I am back again, having decided that this blog is a worthwhile endeavor for me. I used this last year as an opportunity to explore the method, and I have found it it to be a good way to share my thinking and to improve my skills as a book reviewer of sorts.

So, to end this year and get us into the next, I’ll write about Advent and Christmas books. I have collected them for decades. Some are good, some aren’t so good, but they all bring interesting and often refershing perspectives.

Usually I buy a new Christmas book each year, but I did not do that this season. So I have taken a harder look at the books I do have. Perhaps among the most interesting are the Christmas Annuals, a Norwegian tradition that made it’s way into the immigrant experience here. But there are many books that reflect the wonder, the mystery, and often the puzzle, of this holy season.

So here is my whole list of Advent and Christmas books. During Christmas they live in great baskets on the living room floor so that a book can be picked up and enjoyed at random. Perhaps you will see some on this list that are familiar, or some that you would like to know more about. I’ll try to acquaint you all with some of my favorites in the eleven days following. Merry Christmas!

Advent and Christmas Books:
An Advent Pilgrimage, Agnus Dei Lutheran
Advent: Prepare to Be Surprised, Nancy Monelli
Advent Sourcebook, LTP
Advent Story Book, Antonia Schneider
Angels – blue book
Angels and Other Strangers, Katherine Paterson (2)
The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, Barbara Robinson (2)
A Book of Christmas: Readings and Reflections
A Cat’s Christmas, Stephanie Semek
Cat in the Manger, Michael Foreman
The Cat Who Knew the Meaning of Christmas, Marion Chapman, Gremmels
The Christmas Alphabet, Robert Sabuda
Christmas Annuals, Historic (some in Norwegian)
Christmas Annual – vol. 64, 1994
Christmas Annual, vol. 65, 1995
Christmas Annual – vol. 66, 1996
Christmas Annual – vol. 67, 1997
Christmas at St. Olaf Bulletin, 2005
Christmas at Thompson Hall, Anthony Trollope
Christmas Eve at Phinney Ridge Lutheran Church, sermons by Bev Piro
Christmas in Customs, Shirley Ann Lockhart
Christmas Is a Time of Giving, Joan Walsh Anglund
The Christmas Mystery, Jostein Gaarder
Christmas Pudding, Nancy Mitford
The Christmas Reader, Godfrey Smith
A Christmas Sampler, ed. E. A. Crawford
Christmas Sourcebook, LTP
Christmas Stories – Everyman’s Pocket Classics, ed. Diana Tesdell
Christmas Stories, Edna Hong
A Christmas Treasury, Dell Comic
Cinco Annunciaciones, Adolfo Sarabia
Come, Lord Jesus, Susan Briehl
The Crippled Lamb, Max Lucado
Expectant: Verses for Advent, Jim Cotter
The Family Christmas Book, Barbara Rinkoff
Fancy Nancy’s Splendiferous Christmas, Jane O’Connor
Feast and Seasons, 4 issues
The Festival of Christmas, Mary Hinderlie, 1954, 2009 (10 copies 2015)
Fling Wide the Doors, Craig Mueller
The Fireside Book of Christmas Stories, ed. Edward Wagenknecht
For All the World, Helen Earle Simcox
God with Us, ed; Greg Pennoyer and Gregory Wolfe
Goodness and Light, Orbis
Henry and the Christmas Cat, Mary Calhoun
An Irish Christmas Feast, John B. Keene
An Irish Country Christmas, Patrick Taylor
Jesus, Heart’s Light – Holden
The Last Noel, Michael Malone
Light upon Light, Compiled by Sarah Arthur
A Literary Christmas, Anthology
The Little Big Book of Christmas, Lena Tabori
The Little Boy’s Christmas Gift, John Speirs
Making Room for Christmas, Herbert Brokering
Maigret’s Christmas, Georges Simenon
The Man Who Invented Christmas, Les Standiford
Manger in the Mountains, James Arne Nestingen
Martin Luther’s Christmas Book, Roland Bainton
May Your Wildest Christmas Wishes Come True, Flip book
The Mistletoe Murders and Other Stories, P. D. James
The Mystery of Holy Night, Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Mystery in White, J. Jefferson Farjeon
The Nativity, Julie Vivas
O Come All Ye Faithful, Joanie Erickson Tada
O Come, Emmanuel, Gordon Giles
O Holy Night, ed. A. Jean Lesher
One Night in a Stable, Guido Visconti
One Winter’s Night, John Herman
The Oxford Book of Christmas Poems, ed. Michael Harrison
The Physics of Christmas, Roger Highfield
Pocket Posh Christmas Crosswords
Revealing the Star of Bethlehem
Room for a Little One, Martin Waddell
A Rumpole Christmas, John Mortimer
Shepherd’s Abiding, Jan Karon
Sherman the Sheep
Sherman the Christmas Sheep
Silent Night, Mary Higgins Clark
Silent Night, Stanley Weintraub
Skipping Christmas, John Grisham
Stocking Stuffer, Flip book
Stories for Christmas, Allison Uttley
Stories of Christmas Time, Charles Dickens
This Year It Will Be Different, Maeve Binchy
The Twelve Days of Christmas, Robert Sabuda
The Twelve Days of Christmas Cats, Don Daily
Village Gentry Come Meet the Baby Jesus, Roger Ferlow (article, 2 copies)
Watch for the Light, Upper Room
A West Coast Christmas, Anne Tempelman-Kluit
Wishin’ and Hopin”, Wally Lamb
Word and World Christmas, Fall 2007
Wreath of Light, Nancy Vignec