Found in The Book of Christmas, Reader’s Digest Association, 1973.
This contains art, poetry, and classic Christmas stories. It’s the kind of book that you might pass around to family members, asking each to choose something to read in the evenings through the Christmas season, though adults would need to read some selections.
It’s four sections begin with “The Birth of Christ,” followed by “The History of Christmas.” These are heavy on old art. The author list of longest section, “The Literature of Christmas,” reads like a Who’s Who in Western Lit. The final section is “Christmas Around the World.”
It’s a beautiful book. I wonder how its contents compares to newer books of the sort.
Chage the clothing of the individuals in the illustration above and it could almost depict a modern family gathering on Christmas day.
Families are families, I guess!
I looked through this book on the Internet Archive and it is lovely. The layout is especially nice. It would be a nice book to hand down through the generations, I only wish the plates were a bit brighter.
I noticed that about the plates when I searched for the painting online. For those of us who don’t know art, it’s hard determining what versions are closer to the *real* thing.