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An Early American Christmas – Tomie dePaola

This fun children’s Christmas book is set in a small New England town a long, long time ago. No one had decorated or put candles in their windows. There weren’t even any wreaths on the doors. But then a new family moved in. They had come from Germany, and they decorated and they sang Christmas carols. Everyone called them the Christmas family.

They began their preparations in the fall, by gathering up bayberries and making candles by dipping string into wax. The bayberry-scented candles would fill the home with delicious scents. They also gathered apples, pumpkins, and squash, putting them in the cellar with the potatoes. All the best foods were saved aside until Christmas time.

The grandpa worked hard to whittle new figures for the nativity scene that would be set out to remind one and all of the season.

Soon December came and the family got even busier. They made paper snowflakes. They baked cookies and painted nuts a bright gold to hang on the tree. They decorated their tree with popcorn and berries, strung together on thread.

On Christmas Eve, they brought out huge trays of cookies. They sat down together and read the Christmas story from the Book of Luke, and sang carols which echoed out across the snowy ground and could be heard by the neighbors.

What a beautiful sound! Everyone became curious and wanted to know what the Christmas family was doing. Soon everyone was celebrating Christmas, all because of the joyous example of one family, long ago. They made their own candles and prepared their own trees. They learned to make special Christmas cookies and found the story in the Bible. And they wondered why they had never celebrated Christmas before – it brought them so much happiness.

(This book was published in 1987 by Holiday House and was illustrated by the author.)

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