December Special Feature: On Strike for Christmas by Sheila Robert

For those of you who like your seasonal tales to hold more than a few chuckles, check out On Strike for Christmas, the next book in our month-long spotlight of seasonal books.

A group of small town wives from a knitting club get tired of laboring over elaborate Christmas preparations that their husbands don't appreciate. Their clueless husbands can't have any idea how hard they work. One by one the women of the club decide to go on strike, watching in horror as their husbands try to make Christmas special for their families while the women fight against the urge to interfere.

This is one of the funniest holiday stories I have ever read, which is why it ends up in our favorite tales of the season line up.

You can find my full review of On Strike for Christmas by Sheila Roberts here.

December Special Feature: A Little House Christmas Volume II

Our next featured book in December dips back into my Laura Ingalls Wilder collection. In 1997, HarperCollins came out with the second volume of A Little House Christmas.

While the first volume concentrated on Christmas time in Wisconsin, Kansas, and along Plum Creek, Volume II starts off by moving east to Malone, New York, where a young Almanzo Wilder is growing up on his father's farm. Farmer Boy, is the only book that Laura Ingalls Wilder wrote about her husband's childhood, and it recently led to a new documentary by Dean Butler and Legacy Documentaries. Dean played Almanzo Wilder on the 1970's television show, Little House on the Prairie. For more information about this documentary, please visit my blog Laura's Little Houses or the website for the Wilder Homestead.

Also included in A Little House Christmas Volume II are the Christmas stories from By the Shores of Silver Lake, The Long Winter, and These Happy Golden Years. The Long Winter has always been my favorite of the Little House books and in this one we get to see Almanzo and Cap Garland portrayed as hereos when they travel sixty miles to find seed wheat so that the town can survive until the trains begin running again in spring.

Once again, Garth Williams's illustrations have been colorized to bring the Little House stories to life in a wonderful way. Both covers for these books are beautiful--not that one would expect less from Garth Williams--but I love the picture of Ma bending down to put the little blue coat with the swan's-down collar and hood on Grace that comes from Laura's telling of Christmas Day and the Boasts' visit in By the Shores of Silver Lake.

A Little House Christmas Volume II will be treasured by any young girl who receives it...and even big girls like me who still love the timeless Little House books.

December Special Feature: A Little House Christmas

In 1995, HarperCollins compiled some of the Christmas stories from the Little House books by Laura Ingalls Wilder into a beautiful large collector's hardcover titled, A Little House Christmas. This book is the next selection for our special featured books in December.

Christmas time in the Big Woods of Wisconsin, on the prairies of Kansas, and along Plum Creek come alive again in this special collection with colored Garth Williams illustrations. The introduction to this book starts off as follows:

"ONCE UPON A TIME, a little girl named Laura Ingalls lived in a little log cabin in the Big Woods of Wisconsin with her Pa, her Ma, her big sister Mary, and her baby sister Carrie. Laura had many adventures as she traveled west across the prairie with her family in their covered wagon..."

Every year new fans are drawn to the Little House books. New generations of children learn about the pioneers through the eyes of a young girl who experienced it. And it is Laura's romantic view of the world that attracts fans to the love and support of family that flows in abundance throughout the Little House books.

Also included in this first of two volumes, are the words and music to "Merry, Merry Christmas!" by Mrs. T. J. Cook.

A Little House Christmas would make an excellent gift for the Laura Ingalls Wilder fan in your life.

December Special Feature: For the Love of St. Nick

I reviewed For the Love of St. Nick in October. You'll find that review here.

This is the story of a family dealing with the loss of a wife and mother. The father is a Navy Commander, and his family is uprooted when the Commander is transferred to a base in northern Michigan.

Tiger is the oldest boy and also the narrator of the story. His youngest brother Johnny is always sick and going from living in California to northern Michigan during the winter certainly doesn't help matters any. When the Commander is forced to leave prior to Christmas to fulfill his secret mission for the United States Military, the boys pray to St. Nick for their father's safe return.

In addition to the magic of Christmas, I truly enjoyed how the author worked in the details of life in Michigan like the roads after a storm and the winter sports. Those details give the reader the feeling like they are right there in the story alongside Tiger and Johnny.

For the Love of St. Nick by Garasamo Maccagnone has received some excellent reviews--many of which you'll find at Amazon.com. I found it be a truly magical, heartfelt tale of the season, and one that I will share with my family time and again to fill our house with the spirit of Christmas.

December Special Feature: The Santa Letters

If you're looking for an inspiring and heartwarming tale of the season, then look no further than The Santa Letters by Stacy Gooch-Anderson. You'll find my review of this book here. This book touched my heart so much, that I knew it must be included in this month's special features.

The Santa Letters finds Emma Jensen struggling to find hope after the unexpected death of her husband William. She is truly in the depths of despair and can't even pull it together for her children.

But the lives of the Jensen family are forever changed once the Santa letters arrive. And maybe, just maybe, this will help put the entire family on the path to healing.

I have never before been so moved as I was when reading The Santa Letters. And while this book is about finding the true meaning of Christmas, it didn't preach to the reader. It shared lessons that are important, but it did so in a way that allowed the reader to accept those words of wisdom without resentment.

A truly remarkable Christmas story, it could also be read by church groups and would make an excellent book club selection. Tales of the season don't get any better than The Santa Letters!

December Special Feature: A Little House Christmas Treasury

As a child, I fell in love with the 1970's television show Little House on the Prairie. Based upon the children's classic Little House novels by Laura Ingalls Wilder, this widely popular show told the story of the Ingalls family, pioneers who settled into a little house on Plum Creek in Walnut Grove, Minnesota.

I know many Laura Ingalls Wilder fans who refuse to watch the show because it strayed so far from the books, but because I discovered the show long before I ever read the books, both the show and the books hold a special place in my heart. Special enough that I maintain a blog titled Laura's Little Houses, which celebrates the books and the shows based upon them.

My collection of books by and about Laura Ingalls Wilder is extensive, filling an entire shelf, two deep, in one of my bookcases. I have chosen a book from this collection as the next special feature for December.



Some of the most wonderful moments in the Little House books tell us about the Christmas holidays spent with family and friends. From the Christmas in the Big Woods when Pa made the decorative shelf for the China Shepherdess to Mr. Edwards bringing presents to the Ingalls girls so Santa wouldn't have to cross the creek, from the horses that Santa brought to the Ingalls Family on Plum Creek to the boughten cap and jack-knife Almanzo received as presents in Farmer Boy, from the Christmas barrel that arrived once the trains were finally able to get through in The Long Winter to Almanzo's surprise return in These Happy Golden Years, each of these stories will tug at your heart, fill you with the joys of the season, and remind you why Laura's books attract new fans year after year.

The cover on this book is simply gorgeous. The stunning gold that contrasts so nicely against the red background, is repeated on the bound edge and Garth Williams's illustrations have been brought to life in color to add a special touch to A Little House Christmas Treasury. My husband bought this for me last year as a surprise Christmas gift and it remains one of my favorite books of the season.