Every December, I would go to the library with my two young boys, down the steps to the children’s section with a snowy view of Mirror Lake. We would check out a stack of books about Hanukkah and Christmas. “The Little Fir Tree” by Margaret Wise Brown was at the top of our list. What a happy memory — heading for home, walking down the snowy sidewalk with a backpack full of books, one small hand in each of mine, occasional skipping on either side.

One year, we were dismayed that our favorite book was gone. It had become too old and outdated for the collection. Luckily, after a frantic search, we spotted the red book on the cast-off rack, and we brought it home for safekeeping. My boys are grown now, and they are much taller than Lake Placid’s nice librarian, Mrs. Blair. I still get out the book every Christmas, and sometimes the boys humor me and let me read it to them.

The story is about a fir tree that grows in an open field on the edge of the forest. The tree feels alone in the snowy field. On the other side of the forest, lives a small boy in a log cabin. He is an invalid, unable to leave his bed. The boy also feels lonely and wishes he could go outside in the snow. One winter, the boy’s father goes out to the forest with a shovel. He finds the little fir tree and says:

“Not too little and not too big. Not too stiff nor yet too limber. A beautiful little green fir tree, just the tree for my boy to grow strong with.”

Illustration by Barbara Cooney in “The Little Fir Tree” by Margaret Wise Brown, 1954. (Photo provided)

The father digs up the tree and carefully wraps the roots. He brings the tree to the boy’s room. Children come and decorate the tree and sing Christmas carols. The boys says:

“You have come to me from the wild green forest … And you are a part of my very own world. You have come to the great Celebration of Christmas!”

In the spring, the father returns the tree to the forest, where it grows a bit taller and waits for another season. Year after year, the father returns with his shovel and brings the tree back for another Christmas with the boy. But one winter the man doesn’t come.

“Snow fell early; it fell soft and deep. The little fir tree dreamed away and waited for the time the man in the black boots would come and get him. But the man did not come. More snow fell. And then it stopped snowing and the air was vast and still and very quiet. Still the man did not come. The sun shone down and the stars shown down and no one came. There he was, a little fir tree in a big empty field. The big trees in the great dark forest were far away. The stars were far away. And without Christmas the world seemed big and cold and empty.”

Then, suddenly, coming through the night the fir tree hears singing.

Baker Chapel (Photo provided — Historic Saranac Lake)

“… leading the dark band of carolers across the snow, with a lantern in his hand, came the little boy. He was WALKING, walking out to his tree near the forest.”

The children decorate the tree with tinsel and berries, and they sing the carols they had sung before. The little fir tree proudly becomes a Christmas tree right there in the snowy field.

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Earlier this month, Historic Saranac Lake hosted a special event in the recently restored Baker Chapel, at the former Trudeau Sanatorium/AMA property. As I read this story to guests that night, it seemed to me that Baker Chapel was the fir tree. For many years, the little chapel celebrated weddings, held people close for funerals, and listened to Christmas carols. Then it went dark. No one came anymore, and it was cold and lonely. The vast sanatorium property, houses down the street like the old Merkel home, the Hotel Saranac, Dr. Trudeau’s laboratory and his home next door … so many places sat quiet and vacant.

But people are coming back. Lights are coming on. We are remembering the past, and in the process, building a future together in this remarkable place called Saranac Lake. This month, the chapel heard people coming through the forest. The chapel heard us. We were coming to a great celebration.

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Amy Catania is the executive director of Historic Saranac Lake.