The Family Christmas Treasures collection of fine art and literature, at once both classic and contemporary, celebrates the warm, loving, family Christmas as it is enjoyed throughout the world. It focuses on the secular aspects of a family Christmas: spending time with loved ones, exchanging gifts, anticipating the arrival of Santa Claus, decorating the tree and home, cooking and feasting, caroling, and all the other delights that we associate with the magic of the season. Included are excerpts from such classics as Dickens’s A Christmas Carol and E.T.A. Hoffmann’s The Nutcracker, as well as selections—including those from John Donne, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and L. Frank Baum—that appear in their entirety. Christmas stories by major contemporary writers such as Maeve Binchy and Anna Quindlen provide a balance of old and new. Whether the family faithfully returns to such well-known classics as William Dean Howell’s Christmas Every Day or whether they eagerly devour lesser-known gems such as Theodore Roosevelt’s The Tree in the White House Closet, they are sure to find tales that fill their hearts with cheer. Accompanying these texts is a collection of exquisite art in full-page, full-color format. Ranging from classic to modern, this collection includes the imaginative creations of such esteemed artists as Norman Rockwell, Thomas Nast, N. C. Wyeth, Andy Warhol, Pablo Picasso, and many others. Family Christmas Treasures evokes the spirit of Christmas in all its joy and pageantry in words and images familiar and welcoming. Assembled here is a compendium of the best-loved stories, poems, and reminiscences to be shared by the entire family. Some of these stories are as essential to preparing for the holidays as unwrapping the treetop angel. The magnificent presentation of these works makes Family Christmas Treasures a treasure in its own right--a book gloriously bedecked for holiday display. Opening this elegant book is like unwrapping a cherished Christmas gift again and again. This anthology of text and images was organized by Kacey Barron, an editor at Hugh Lauter Levin Associates, Inc.