December Featured Books of the Month

We're getting ready for Christmas here. The trees are all up and only one is waiting for decorations. The porch and the front of the house are strung with lights and the stockings are hung by the fireplace, so St. Nick can come anytime.

We're going to feature two books in December because I can't think of one without the other.

A Little House Christmas complies some of the Christmas stories from Laura's Little House books into a lovely, large hardcover that collectors will certainly enjoy.



From Christmas in the Big Woods of Wisconsin to the day Mr. Edwards delivered presents so that Santa didn't have to cross the creek, to the chapters of Christmas on Plum Creek where Laura received red mittens, the white china box, and the fur cape and muff off the tree at church, each story is just as special as when you first read it in the Little House books.

The illustrations by Garth Williams have been colorized to make this book an extra special treat for Little House fans, and also includes the words and music to Merry, Merry Christmas! by Mrs. T.J. Cook.

The jpeg of the cover art can't possibly do it justice, as Williams's illustration of Laura receiving her rag doll, Charlotte is encircled by a wreath of holly.

While A Little House Christmas shares the Christmas stories of Laura's early days, A Little House Christmas, Volume II travels east to Malone, New York to share the story of Christmas at the Wilder farm when Almanzo was a boy and the aunts and uncles and cousins were coming to dinner.



Then the book travels to the shores of Silver Lake, where Laura and her family are living in the surveryors' house, and on to Christmas in De Smet, SD, where the blizzards seem like they will never end and the trains won't run again until spring. And finally, we get to read the story of Almanzo's surprise return visit on Christmas Eve in These Happy Golden Years.

Again, collectors will find this large hardcover a welcome addition to their Little House library. The green cover is even more striking than the red from the first one and the holly wreath encircles a picture of Ma fastening the little blue coat with the swan's-down collar on Grace and tying the swan's-down hood over her golden hair.

Little House fans will enjoy these books year after year, and remember why Laura Ingalls Wilder's books continue to gain new fans so many years after they were first published.