Simple, wonderful and natural is the way Christmas should be.

The children’s classic book “Christmas in the Big Woods,” by Laura Ingalls Wilder, touches on the true meaning of Christmas.

The illustrations by Renee Graef paint soft images of a time long ago in the Wisconsin northwoods. The book is based on Laura’s girlhood in 1871.

This well-loved kid’s book could just as well be set in Upper Michigan. Many of our great grandparents were early settlers in the “big woods” around here.

Karen Rose Wils

A balsam wreath welcomes all on the door of the log cabin.

An ash-grey cat twirls around the feet of little Laura and her sister, Mary. Snow hems in the homestead and wood smoke curls out of the chimney.

For a moment or two, I am drawn back to my childhood. My Mom is making a Christmas wreath on the old oak table at camp. Dad is out hunting. Big, fluffy flakes of snow erase the woodshed from our view.

A warm fire crackles in the stove as Mom shows me how to bend and tie the balsam branches together to make a wreath.

There is the smell of supper cooking, and laughter and contentment on this wintery afternoon. I was fortunate to have just a little flavor of the “Laura Ingalls” days in my early Yooper days.

In Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Christmas story there are simple gifts for the children — peppermint sticks, gingerbread pancakes, red mittens and a rag doll for Laura.

But the biggest gift of all was not the toys. It was time spent with the cousins and aunts and uncles. Sleigh bells ring through the snow-covered forest and Laura’s extended family arrives at their cabin to spend Christmas with them!

They play in the deep snow, romp with the dog and read Pa’s book by firelight. And that is the most important part about Christmas, sharing Christ’s birthday with others.

Of all the wonderful gifts I have received for Christmas over the years, the very best gift is time with family and friends.

For decades my family, aunts, uncles and dozens of cousins would get together to celebrate Christmas. We still do, but now we rent a hall because there’re so many of us.

If you want to feel the warm fuzzies of Christmas, read “Christmas in the Big Woods” and then gather with family and friends and have some cousin craziness!

Merry Christmas to all!