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Rural
Route
Bookstore
An online-only bookstore featuring books about
Rural and Small Town Life and the History, Heritage and Humor of
Scandinavian-Americans Christmas
 Scroll
down to find Children's Christmas books. Check out the Christmas
CDs (CDs/DVDs) and
Christmas
crafts.
 Christmas
on the
Farm
by Bob ArtleyBuilt in 1877, Bob Artley’s family farm in Hampton, Iowa, was without indoor plumbing and was heated by wood or a coal-burning stove. Yet, the air was filled with love and security, especially during the holiday season. It created a magical childhood that Artley wished every child could experience. Sharing his memories through nationally syndicated articles, other writings, sketches, and 10 books was Artley's way of helping that wish come true. From the arrival of mail-order catalogues to perilous tobogganing sessions, Artley depicts a rural Christmas rich with simple activities that often go unnoticed. In loving detail, he describes the homemade gifts he and his siblings created for their parents, reminisces about sharing family popcorn evenings on cold winter nights, details delightful meals that marked the Yuletide season, and remembers selecting and cutting Christmas trees. This book, packed with watercolor painting and Artley's sketches, emphasizes the joys of family and friends over the excess of material wants and needs. A great holiday gift for those with an appreciation of the past, or those wanting to learn about "the good old days." CR - 21 Hardcover $22.95 NOW $19.95 Passing the saving on to you! These
are tales of Christmas past as only artist and "former kid" Bob
Artley can paint them. With fond reminiscences and nostalgic
watercolor
cartoons and his characteristic humor and insight, Bob takes us back to
holiday life on the farm. Artley
takes the reader to a
long-ago Christmas where
we join the family at Grandma's house, celebrate the season at the
country
school pageant, shop for presents in a country general store, and learn
the
secrets of Dad's workshop. Artley's reminiscences are like a
Christmas card filled with goodwill in which he shares his warmest
memories making our own Christmas better. CR -
12 Hardcover $9.95 Now $8.00  Two
years ago I
realized this endearing narrative, which combines the importance of
nature and the environment on family life, might soon be out-of-print.
I bought up as many as I could, and at that time wrote that it saddened
me to tell you that what I had feared had happened; this uplifting book
about Christmas holidays in the 20's and 30's in Southwestern
Wisconsin, and the impact of surroundings, was no longer
available. This year I have
great news. It is again available with a new cover, but the same
wonderful, touching story. "To keep Christmas safe from careless change and the tarnish of forgetting, I must keep remembering to remember." Award-winning Author Ben Logan, now in his 90s, and a joy to meet. CR - 1 Hardcover $17.99
Christmas begins in Sweden before dawn on December 13, Saint Lucia's Day. Saint Lucia (283 - 304 AD), sometimes known as Saint Lucy, was a young Christian martyr who is venerated by Roman Catholic, Anglican, Lutheran, and Orthodox Christians. She was beautiful, had a great devotion to the poor, and refused to renounce her faith. For this she became a legend. While the Festival of Santa Lucia or Lucie's Day is celebrated in many countries, it is in Sweden that she is most remembered. December 13, her “name day", is a holiday to honor her throughout the country. This book includes the legend and song, the role of the tomte, Swedish traditions from pagan times to today, and tips and recipes for making your own Lucia Day a true day of light and celebration. CR - 20 Paperback $8.95
Kirchsteiger
— popular Swedish TV personality, chef, and interior decorator — has
assembled this treasure trove of Swedish holiday traditions. The foods,
flowers and decorations in this rich 127-page, full-sized book are
shown in full-color photography (over 100 photos in all) making this
book a perfect antidote to the graying skies and shorter days in the
Midwest. From
"Ernst's Apple Herring" to "Christmas Roses in a Bucket" to directions
for making heart-shaped "Bird Candy," readers
will learn how to bring new beauty and warm traditions into their
homes. Each
recipe and project is accompanied by clear instructions and diagrams.
Fight the gloomy sky by fashioning some homemade crafts by the fire,
and nourish friends and family with new or traditional Swedish foods.
