And Now, We Come To "The Sugar Plum Tree!!!!!"

As I said yesterday, girls, this was my favorite of Eugene Field's work, and the illustration for it I always associate with the final page of the "My Book House" edition, which featured it. Ditto "Wynken, Blynken, and Nod" and a retelling of "The Nutcracker." In fact, it was the giant, candlelit Christmas tree depicted on the page that led me to argue on behalf of candled trees, much to the consternation of my parents. But I am getting ahead of myself.

Do we know it, darlings????????? It goes like this:

"Have you ever heard of the Sugar Plum Tree?
T'is a marvel of great renown!
It blooms on the shore of the Lollipop Sea
In the garden of Shut-Eye Town.
The fruit that it bears is so wondrously sweet
(As those who have tasted it say)
That good little children have only to eat
Of that fruit to be happy next day.

When you've got to the tree, you would have a hard time
To capture the fruit which I sing;
The tree is so tall that no person could climb
To the boughs where the sugar plums swing!
But up in that tree sits a chocolate cat,
And a gingerbread dog prowls below--
And this is the way to contrive to get at
Those sugar plums tempting you so.

You say but the word to that gingerbread dog
And he barks with such terrible zest
That the chocolate cat is at once all agog,
As her swelling proportions attest.
And the chocolate cat goes cavorting around
From this leafy limb unto that,
And the sugar-plums tumble, of course, to the ground--
Hurrah for that chocolate cat!

There are marshmallows, gumdrops, and peppermint canes,
With stripings of scarlet or gold,
And you carry away of the treasure that rains
As much as your apron can hold!
So come, little child, cuddle closer to me
In your dainty white nightcap and gown,
And I'll rock you away to that Sugar-Plum Tree
In the garden of Shut-Eye Town."

Let met tell you, throughout my childhood, this and "The Nutcracker" illustration of the candlelit tree represented Christmas to me. Each year would find me curled up on the love seat near the fireplace, where, you better believe MY stockings were hung, darlings, dressed in my Christmas ensemble--white pajamas with red polka dots and a nightcap to match!!!!!!!! I don't know how many years I wore that garb; less than I probably did, but it is a central image of Christmas from my childhood. And, as I read Field's poem, I could feel myself being rocked away to Shut-Eye Town, where I would still like to go and get some sugarplums, dolls, even if Monsieur is my own personal sugar plum!!!!!!!!!!!

Children love candy, and I was no exception, so Candy Land (the game) and a world made up of candy--from this poem, to the Hansel and Gretel house--were enough to capture my fancy. Long after I had grown, when my sister's children were small, and the Book House books were at her house, I would peruse this once again on Christmas Eve. Now, it exists only in my fevered memories as a symbol for what did, and can still do, return me, if only for a time, to a state of innocence!!!!!!!!!!

That's right, darlings! You heard me!!!!!!! A state of innocence!!!!!!!! And still in my dainty nightcap and gown!!!!!!!!! You get in yours!!!!!!!!!!!

May visions of sugar plums dance in YOUR heads!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!