Fairy Tale?

I love things that are used, second-hand, thrifted, and/or vintage.

It started out in when I was young. My mom is a thrift store/garage sale junkie. Economically it always made sense, but then somewhere along the way it became a little more than that for me.

I love the hunt - looking through shelves and racks. Sometimes not knowing what you are looking for but each time there is so much possibility.

I love the find - the moment you know that something is going home with you.

I love the re-use - knowing that my "great find" was in someone's life before yours.

When I was pregnant - this was one of my great finds...

I loved the illustrations so much that I even considered framing them as art for the nursery. But since the book was in great condition, then the pages were all intact, no coloring or writing, it went on the shelf to wait for Deedle! I imagined some other parents reading the stories to their children...

The other night, I happened to pull this book off the shelf.

And since I had never heard of the first two stories, I decided to read one of them to Eva. I choose "The Little Match Girl" because of its pictures.

The story starts out - a girl on Christmas selling her matches.

She is cold, and alone. Afraid to go home without selling her matches. On Christmas. (Huh?)

So she stops and lights a match to get warm. She has no shoes. (This is - ahem - this was one of my favorite illustrations)

She "sees" things in the light of the matches - food, light on the Christmas tree, and her grandmother. A grandmother who had passed away.

She asks her grandmother not to leave her... and she doesn't. Aww, kind of sweet right? Maybe?

Next page... the next morning, the little match girl is found by the townspeople. She froze to death. And some of the townspeople remark, "She must have seen something wonderful before she died, because she has a smile on her face."

The End.

WHAT!!

I thought fairy tales were supposed to be happy or teach a lesson - a moral?!?

What is the lesson here?

Sell all your matches and you would get to come home?

Girls with mean parents who make them sell matches on Christmas are happier dead???

After some thought, there are at least 3 lessons to be learned here...

1. Don't judge a story by its pictures.

2. Pre-read your fairy tales before reading them to your little one.

2. Some thrift store finds might not be as great as you thought.

Lessons learned.