Christmas is just around the corner

It’s the Sunday after Thanksgiving, the leftovers are just about gone and all of the Black Friday madness is over. Time to start giving serious thought to putting up the Christmas decorations and planning the holiday dinner. If you’re looking for some inspiration, you might try a few of these books.

Leisure Arts presents
The spirit of Christmas: creative holiday ideas book four
Full of Christmas recipes and craft ideas, The spirit of Christmas is a great help when it comes to creating your own gifts and decorations. The cranberry muffins and fudge pound cake recipes look like they would be particularly yummy.

Trash to treasure Christmas

From the Book Description
This edition of Trash to Treasure is packed with resourceful ideas for holiday home decor, tree trimmings, gifts and gift-wrappings. From fun and simple, to fancy and elegant, the more than 100 economical, easy-to-make projects pave the road to thrifty, yet exciting, holiday crafts.

Stories behind the great traditions of Christmas
by Ace Collins

If you’ve ever wondered where all of those Christmas traditions, such as hanging stockings, came from then this little book can explain them.

From the Book Description
Stories Behind the Great Traditions of Christmas reveals the people, places, and events that shaped the best-loved customs of this merriest of holidays. Here are spiritual insights, true-life tales, and captivating legends to intrigue you and your family and bring new luster and depth to your celebration of Jesus’ birth. Discover how

  • after eighteen centuries of all but ignoring the event, churches began to open the door for believers to commemorate Jesus’ incarnation.
  • the evergreen tree, once a central theme in the worship practices of pagan cultures, came to represent the everlasting love of God.
  • the magi’s three gifts—gold, frankincense, and myrrh—are filled with spiritual symbolism.

The Santa Claus Book
by E. Willis Jones

From the Book Description
The Santa Claus Book presents a worldwide view of the jolly gift-giver from his start as an early Christian miracle worker—his 1,200 years as St. Nicholas, patron of sailors, virgins, pawnbrokers, and all kinds of children—to the hearty and ubiquitous benefactor of nineteenth and twentieth-century America.

Another option is to checkout and download magazines for free using your Liberal Memorial library card and Zinio. December’s issues of food and cooking magazines and craft magazines have a lot of helpful holiday tips.

  • EatingWell offers must-make cookies and holiday salads
  • Every Day with Rachael Ray has a special holiday cookie blowout
  • Taste of Home shows us how to make extra cheesy casseroles and super quick holiday sides
  • Even Weight Watchers magazine weighs in with “Desserts with a Sweet Secret”.

These are a few of the magazines offering recipes and decorating tips that are available for download through Zinio. If you haven’t created your free account yet, just follow these instructions, http://www.lmlibrary.org/about/zinioinstructions.pdf, or call or come by the library for help.

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