A great idea for the holidays is to set aside a special box or
basket containing your family's special Christmas or other 
holiday books. The Holiday Book Box only comes out during 
the Advent season, and is put away again with the decorations
after the first of the year.  You can even add your holiday
CD's and videos to this basket so everything stays together 
throughout the year.   

The following list of Favourite Christmas Books was compiled 
following a discussion between a group of mothers looking for
quality holiday reading material for their families: 

A Christmas Carol, by Charles Dickens

A Christmas Memory, by Truman Capote

Becky's Christmas, by Tasha Tudor

(The) Best Christmas Pageant Ever!, by Barbara Robinson

Christmas at Long Pond, by William T. George

(The) Christmas Box, by Richard Paul Evans

(The) Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey, by Susan 
Wojciechowski

(The) Christmas Stories of George MacDonald, by George 
MacDonald (out-of-print)

(The) Christmas Tree, by Julie Salamon

(The) Crippled Lamb, by Max Lucado

(The) Donkey's Dream, by Barbara Helen Berger

(The) First Christmas, by Marcia Williams (out-of-print)

(The) Glorious Impossible, by Madeleine L'Engle

Jotham's Journey: A Storybook for Advent, by Arnold Ytreeide
Martin Luther's Christmas Book, by Martin Luther

(The) Night Before Christmas, by Clement Moore, illustrated by 
Jan Brett

A Northern Nativity: Christmas Dreams of a Pairie Boy, by 
William Kurelek

One Wintry Night, by Ruth Bell Graham

Rembrandt: The Christmas Story

Seven Stories of Christmas Love, by Leo F. Buscaglia

(The) Story of Christmas: Words from the Gospels of Matthew 
and Luke, illustrated by Jane Ray

Tale of Three Trees, by Angela Elwell Hunt

This is the Star, by Joyce Dunbar 

Other holiday related books 

Unplug the Christmas Machine, by Jo Robinson

Don't wait until Christmas to read this book! The earlier
you start thinking about the holidays, the easier it will
be to make any necessary changes in your celebrations. 

Debt Proof Your Holidays, by Mary Hunt

Whether you're just looking for further frugal ideas for the 
upcoming holiday season, or you're truly dreading another 
after-holidays debt hang-over, this book will be beneficial. 

Frozen Assets: How to Cook for a Day and Eat for a Month, by
Deborah Taylor-Hough 

Less time in the kitchen means more time for activities you 
really enjoy. This book will show you a step-by-step plan to 
simplify and revolutionize the way you cook. Save time; save
money; save your sanity! Contains a special Ten Day Holiday
Meal Plan -- perfect for simplifying your holiday meal preparation. 

Simplify Your Christmas, by Elaine St James

Simple ideas for taking the complexity out of the holidays.  

Hundred Dollar Holiday, by Bill McKibben

"What we need and long for now are the gifts of time,
meaningful family connections, periods of silence, a 
relationship with the divine," McKibben writes. 

Submitted by:  Deborah Taylor-Hough

--Debi (wife and mother) is a free-lance writer, editor of 
Simple Times E-zine [mailto:join-simple-times@ds.xc.org] 
and author of the bestselling book "Frozen Assets: how to 
cook for a day and eat for a month," and "A Simple Choice: a 
practical guide for saving your time, money and sanity."  
Visit Debi online at:  http://members.aol.com/dsimple/