The Birds' Christmas Carol, by Kate Douglas Wiggin

The Birds' Christmas Carol is a novel by Kate Douglas Wiggin written in 1887. The story concerns Carol Bird, a Christmas-born child, who as a young girl is unusually loving and generous, having a positive effect on everyone with whom she comes into contact. She is the youngest member of her family and has devoted older brothers. At about the age of 5, Carol contracts an unspecified illness; by the time she is 10, she is bedridden, and physicians say that she does not have long to live.

The novel primarily involves Carol's planning of a Christmas celebration (and therefore, a birthday party for herself) for the nine Ruggles children, a poor, working-class family living nearby. The book is not simply a wistful moral tale about a saintly child but is enlivened by many humorous scenes, particularly those concerning the Ruggleses' home life.