A great gift to give this holiday season. This 32-page revised edition contains directions for common Swedish Christmas crafts, recipes for holiday foods, common phrases, and Christmas songs and traditions. Everything in the books seems easy to follow, and the crafts and recipes utilize common tools and ingredients. Ingeborg explains Swedish traditions such as the juletomte, the straw julbock, julgranskorg (the heart-shaped paper baskets) and stænegosse, the Star Boy. Order this book in time to celebrate St. Lucia's Day, December 13, one of the highlights of the Swedish and Swedish-American Christmas season. CR - 17 Paperback
$6.95
 Swedish
Christmas
Crafts by Helene S. Lundberg Lundberg,
a talented woman in Sweden, has published numerous books about
Swedish
crafts, decorating and entertaining. In this recently released book,
translated by Annika S. Hipple, Lundberg lists
necessary
materials,
step-by-step directions, 90
full-page colored pictures, and
patterns
for projects that incorporate traditional crafts from
her
homeland with
design aspects of contemporary
Scandinavia: minimalism, functionalism,
and inexpensive materials.
Along with Christmas cards and tree ornaments, Lundberg includes patterns for Advent and beaded-tree candle holders, decorations for tabletops and windows, and shares ways to make just about any room in the house more festive using paper, easy-to-find supplies, and the favorite items of Scandinavians: offerings from nature that transform the common into the beautiful. At this price, this book might be the bargain of the season. CR - 6 Hardcover $14.95
Christmas in
Minnesota Marilyn
Ziebarth & Brian
Horrigan, editors
Christmas in
Minnesota
evokes memories of holidays past: a communal feast in the
1870s,
holiday pageants accompanied by stage-fright, forgiving and
reconnecting with relatives, the torture of writing the perfect annual
Christmas letter, to a drummer boy in the Civil War who lifts other
soldiers' spirits with a spontaneous holiday celebration. The
fifty
short stories are accompanied by vintage recipes, old
advertisements
and cartoons, and black and white photos including holiday
decorations of years gone by.
Over
45 Minnesota authors, covering 150 years of the state's history,
demonstrate the spirit of Yuletide cheer in Minnesota — in good and in
tough times. This anthology, subtitled "a celebration in memories,
stories, and
recipes of seasons past", was co-edited by Marilyn Ziebarth
(editor at at Historical
Society Press) and Brian
Horrigan
(award-winning
author and developer of exhibits at the Minnesota
Historical
Society).
Their titles and access to information strengthen the accuracy of this
treasured book.
Christmas
in
Minnesota would
make a wonderful holiday gift for those with a Minnesota connection,
or for those who wish they had one.
CR - 2 Hardcover
$24.95
An excellent gift for people of many ages, regardless of their locale, that brings together unique geographic, historical, and cultural perspectives and memories about winter’s holiday celebrations and traditions. Reviewers of this book have called it "a thought-provoking and inspiring antidote to the dark and icy days of December" and "a welcome reminder of the many connections we make with each other and the landscape" during the holiday season. The editors have included heart-warming stories by 21 Midwestern writers, some living and some not, and many who are or have been award winners for their contributions to Americana literature.Those of us who have read these short stories with topics ranging from lutefisk and julebukking to sleighbells and twinkling lights congratulate the editors for their choices and agree with yet another reviewer who wrote, "the stories in this collection unwrap like so many holiday packages, revealing a varied assortment of gifts" remniscent of December in the Midwest with days and experiences that vary from the magical to those that are depressing, but all which make for a a rich life. CR - 10 Hardcover $25.00 
In
the last 100 years, Christmas was a warm and regenerative
family
holiday for many Norwegian-Americans. It was celebrated with family
feasts of lutefisk, lefse, rømmegrøt, fattigmann and fruktsuppe.
Trees in such homes were decorated with straw ornaments,
flags,
and
heart-shaped baskets.To ensure good luck in the coming year, the hidden
nisser in the barn were fed porridge.
However, as
time
passed
and families move farther apart, many of these traditions are
being
lost, but not really forgotten.
For
those who want to recapture the Norwegian-American Christmases of the
past but can't remember some customs or recipes, this book by Kathleen
Stokker, professor of Norwegian at Luther College in Decorah, IA, is an
important tool to help pass on family traditions. Detailed
with
historical facts and tracing the commercial emphases in both Norway and
America, and with accounts of ancient and modern Christmases,
photographs and recipes, Keeping
Christmas reminds
Norwegians and Norwegian-Americans of their connections to each other,
but also explains how the celebrations in both countries differ.
