I read Holiday Lights: Brilliant Displays to Inspire Your Christmas Celebration by David Seidman just after watching the 2016 'Light Fight' so the displays looked a bit tame! However, watching how outside displays have grown over the years was interesting as they went from simple to complex, having a theme, or adding music and motion. There's even an igloo with lights (a lot of them!) which made me worry a bit. ;-)

The Christmas Message from the King or Queen of England began in 1932, here the message from the President began in 1927 with Calvin Coolidge. Many of these speeches are collected in Christmas Greetings from the Presidents. Each entry starts with a synopsis of what is going on at that time ... the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the assassination of JFK, or, rarely (it seems), relative peace ... and this makes the speech all the more meaningful.

The Great Spruce, by John Duvall and illustrated by Rebecca Gibbon is based on something that really happened, for a while at least. When their tree is chosen to be the Christmas tree in the city square., Alec stops the crew from chopping it down and suggests they dig it up and plant it instead. This is done (and done again until it became too expensive). At the end there are instructions as to how to transplant a tree. Loved watching the tree move from country to city via barge, and horse drawn sleigh!

Keep an eye out for the British Library Crime Classics! They are reprints of books that were popular back in the 1930's or so, and the ones I've read have been wonderful! A bit slower paced than we might be used too these days, but great settings and character development. The one I just finished is Mystery in White: a Christmas Crime Story, by J. Jefferson Farjeon. When the train they are in is stalled by deep snow, several of the passengers get off, hoping to be able to walk to the next station and continue their journey. (And you know that's not going to happen)! What they find is a house with an unlocked door, fires cheerfully burning in the rooms, the table laid for tea, the tea kettle boiling on the stove ... and no one home.

Reading Hermit With Dog