There Was No Snow On Christmas Eve

There was no snow on Christmas Eve. Instead, a desert zephyr blew And palm fronds sang a rustling tune To welcome the awaited birth. There was no snow, no fireplace, no need for woolen caps and gloves on that very first Christmas. Instead there was a humble stable, and weary travelers with light robes and sandals on a desert night. This luminous picture book manages to take the familiar story of the Nativity and make it fresh and immediate, reminding young children of the miracle of Christmas and the true nature of the spirit of the season, no matter what the weather.

Without any snow in sight and Christmas Eve tomorrow, Faun Braun and the villages of Pfeffernut gather and try to create snow.

Have you ever thought what the world would be like if I didn't carry that sack and make that sleigh ride each year? I know one thing; there wouldn't be a need for a Naughty and Nice list anymore. Can you imagine all those children and their sad little faces? I could never give up this cause because the children are so angelic with those bright and cheery smiles when they look at you or the presents you leave on Christmas morning. -- Santa Claus

A middle aged country doctor takes a memory trip down the lane where his personal and professional lives were forever intertwined with each other. Excerpt: "The morning of the twenty-fourth of December a quarter of a century ago opened upon the vast plateau of central Kentucky as a brilliant but bitter day—with a wind like the gales of March. Out in a neighborhood of one of the wealthiest and most thickly settled counties, toward the middle of the forenoon, two stumpy figures with movements full of health and glee appeared on a hilltop of the treeless . . ." James Lane Allen (1849–1925) was an American novelist and short story writer whose work, including the novel A Kentucky Cardinal, often depicted the culture and dialects of his native Kentucky. His work is characteristic of the late-19th century local color era, when writers sought to capture the vernacular in their fiction. Allen has been described as "Kentucky's first important novelist."

Stalingrad was one of the largest, bloodiest, and most famous battles in history as well as one of the major turning points of World War II. For four winter months during the battle, German and Soviet forces fought over a single factory inside the city of Stalingrad. Lavishly illustrated with photos and maps, Island of Fire presents a day-by-day—at times hour-by-hour—chronicle of that pitiless struggle as seen by both sides. The book is unparalleled and exhaustive in its research, meticulous in its reconstruction of the action, and vivid in its retelling of the street-by-street, hand-to-hand fighting near the gun factory.

Thirteen-year-old Hank Kemp is four-feet-nine inches and ninety-seven pounds of pure intelligence. Despite growing up in a poverty-stricken African American community in the 1950s South, Hank still dares to dream. Although he has been abandoned by his drifter father, his hard-working mother provides an endless supply of unconditional love and support. Shortly after he wins the spelling bee at his junior high, Hanks promising world shatters when his mother dies in a fire. Soon, his mothers friend, Lillie, takes Hank in and begins raising him as one of her own. While Hank struggles through his grief and rekindles his strong determination to succeed in life, he is helped along the way by a kindly teacher, an attorney, and the Spoorville community as they band together to keep Hank out of foster care. As his father reenters his life and Hanks journey propels him toward high school graduation and an exciting future, he learns that success is better achieved with help from those able to see what he can be. In this inspiring coming-of-age story, a young African American growing up in fifties America must carve his own path in life after his mother dies, with assistance from a caring community.

Musaicum Books presents the Musaicum Christmas Specials. We have selected the greatest Christmas novels, short stories and fairy tales for this joyful and charming holiday season, for all those who want to keep the spirit of Christmas alive with a heartwarming tale. The Doctor's Christmas Eve is a tale of a country doctor from Kentucky who sits the night before Christmas and recollects his various strange cases over the past year and intensely interconnected relationships between his local patients and neighbors.