Holiday Break Episode 2: What the poetry of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow can teach us about kids

Release date: December 29, 2025

I am devoting these mini Holiday Break episodes of Talking About Kids to poetry about the holiday season and issues related to kids. In this second mini episode, I will read “Christmas Bells” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. In it, Longfellow struggles to reconcile the feelings of peace and goodwill associated with the Holiday season with the American Civil War, which was waging at that time. That struggle seems relevant today. A link to the poem is below.

Links

“Christmas Bells” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

https://poets.org/poem/christmas-bells