Does
anyone else remember julebukking?
CR - 3
Paperback
$19.95
"And suddenly in two tongues one song filled the
night sky."
Along with historically appropriate artistic illustrations (illustrated in beautiful, yet fittingly faded-appearing art by Henri Sørensen, Danish illustrator of many books), recipients of this book will receive the best of two McCutcheon's talents: his touching story about a Christmas Eve truce instigated by the soldiers who were in mud-soaked trenches 100 feet apart — a place called No Man's Land on the battlefields of Belgium, and an accompanying CD reading of this thought-provoking story that also features two of McCutcheon's songs. The book also has the sheet music for his song, "Christmas in the Trenches." The narrator ends the story with "...all too soon the dawn reminded us it was time to get back to our own sides. Back to the trenches. Back to the waiting." CR - 4 Hardcover with CD
$18.95 Children's
Christmas Books
 Snowy
Treasury by Jan Brett
With over thirty seven million books in print, Jan Brett is one of the nation's foremost authors and illustrators of children's books. Many of her books are set in Scandinavia, and wherever the setting, Brett travels to and studies the region before she writes a new book. Brett writes, "From cave paintings to Norwegian sleighs, to Japanese gardens, I study the traditions of the many countries I visit and use them as a starting point for my children's books." Enjoy Brett's signature artwork full of intricate details and lovely borders, and travel with her to snowy climates in this rollicking anthology which is also perfect for family sharing! This special Christmas compilation contains four of her popular winter bestsellers from past years: Gingerbread Baby, The Mitten, The Hat (a Horn Book Award Winner), and The Three Snow Bears which topped the NY Times Bestseller list. The fun begins with the mischievous Gingerbread Baby and a chase in the snow laden Swiss mountains. Next this winter adventure takes one into wintry woods in Ukraine as furry animals pile into a lost mitten. The travels continue in The Hat to a Danish farm where Hedgie, the charming hedgehog, gets the last laugh on his farmyard friends. Somewhat reminiscent of Goldilocks, in the final story the reader's adventure takes them up to the Arctic where a snow bear family finds an Inuit girl asleep in their igloo. This last story is set in Baffin Island, Nunavut, Canada. CR - 09 Hardcover $29.99 Rural Route Bookstore is proud to offer this new book from the author who gave us The Visit the past two holiday seasons. This book, with beautiful and fun illustrations by Karen Hillard Good, contains a heartwarming story about one family's generous nature which helped save Christmas for the world. The Moulton-Good team also issues the "Snowman named Bob" series. Good's artwork, done in watercolor, instant coffee, and bleach, yields a pleasing shimmery effect, and warm reds, greens, and golds are dappled with creamy flurries of snow, creating rich illustrations. More specifically, one snowy evening — while distributing treats to the forest animals — two children and their grandmother come upon an exhausted and hungry deer. They escort the poor creature to their home where he is fed and pampered by the cozy fire, but he is gone before sunrise. On Christmas morning, a small wooden box with a note from Santa Claus himself waits beneath the tree. The rest of the story is for you to discover and share with the family each Christmas. CR - 16 Hardcover $15.99
Along
with teaching about manners, youngsters also learn some geography. The
reindeer in this story are named Heather, Lichen, Crag,
Tundra, Bramble, Windswept, Twilight, and Snowball. Readers also learn
about culture and traditions because holiday symbols and a
calendar countdown decorate each page. Set in the Arctic area
of Norway. CR - 15 Paperback $6.99 Whose tiny faces are peeking out from Santa's
golden sleigh? Yikes! It's two of Santa's elves who are
Christmas Eve stowaways. Brett, known for delightful borders that surround pages in her books, Brett has turned this traditional holiday story into a true work of detailed, but fun, art capturing its spirit through her glorious illustrations. Brett has explained that she has so many ideas for the illustrations that they spill over onto all parts of the page. It is to the reader's advantage; they are treated to more information and cool designs. In this book, a second visual story runs along with the traditional poem as young readers watch two mischievous, merry stowaways from the North Pole enthusiastically explore the sacks of gifts and have fun playing with the toys while Santa is inside making his deliveries. Make reading (and viewing) this book, preschool through adult, a Christmas Eve tradition at your house. With great attention to detail, this unique and beautiful 10th Anniversary edition will be one all the family can cherish for years to come. CR - 14 Hardcover
$16.99
CR
- 18 Hardcover
$9.95
Although this children's book isn't about Scandinavian immigration, the circumstances — the long voyage, fear of the unknown, and reluctance to leave everything familiar — that Krysia, a young Polish girl, goes through are perhaps universal. Two things make this book special: the beautiful and captivating artwork by Dennis Nolan that evokes the uncertainty, wonder and dreams felt by many young immigrants, and the fact that it is on Christmas Eve that Krysia spots the Statue of Liberty and realizes that this may be one of many great holidays in a New World. This book can easily be placed on the shelf with the holiday stories families come to treasure year after year. Recommended
for ages 5 and up by the publishers, and recommended by this Web site's
owner that it be read to children by grandparents or great-grandparents
who can steal some quality time to tell another generation stories
about their ancestors, embellished or not!
