I grew up with what a Christmas Annual on the coffee table in our living room. There would be on at my grandmother’s house as well, and in the homes of Norwegian Americans throughout North America. They were first published at the beginning of the 20th century in Norwegian: Jul i Westerheimen (Christmas in Western Homes).  The North American immigrants were often referred as in the “Western Homes.” (The Norwegian-American museum in Decorah, Iowa is called “Westerheim.”) The annuals were  a way to share the riches of the season and to remember the celebrations of Norway. The books had music, poetry, art, and literature. I remember how much fun it was to look through them and see so many beautiful things. They were marvelously done large (12 x 16 inches) books.   It was a good tradition that might be worth resurrecting to show the diversity of today’s world. The one on the left is 1917, the other 1946,