This volume contains a collection of vintage postcards, engravings, and other printed materials that celebrate the many ways of commemorating the Christmas holiday. More than one hundred fifty color illustrations, dating from the Victorian age through the early twentieth century, portray Christmas traditions of years gone by. Nostalgic images of angels, happy children, and Santa Claus are only some of the treasures selected from the more than thirteen hundred items. Beautiful artwork, the majority of which originally appeared on postcards from across the United States and Europe, recalls the wholesome holidays of simpler times. The author also includes the variations of merrymaking, feasting, and traditions practiced by families around the world.

"The White Christmas and other Merry Christmas Plays" by Walter Ben Hare. Published by Good Press. Good Press publishes a wide range of titles that encompasses every genre. From well-known classics & literary fiction and non-fiction to forgotten−or yet undiscovered gems−of world literature, we issue the books that need to be read. Each Good Press edition has been meticulously edited and formatted to boost readability for all e-readers and devices. Our goal is to produce eBooks that are user-friendly and accessible to everyone in a high-quality digital format.

In this searing meditation on the bonds of family and the allure of extremist faith, one of today’s most celebrated Christian writers recounts his unexpected journey from a strict fundamentalist upbringing to a life of compassion and grace—a revelatory memoir that “invites comparison to Hillbilly Elegy” (Publishers Weekly, starred review). “Searing, heartrending . . . This stunning tale reminds us that the only way to keep living is to ask God for the impossible: love, forgiveness, and hope.”—Kate Bowler, New York Times bestselling author of Everything Happens for a Reason Raised by an impoverished widow who earned room and board as a Bible teacher in 1950s Atlanta, Philip Yancey and his brother, Marshall, found ways to venture out beyond the confines of their eight-foot-wide trailer. But when Yancey was in college, he uncovered a shocking secret about his father’s death—a secret that began to illuminate the motivations that drove his mother to extreme, often hostile religious convictions and a belief that her sons had been ordained for a divine cause. Searching for answers, Yancey dives into his family origins, taking us on an evocative journey from the backwoods of the Bible Belt to the bustling streets of Philadelphia; from trailer parks to church sanctuaries; from family oddballs to fire-and-brimstone preachers and childhood awakenings through nature, music, and literature. In time, the weight of religious and family pressure sent both sons on opposite paths—one toward healing from the impact of what he calls a “toxic faith,” the other into a self-destructive spiral. Where the Light Fell is a gripping family narrative set against a turbulent time in post–World War II America, shaped by the collision of Southern fundamentalism with the mounting pressures of the civil rights movement and Sixties-era forces of social change. In piecing together his fragmented personal history and his search for redemption, Yancey gives testament to the enduring power of our hunger for truth and the possibility of faith rooted in grace instead of fear. “I truly believe this is the one book I was put on earth to write,” says Yancey. “So many of the strands from my childhood—racial hostility, political division, culture wars—have resurfaced in modern form. Looking back points me forward.”

What comes in your mind when you listen to these words. Holi , Diwali , Eid , Christmas , Gurupurab . Our country has a number of festivals and each of them fills us with joy and happiness . We all have a favorite festival for which we wait so eagerly and when it comes we all just forget our problems for a little time . After all that's what festivals are for uniting us with our family and society , for a little escape from our busy lifestyle , for celebrating our culture and passing it to our next generation. So we present to you with a book full of emotions, full of joys , full of memories , full of traditions. Join us in this journey from all over the country and find that little escape from your busy life. As the name promises this book is for sure a MERRYMAKING.

It wouldn't be Christmas without the "things." How they came to mean so much, and to play such a prominent role in America's central holiday, is the tale told in this delightful and edifying book. In a style characteristically engaging and erudite, Karal Ann Marling, one of our most trenchant observers of American culture, describes the outsize spectacle that Christmas has become.