Beginning in 1939, Lindgren —Sweden's beloved children's author — began writing books for young people, and her final two books were published posthumously in 2002, the year she died at age 94, and in 2007. Well, maybe these aren't her final books; In January 2008, the national Library of Sweden inaugurated the Astrid Lindgren Archive and opened parts of it to the public, and other manuscripts may be developed. In her almost 70 years of writing, she had composed over 100 books that have been translated into 84 languages to date and sold in over 100 countries. Many were made into movies, and her most famous character was, of course, "Pippi Longstocking". In 1999, her homeland voted her "the most popular Swede of the century", a theme park in her hometown of Vimmerby bears her name, "Astrid Lindgren's Varld", and in the late 70s a Soviet astronomer even named a new minor planet after her. According to Lindgren, the "noisy village," a recurring location in some stories, was reminiscent of the small town where she grew up, and the boyish unkempt behavior of characters like Pippi was based on Lindgren's recollections of herself as a young girl. For ages 3 - 8. CR - 08 Paperback $6.99  Christmas Cookies: Bite-Size
Holiday Lessons by Amy Krouse Rosenthal
Perhaps this shouldn't be listed as a cookbook, but the young child who receives this book will learn not only how to make rolled Christmas cookies and the joy of decorating them, but will learn about the importance of holiday traditions and sharing as well. This book — listed for "all ages," but geared to children ages four to eight — is really a glossary that teaches the meaning of "big" words (charitable, appreciative, responsible, celebrate, selfish, gracious) and how these words are applied to fulfilling the spirit of the holidays. Jane Dyer, who has teamed up with Rosenthal in previous books, has delightfully illustrated each page in watercolor paintings with the focus on home, the kitchen, winter and the holidays. CR - 5 Hardcover $12.99
As Treva and her family prepare for Christmas, their favorite decorations and the Christmas pudding disappear. Eventually Treva finds the culprits—two trolls who think they can steal Christmas. She shows these irresistible trolls how to truly have Christmas. Little children will learn about sharing and giving, and all readers will be enchanted -- once more -- by the Scandinavian folk details in Brett's bright, crisply defined art. Pay attention to the page borders where the trolls' charming pet hedgehogs are busy with their own Christmas activities. Set in Bergen, Norway. CR - 11 Paperback $6.99 Order by using the 'Place an Order' form or you may order by phone (800 494-9124). For payment and shipping charges, see 'Place an Order.' All Caragana Press products are available at wholesale prices to qualified retailers, organizations, churches, schools, and libraries. Call 800 494-9124 for details. Copyright
© 2003
RRBS. All rights reserved.
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Lucia,
Child of Light by
Florence Ekstrand
Swedish
Christmas Traditions: A Smörgåsbord of Scandinavian Recipes, Crafts,
& Other Holiday Delights
by Ernst Kirchsteiger
How
to Make a Swedish Christmas by Helen
Ingeborg 
Reindeer
Christmas by Mark Kimball Moulton
The Wild Christmas Reindeer
by Jan Brett
The
Night Before Christmas by Clement C.
Moore; Illus. by Jan Brett
The Night Before Christmas
by Clement C. Moore; illustrated by Gyo Fujikawa
An
Ellis Island Christmas by Maxinne Rhea Leighton
Christmas
Trolls