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"The Tall Book of Christmas"
  • Dorothy Hall Smith • 10 Comments
  • Tagged in: For Kids
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This book is an absolute classic.  It was much loved by me as a child and my own kids feel the same way.  It contains stories, poems and songs and the last story is Clement C. Moore’s The Night Before Christmas which of course, we always save until Christmas Eve!

The illustrations are vintage which for me, somehow, is a more palatable way to visualize Christmas.  The book has a sort of Norman Rockwell-esque depiction of the season—something we can all strive for, I guess!  

Some of the stories are a couple pages and some are longer.  But the good thing is that nestled among the stories are really short poems and songs that can be read on those nights when everyone is already almost asleep or about to lose their marbles because of too much fudge or just general holiday excitement!  

For those of us who do at least give a nod to the religious element of Christmas, the book does start with the Christmas story—the real story of Bethlehem and the mean innkeeper, etc.  Everyone loves that story—even the most agnostic among us.  It’s just nice to picture Mary on the donkey and then the star later on and the wise men with their still mysterious and impossible to pronounce gifts.  

Lastly, just the shape of the book—tall and thin—hence the name, is really cool and different.  So for me as a child, it was this one book with this super unique shape that only came out at our favorite time of year.

I highly recommend it.  You’ll have to order it though—I haven’t seen it in a book store in a long time…

Merry merry merry…..