Favorite Christmas Books!

I have quite a collection of vintage Christmas books. I love to get them out at this time of year and just sit down and read passages and look at the pictures. Do you have a favorite Christmas book that you love to read?

The book in the photo above is one of many annuals that was published by Augustana Publishing in Minneapolis. The stories are wonderful and the artwork in the volumes is always beautiful!

I also have a number of craft and decorating books. My favorites are the ones that have no cover art but are filled with ideas for vintage holiday crafts from the 50's and 60's. There are wonderful straw ornaments that you can make in the Homespun Christmas Crafts booklet from Better Homes and Gardens. During the time I worked at Murphy's Landing (open-air history site), I picked up the book on Christmas in Williamsburg. The decorations are just amazing! There are wonderful old stories in the Treasury of Christmas Stories. And for everything you ever wanted to know about Christmas, I love that book Holly, Reindeer, and Colored Lights. That's my second copy of that book. A certain dog ate much of my first copy. Yep, it was Kaiser. I usually keep all the books in a couple of decorative Christmas boxes but if I leave one out, Kaiser lays in wait to eat a corner off the books. Obviously, I don't leave them out much anymore. He also ate the corner off my beloved copy of Twas the Night Before Christmas!  As much as I love these books on history and crafts of Christmas, the really treasured books in the boxes are the books my kids received for Christmas when they were kids. The dates are marked inside....1971, 1972, 1976, 1982, 1985........... It's a wonderful trip down Memory Lane when I sit down to read these books. I've pulled one of them out to read this year.....called "The Happiest Christmas of All" because I think we are going to have a very Happy Christmas!

Along with Christmas story books and craft books, I have lots of caroling books. I like to display them at Christmas time. The artwork in some of the old, small caroling booklets is just beautiful. I love the artwork of the young girl singing that is on the Christmas Carols book in the photo below. Takes me back to Christmases when I was a little girl and we would sing and read our parts at the church Christmas program.

Christmas memories are such a joy to relive. I realize that not everyone celebrates Christmas and you may celebrate Hannukah or Kwanza, etc. The thing that they all have in common is family. Think about it. No matter ones religion, the common thread is that families gather together. Soon we will gather with our family and more memories will be shared. Sweet. Life is good. :-)
Have a lovely Sunday!
Sandi