Unwrap the deluxe, expanded, and republished edition of one of the most heartwarming Christmas stories of our time. Each year a New York family looks forward to the day in early December when the Woodcutter arrives with his Christmas trees on the sidewalk below their apartment…until he doesn’t show up..and the touching backstory behind this holiday fable. Featuring elegant black-and-white photographs by an award-winning photographer, The Woodcutter's Christmas takes readers on a reflective journey, blending the serene beauty of Vermont winters with the bustling streets of Manhattan. Seen through the eyes of a man who nurtures Christmas trees, this story explores the contrast between nature's slow, steady rhythms and the fleeting, disposable culture of modern society. When the Woodcutter sees the trees he lovingly raised discarded on city curbs after the holiday season, his perspective shifts. After a chance meeting in Manhattan with a kindred spirit, the lessons, spirit, and meaning of Christmas is beautifully reinforced in Kessler's lovely text. Kessler’s soulful prose will instantly capture your heart with its simple and beautiful message. Part mystery…part romance, part pure serendipity.. The Woodcutter’s Christmas is also about the deep affinity that humans can have for other species. It reminds us that home is not just a dwelling... Readers seeking a book to become their personal family classic may say eureka when they read this charmer. The Woodcutter’s Christmas ..could capture the collective imagination and become a timeless classic as O.Henry’s “Gift of the Maji” or “The Christmas Carol” by Charles Dickens.” A modern holiday story set apart from the sentimental pack by Brad Kessler’s fine prose and Dona Ann McAdams’s beautiful black-and-white photos. Brad Kessler is a critically acclaimed novelist whose work has been translated into several languages. He won the Dayton Literary Peace Prize in Fiction for his novel Birds in Fall (2006), A Rome Prize from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, as well as a Whiting Writer’s Award. He is an educator and farmer and author of the literary non-fiction Goat Song: A Seasonal Life, A Short History of Herding, and the Art of Making Cheese . His other books include: North, a novel (2021) a finalist for 2022 Dayton Literary Peace Prize in fiction and the 2022 Vermont Book Award; Lick Creek (2001), a novel, and The Woodcutter’s Christmas (2001). He is the editor and co-creator of Deep North: Stories of Somali Resettlement in Vermont (2023). His work has appeared in many publications including the New York Times Magazine , The Kenyon Review , The New Yorker , and Lit Hub. He’s received a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship and the Lange-Taylor Prize from Duke University’s Center for Documentary Studies. He teaches creative writing at the MFA program at Antioch University, Los Angeles, and has lectured at, among other places, Northwestern University, Smith College, the New School University, and the Kenyan Writer’s Workshop. He is a graduate of the Harvard Program in Refugee Trauma and runs a small goat dairy in Southwestern Vermont alongside the photographer and activist, Dona Ann McAdams. Dona Ann McAdams studied photography at the San Francisco Art Institute and has an M.F.A. in Visual Arts from Rutgers University and a B.A. in Cultural Anthropology from Empire State College. McAdams has exhibited at many places, nationally and internationally, including the Museum of Modern Art, NYC; The Whitney Museum of American Art, NYC; The International Center for Photography; The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, The Library for Performing Arts at Lincoln Center, Robert Miller Gallery and La Primavera Fotographica, in Barcelona, Spain, Her photos are in the collections of, among other places, the Museum of Modern Art; The Metropolitan Museum of Art; The Print Club, and the Pompidou Center. She is the author of Black Box: A Photographic Memoir (Saint Lucy Books 2024), a book of performance photography, Caught in the Act (Aperture 1996) and The Woodcutter’s Christmas (Council Oak Book, Fall 2001). Her work has appeared in numerous publications including The New York Times , T he Washington Post , The London Times, The Chicago Tribune , Time , Newsweek , Stern , Doubletake , and Aperture . Her awards and honors include the Meredith S. Moody Residency at Yaddo (2019), a Vermont Arts Council Grant (2019), a 2018 Movement Research Honoree, an “Angel Honor” from the Eric Carle Museum (2018); grants from the The Charles Lawrence Keith and Clara Miller Foundation (2011, 2010), a Dorothea Dix Award from the city of Glens Falls, NY (2006), a MacDowell Residency (1999), the Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation (1997, 2000, 2004), an Obie Award (1997), the Dorothea Lange/Paul Taylor Prize from the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University (1996), and a Bessie Award (1993). Since 1983, she has been commi