The First Christmas Tree: An Innu Tale

Written by Ovila Fontaine

Illustrated by Charlotte Parent

Translated by Ann Marie Boulanger 

Orca Book Publishers 

978-1-4598-4180-2 

56 pp.

Ages 6–8

October 2025 

 

Many of us are getting into the holiday spirit and putting up Christmas trees or thinking about getting one. Perhaps that's why I've put off reviewing this lovely new picture book until there's snow on the ground and a nip in the air. 

From The First Christmas Tree: An Innu Tale, story by Ovila Fontaine, illus. by Charlotte Parent

Ovila Fontaine, an Innu Elder from the First Nation of Uashat mak Mani-Utenam on the northern shore of the St. Lawrence River, won the 2024 Governor General award for his French-language edition, Le premier arbre de Noël. That lovely book has now been translated into English and more young people will have the opportunity to read a story of the Great Manitou choosing the fir tree to bring brightness during the cold, harsh winter.

The Great Manitou begins his search for the perfect tree. For each of the trees he approaches, he recognizes positive attributes, knowing how each tree is used by the Innu. There's the birch tree with its flexibility and strength, useful for snowshoes, bowls, harpoons, canoes, and drums. There's the larch (tamarack) tree with its hard wood and usefulness for bows and sleds, and more medicine made from its bark. The Great Manitou also visits the black spruce whose mossy branches provide firewood for the Innu and food for caribou. The only tree he disregards is the fir tree.

From The First Christmas Tree: An Innu Tale, story by Ovila Fontaine, illus. by Charlotte Parent

When the Great Manitou approaches the birch tree, the larch tree, and the black spruce, he asks them if they'd like to be the first Christmas tree and bring joy to Innu children. Each tree declines, only concerned for how it might affect them. Finally, with the fir being the only tree left to ask, the first Christmas tree is found, and the other trees are chastened by the Great Manitou and given attributes that characterize them to this day.

From The First Christmas Tree: An Innu Tale, story by Ovila Fontaine, illus. by Charlotte Parent

Though many of us will recognize the fir as the most popular Christmas tree, Ovila Fontaine's tale shows us that that recognition was hard-won. Like many things in life in which your potential is not seen or disregarded, timing can be everything. For the fir tree, it was being in the right place at the right time, and being open to an opportunity, something the other trees were too egotistical to embrace. More importantly, each tree that declined the honour of being the first Christmas had consequences thrust upon them by the Great Manitou, censured for their lack of generosity and humility. And though most of the trees showed pride and minimal grace, Montreal illustrator Charlotte Parent makes all the forest and its animals glorious. Using gouache, she creates these expansive scenes of woodland life, flora and fauna. The dark and cold of winter is expertly achieved with lavender blue and variations thereof and with brushstrokes for mounds of snow. The infrequent but bold pink of the animals—described in an illustrated glossary of English and Innu-aimum words—and persons indicates the rich presence of the spirit of the Great Manitou in the natural world and its omnipresence.

From The First Christmas Tree: An Innu Tale, story by Ovila Fontaine, illus. by Charlotte Parent

An enchanting book for the holiday season, The First Christmas Tree is a different kind of origin story. Not only do we learn the Innu tale of how the fir became known as a Christmas tree, but we also learn why the birch loses its leaves in the fall, why the larch sheds its needles, and why the black spruce never grows tall or wide and has prickly needles. With its quietly dazzling artwork, it's a picture book to be appreciated beyond the Christmas season.

 

• • • • • • • 

 

Le premier arbre de Noël

Ecrit par Ovila Fontaine

Illustré par Charlotte Parent

La Pastèque  

978-2-897771492 

2023