I love so many of Tomie dePaola's picture books and was so excited when I heard about this book of his holiday memories. Christmas is my favorite holiday and I feel like I start celebrating (at least in my mind) earlier every year. Yesterday I ended up buying new Christmas piano music and being overwhelmed by all the Christmas decorating magazines that were already for sale at Sam's Club so I think I can say that my own personal Christmas season officially began October 23rd this year. So it makes sense that I would read this cheerful little book this morning while drinking hot cider in bed listening to the rain outside.
I plan to add this book to my Christmas book collection as well. My favorite stories he shared were those of his childhood especially the ones with Nana Fall River and the Christmas Sing at the high school. I had never heard of Fred Waring before and thanks to youtube here is the song that was the big finale at Tomie's school each year:
I loved hearing about the family decorating the Christmas tree and that moment when all the other lights are turned off to reveal the glowing tree. I also enjoyed reading about Tomie's mother's Christmas village which makes me wish I had somewhere to put my own little Christmas houses. And sent me to find this website I had bookmarked awhile back full of vintage villages.
I also was glad to see that Tomie dePaola's own blog had a picture of his Christmas tree with the paper roses he describes in his book.
