Looking Ahead: CHRISTMAS BOOKS for 2017

Iced Holly at Christmas: a new (possible) book if someone would write it.

              In the far-off days before the ease and cheapness of buying books on Amazon—which I now do after I received a gift card for the same amount as my age at the last birthday––I bought, or was presented with, several Christmas-themed books. The seven smallish volumes adorned the coffee table last year and included one I’d found at Dollar General, Agatha Christie’s Star Over Bethlehem. A trade paperback of “Poems and Holiday Stories,” it’s not at all the expected mystery genre. The first poem and the first short stories are all the holiday fare I could discern. Available at Amazon from $4.29 and (way) more.

Politically Correct Holiday Stories—For an Enlightened Yuletide Season by James Finn Garner, 1995, is a ninety-nine-page hardback volume of humor. Retold stories are “’Twas the Night Before Solstice,” “Frosty the Persun (sic) of Snow,” “The Nutcracker,” “Rudolph the Nasally Empowered Reindeer,” and “A Christmas Carol.” Amazon’s prices vary from used (.01) to Kindle ($2.99) to audio/cassette (.49).

A gift from friend Linda in 2007 is an unpaginated hardback with dustcover, Christmas Wishes: inspiring sentiments for the festive season, edited by Tom Burns, 2004. Black and white photos of polar bears and other animals in the snow accompany each sentiment. Examples from the first, the middle and the last follow. “The perfect Christmas is a frozen land full of warmth.” “There’s nothing sadder in this world than to wake up on Christmas morning and not be a child.” “May peace be your gift at Christmas and your blessing all year through!”

The Christmas Box by Richard Paul Evans, 1993, has become to some a classic. Unlike most generic Christmas stories, Evans manages to bypass triviality, imbedding these pages with humble truth and emotion. One-hundred-twenty-five-pages, hardback, dustcover—I have no idea where or when or how I came by this book. Amazon shows over 350 reviews. And since I Googled Amazon, an ad for the book appeared on Facebook--$10-something as the price.

“Creative Questions to Illuminate the Holidays” is the subtitle of Bret Nicholaus and Paul Lowrie’s book, The Christmas Conversation Piece. Hardback, red-spined, the small book contains 302 questions to use for prompts—either written or spoken. The first one is: “In your opinion, what would the ultimate winter wonderland look like?” The 100^th one is: “If you were going to create and market a holiday cologne or perfume, what would you choose for the fragrance?” The 200^th question is: “You have two options for where you can spend Christmas: a ski resort in the mountains or a tropical resort on a Caribbean island. Which would you choose?”

The 300^th one is: “If snow could somehow fall and accumulate in a warm climate, would you enjoy it more?” As with the other books, I have no annotation about where this little book came from. On Amazon, it can be bought for $.01 plus s&h up to $8.99 on Kindle.

John Grisham’s 2001 novel, Skipping Christmas, offers “a hilarious look at the chaos and frenzy that have become part of our holiday tradition,” according to the book jacket. Amazon’s prices range from $1.65 to $14.00. It later appeared on my FB page advertised at $5.68.

Last but not least, is the Hallmark Book’s, The Joy of A PEANUTS CHRISTMAS: 50 years of Holiday Comics.  Hooray, there’s an inscription: “To Billy, March 22, 2003, from Susie Leird, (friend from Benton’s First Christian Church), whose birthday was the same as Billy’s. If you don’t have this book, it’s available at Amazon for one cent!!! Hie thee to Amazon pronto! It’s not too late to begin stocking up now for Christmas, 2017.

Happy New Year. We hope.