In the tradition of Christmas memoirs such as A Child's Christmas in Wales and A Christmas Memory, The Hired Man's Christmas is the story of how the events of two Christmas Eves brought George Givens from boyhood into manhood.

Every summer a mysterious man known only as "Frank" arrives to help George Givens's grandfather with his farmwork. No one knows the hired man's last name, where he comes from, or why he always seems to be so sad. Once the season's crops are harvested, he disappears only to reappear the following summer. This routine continues for many years -- until one fateful Christmas Eve.

The hired man never returns to the Givens farm after that day, and the mystery of his final disappearance seems destined to remain unsolved. Then, on Christmas Eve many years later, George serendipitously discovers the long-lost hired man's fate. This discovery teaches him a powerful lesson about the importance of family and the endurance of love.

The Hired Man's Christmas is a story of simpler times, but its message resonates across the years and in the hearts of fathers and sons even today.

In this charming, real-life Christmas classic, a bookseller reminisces about his lonely youth in rural New York, and tells how a mysterious hired man taught him about the importance of family and the endurance of love. Line drawings.