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The Everything Family Christmas Book: Stories, Songs, Recipes, Crafts, Traditions, and More
This holiday collection is a treasury of Christmas traditions, stories, songs, and recipes that promises to bring readers young and old together to celebrate the spirit of the season. Everyone will enjoy this delightful guide to all things Christmas, featuring: the perennial classic Christmas stories, poems, and carols; recipes for family gatherings, parties, and holiday gifts from the kitchen; ideas for thoughtful and creative handmade gifts; decorating ideas for any room; and holiday customs and traditions from around the world. As a gift or a book to be treasured, this book will help readers create new traditions that can be shared year after year.
448 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2008
126 people are currently reading
407 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
January 28, 2021
A great book featuring craft ideas, cocktails, party ideas, cookie recipes, activities around the USA (though disappointed that nothing in my home state made the list), International holiday traditions, holiday literature, holiday movies, trivia, game ideas, stress decompressing advice, and so much more.
The only downside for me of this particular resource was that certain references felt very dated.
Example: Make a home video, recording your family's unwrapping, on a camcorder or phone.
There's only a handful of those 'Oops. I'm a dated book.' references/moments throughout the book, but otherwise, it was helpful and offered up great ideas.
Like any of the "Everything" books, the information is divided by theme/subject in each chapter, and each chapter is full of information, cleverly divided into block-segments, so as not to bore or intimidate the reader.
The only downside for me of this particular resource was that certain references felt very dated.
Example: Make a home video, recording your family's unwrapping, on a camcorder or phone.
There's only a handful of those 'Oops. I'm a dated book.' references/moments throughout the book, but otherwise, it was helpful and offered up great ideas.
Like any of the "Everything" books, the information is divided by theme/subject in each chapter, and each chapter is full of information, cleverly divided into block-segments, so as not to bore or intimidate the reader.
January 31, 2018
Brief overview of everything Christmas related..I enjoyed Christmas theme stories and through the ages.
It did get repetitive at parts though and not sure if entire sections were useful to anyone. But overall, I found it interesting.
It did get repetitive at parts though and not sure if entire sections were useful to anyone. But overall, I found it interesting.
Read
November 30, 2020It contains some classic short stories, and some classic Christmas baking. You don't need to read the whole thing to get something out of this book. Enjoy.
January 1, 2014
This book was not stupendous but it had very good information in it. It would be PERFECT for a homeschooler to use for a Christmas unit study.
“...Christmas isn't about perfection.
What matters is the creation of new memories, centered on a sense of family and being loved, whether you come with a ready-made family or one that you create yourself. Memory is, ultimately, the basis of tradition – and what is Christmas if not one of the fundamental traditions of our time?” (location 260)
“...when you distill the true meaning of the day – whether you celebrate on December 6, December 25, January 6, or a little bit each of those days – it all comes down to a single word: wonder.” (location 239)
My favorite section was Appendix B: Your Christmas DVD Checklist. It was fun to see how many of the movies I have seen and to compare as to how many of them we own. Some, I was not sure if I had ever seen, and if I did it has been a long time... so I have some movies to look for at the library... and maybe even add to our list of movies we want... after we watch and see if we like any of them.
I also greatly enjoyed ch 10 'A Century of the American Christmas' with what was popular and what things cost from Christmas in the 1900s to Christmas in the 2000s. And, for those two beginning and ending years they made it even more fun by using the same items in the pricing list and compared what they used to cost and what they cost more recently.
Some of the Christmas Recipes looked good too. Some I will never make, like Brandy Rings, Cranberry Glogg, or Fruitcake Trio ; but others looked good, like Cranberry Bread and Maple Bells (my hubby loves maple flavor).
As I said. This book had a lot of interesting information; information about the history of Christmas and about how Christmas is celebrated around the world. It was an enlightening read and some of the information in the book I had never read before, I had never really thought about how they might celebrate Christmas in some of the countries covered in this book. It did have information about other religions and other holidays celebrated during late Dec. as well.
“...Christmas isn't about perfection.
What matters is the creation of new memories, centered on a sense of family and being loved, whether you come with a ready-made family or one that you create yourself. Memory is, ultimately, the basis of tradition – and what is Christmas if not one of the fundamental traditions of our time?” (location 260)
“...when you distill the true meaning of the day – whether you celebrate on December 6, December 25, January 6, or a little bit each of those days – it all comes down to a single word: wonder.” (location 239)
My favorite section was Appendix B: Your Christmas DVD Checklist. It was fun to see how many of the movies I have seen and to compare as to how many of them we own. Some, I was not sure if I had ever seen, and if I did it has been a long time... so I have some movies to look for at the library... and maybe even add to our list of movies we want... after we watch and see if we like any of them.
I also greatly enjoyed ch 10 'A Century of the American Christmas' with what was popular and what things cost from Christmas in the 1900s to Christmas in the 2000s. And, for those two beginning and ending years they made it even more fun by using the same items in the pricing list and compared what they used to cost and what they cost more recently.
Some of the Christmas Recipes looked good too. Some I will never make, like Brandy Rings, Cranberry Glogg, or Fruitcake Trio ; but others looked good, like Cranberry Bread and Maple Bells (my hubby loves maple flavor).
As I said. This book had a lot of interesting information; information about the history of Christmas and about how Christmas is celebrated around the world. It was an enlightening read and some of the information in the book I had never read before, I had never really thought about how they might celebrate Christmas in some of the countries covered in this book. It did have information about other religions and other holidays celebrated during late Dec. as well.
January 16, 2012
Started around Christmas when I got it for free on the Kindle Fire, it is pretty much as the cover says - the Everything Christmas Book. There are songs, stories, traditions, crafts, recipes and so forth.
I will definitely dig it out again come next holiday season and re-read and use some of the recipes and crafts. It's a nice book to enjoy around the holidays.
I will definitely dig it out again come next holiday season and re-read and use some of the recipes and crafts. It's a nice book to enjoy around the holidays.
December 22, 2012
I read this book on my Nook; I imagine the print edition contains illustrations, which would have made the book even more enjoyable. It's a nice compilation of traditions, stories, songs and recipes for the season. This was a free selection from Barnes and Noble an a nice addition to my online library.
December 16, 2013
Here's a book chockful of Christmas things...I especially liked the classic Christmas stories/poems (including O. Henry's "Gift of a Magi"; Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol"; and Clement Moore's "Twas the Night Before Christmas"), the listing of Christmas movies, and the trivia about Christmas traditions and holiday celebrations around the world.
December 24, 2012
This ebook was free when I downloaded it.
January 27, 2012
Loving this book so far...tons of great information that I had either forgotten or just didin't know.
December 25, 2012
Is an awesome book!!! it talks about Christmas and the things about Christmas . Is just really a good book to read.
November 6, 2013
This was by fare the worst book ever. There were only a few dialogs and although I tried I could not finish the whole book
I skippet a lot of pages
I skippet a lot of pages
December 31, 2013
Thank goodness I got this book for free. Who would think a book about Christmas could be so freakin' boring? Very repetitive too, with a lot of nonsense nobody cares about. pffft
December 22, 2016
Lots of very interesting Christmas info, especially the history of Christmas St. Nick/Santa.
December 24, 2011
Read on my Kindle -- good reference for all things Christmas!!!
November 27, 2014
Repeats itself, but good for short information on Christmas!
Read
December 26, 2014nook
January 24, 2016
Good family introduction to traditions around the world, stories, poems, recipes, etc. Fun.
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews