Guideposts for the Spirit: Stories of Faith for Christmas
I love these books of short stories of faith. This particular volume has several stories I had read before, such as "Marty's Secret," Fulton Ousler's classic "String of Blue Beads," and "Elizabeth's Song," and a few others, but the remainder were equally enjoyable. If stories like these are your cup of tea (or cocoa), this volume is recommended.
Re-read: The Christmas Encyclopedia, William D. Crump
I have three Encyclopedia of Christmas volumes, including Gerry Bowler's monumental tome, and all are a little different, with different emphasis. Crump's focus is song and pop media, although he gives time to the Christmas symbols and how the holiday is celebrated in different countries. All the well-known Christmas specials, from Charlie Brown Christmas and Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer to the lesser-known Rankin-Bass efforts like Nestor are contained in Crump's volume, and of course there are pieces on It's a Wonderful Life, A Christmas Story, and other holiday movies. Note: this is a McFarland small-press publication, so check out sales on this one.
Why Does Santa Wear Red?, Meera Lester
Subtitled "...and 100 Other Christmas Curiosities Unwrapped
The inside cover notes that this small gift volume "...contains abridged items from The Everything Christmas Book." It is indeed a nice little gift book, with a short history of Christmas celebrations, the meaning of Christmas symbols, plus the obligatory recipes, and a few short stories and poems. Nothing overly special, but much more worthwhile than another book presently in release, Christmas A to Z, which is basically a collection of pictures of Christmas items in dictionary form with lots of large print and white space.
Merry Kitschmas, Michael D. Conway
I found this on the bargain book counter and was hoping it was a history of those delightfully tacky decorations over the years. Instead it's a book about how to make tacky decorations. Shrug. Not my cup of tea.
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