Article archive / December 1, 2014
Originally published: . Volume 5, No. 16. Source pages: 11, 12.
In last year's Christmas Bookshelf column, I wrote about my love of reading what are referred to as “Cozy Mysteries.” I especially enjoy reading these types of mysteries when the theme relates to holidays. This year, I have picked out (but not yet started to read) Aunt Dimity's Christmas by Nancy Atherton. This book is one in a series of Aunt Dimity books, she being a ghost who pays regular visits to a young woman who inherited and lives in her English cottage. Aunt Dimity provides assistance to this young woman as she solves various mysteries in her small village in the Cottwolds. They are truly cozy mysteries and I hope for some cold weather so that I can build a fire in the fireplace and imagine that I am in an English cottage as I read this book.
I am also in the process of organizing my children's Christmas books. I am looking forward to spending Christmas with my grand niece, Kaylee, who will be staying at my house for Christmas with her parents, grandfather and uncle. At four years
of age, she is at the perfect age to appreciate the magic of Christmas. Kaylee lost her grandmother, my sister, this past September so I hope to fill in and provide her with some special traditions and memories for Christmas. I am hoping to share with her some of my favorite Christmas stories from my childhood. One of my all time childhood favorites was the Littlest Snowman, a story about a snowman who comes to life to help provide a town with a snowy Christmas. I had saved this book for many years, lost it in Hurricane Katrina, and found another copy at a book fair. So it is a prized possession. I have also replaced my copies of How the Grinch Stole Christmas, The Littlest Angel, A Charlie Brown Christmas and The Miracle on 34th Street, all books which I always loved as a child. I hope that Kaylee will come to love these stories as much as I do.
This article is part of a historical newspaper archive. Read the original issue for its original layout, photographs and graphics.