://www.amightygirl.com/tru-and-nelle
