It was the day before Christmas in a modern-day Russian village which has lived through the closing of their church, St. Nicholas. When the church was first closed, everything inside the church mysteriously disappeared and the priest was gone. Now, even though the soldiers were gone, there seemed to be no way to celebrate Mass on Christmas day. Young Alexi questions his babushka about this, but all seems hopeless. Still, she explains that "A miracle happens when God enters into your dream. But first you must have the dream."...

The text is fully illustrated using the traditional icon technique and style. It makes for a charming, but slightly haunting look... a subtle reminder of past sorrows in the face of a hopeful future. The book is a delightful Christmas story for the whole family; full of faith, hope and the beauty of tradition.

Snowflakes tell a different sort of Christmas story – the "story" of God's fingerprints in the snowy landscape of winter. (I don't know how anyone can look at the stars or at a snowflake without being drawn in some way to the Creator). It's appropriate all through the winter, but especially relevant at Christmas.

Of course it is good to study the natural causes of things like snowflakes in order to understand and appreciate them better, and that is what this book is about; lots and lots of beautiful, amazing, magnified photographs of snowflakes (these are simply breathtaking) and an introduction to the science of understanding them.

The text can get fairly technical at times and is most appropriate for high schoolers and adults (although it could certainly be appreciated by younger children – especially as a read-aloud). However the pictures – the numerous full-color pictures – will be appreciated by everyone in the family.

Maud Hart Lovelace is famous for her Betsy-Tacy series of chapter books. The Trees Kneel At Christmas is a delightful story of two Lebanese-American children in 1951 Brooklyn. Their grandmother tells them how the trees kneel on Christmas in their homeland of Lebanon, but in their new home of Brooklyn the people do not have enough faith for the trees to kneel.

However, the children do have faith and they set out to prove that the trees do in fact kneel down in honor of our Lord's birth in Brooklyn. When the adults leave for Midnight Mass, the children sneak away to the park so that they can witness the trees at midnight.

This is a story about having the faith of a child, the kind of faith that Jesus calls us all to hold.