Mr. Willowby’s Christmas Tree by Robert Barry, 1963, 2000.

Mr. Willowby lives in a large house, and he orders a large Christmas tree by special delivery. It’s large and wonderful, but it’s just slightly too tall for the room where Mr. Willowby wants to put it.

Mr. Willowby’s butler solves the problem by chopping the top off the tree, and because he doesn’t want the top to go to waste, he gives it to Mr. Willowby’s maid.

The top of the tree is about the right size to make a small Christmas tree for the maid’s room, but it turns out that it’s just slightly too tall again. The maid also clips the top off her tree.

From there on, the tree top moves on to other people and animals. The gardener spots the top that the maid throws out and decides it would make a nice, small Christmas tree. Like everyone else, though, he finds that the tree needs a little clipping for it to go where he and his wife want it to go.

As the top of the tree gets smaller, it starts drawing the interest of animals. Even animals enjoy having a Christmas tree as grand as Mr. Willowby’s!

The story is cute and told in rhyme! The book is available to borrow and read for free online through Internet Archive (multiple copies).

My Reaction

I remember this book from when I was a kid! I remember liking how several people and animals get Christmas trees out of just the top of one large Christmas tree. It’s a fun story about how one person’s trash is someone else’s treasure and nothing needs to go to waste. Mr. Willowby’s Christmas tree ends up helping everyone. In the end, everyone is happy because they all get a nice Christmas tree.

The illustrations in this book are full-color, but some older version of the book are in limited color – black, white, and green.