A single father too busy for love. Could their chance meeting be the start of something magical? With Christmas fast approaching, Kayla Jones is preparing for another cold, and lonely, December. But a lost little girl and her father soon change all that and, with them by her side, Kayla finds herself rediscovering the magic of the season… DECEMBER MAGIC is the perfect winter romance, full of love and laughter, ideal for fans of Kirsty Greenwood, Sophie Kinsella and Becky Monson.

    He's in charge of making Halloweenland the coolest creepy place around. But when Jack suddenly grows bored with tricks and treats, he goes searching for new ways to celebrate...and he finds them in Christmas Town! Christmas, Jack decides, is just what Halloweenland -- and the world -- needs! He sets out to take over the role of Santa. But can anything good come of a tall and lanky skeleton dressed up as everyone's favorite jolly old elf? Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas is one of the Walt Disney Company's most successful franchises, with a huge cult following and a loyal and growing fan base. This beautiful reissue of the book first released in 1993 is a surefire Halloween, Christmas, and year-round hit! The Nightmare Before Christmas is the first book that Tim Burton has written and illustrated.

    This collection of short stories is our gift to bring you something positive and joyful with which to end the year.Soldiers stumbling upon mercy and miracles; children sharing gifts of friendship and love; romance finding its way into lonely, war-weary hearts; resistance fighters; spies; families on the home front—all bringing their own ray of hope in the darkest of times.For this holiday season, we offer you this collection of short stories to lift your spirit, and to remember a time when love and the strength of human spirit prevailed.We hope you will enjoy stepping back into the wartime Christmases in these stories with us.

    

    Optimistic bidders went online to the world's largest flea market in droves, ready to spend cash on everything from garden gnomes to Mercedes convertibles. Among them were art collectors willing to spend big money on unseen paintings, hoping to buy valuable pieces of art at below-market prices. EBay also attracted the occasional con artist unable to resist the temptation of abusing a system that prided itself on being "based on trust." Kenneth Walton -- once a lawyer bound by the ethics of his profession to uphold the law -- was seduced by just such a con artist and, eventually, became one himself. Ripped from the headlines of the "New York Times," the first newspaper to break the story, "Fake" describes Walton's innocent beginnings as an online art-trading hobbyist and details the downward spiral of greed that ultimately led to his federal felony conviction. What started out as a satisfying exercise in reselling thrift store paintings for a profit in order to pay back student loans and mounting credit card debt soon became a fierce addiction to the subtle deception of luring unsuspecting bidders into overpaying for paintings of questionable origins.In a landscape peopled with colorful eccentrics hoping to score museum-quality paintings at bargain prices, Walton entered into a partnership with Ken Fetterman, an unslick (yet somehow very effective) con man. Over the course of eighteen months they managed to take in hundreds of thousands of dollars by selling forged paintings and bidding on their own auctions to drive up the prices. When their deception was discovered and made international headlines, Walton found himself stalked by reporters and federal agents while Fetterman went on the lam, sparking a nationwide FBI manhunt. His elaborate game of cat and mouse lasted nearly three years, until the feds caught up with him after a routine traffic violation and brought him to justice.In this sensational story of the seductive power of greed, Kenneth Walton breaks his silence for the first time and, in his own words, details the international scandal that forever changed the way eBay does business.

    Everywhere, the Faith and the West are in decline. Ominously, occult practices have corrupted the elites, the media and powerful men in the Church. The new pontiff faces this unprecedented challenge alone, until an embattled American Cardinal sends his best exorcist to Rome, a young Dominican priest with hard experience combating the Devil -- in Latin -- on America's mean streets. Meanwhile, a US media mogul, an indifferent Catholic targeted for his politics, flees America with his family for the Eternal City. There, they find a despondent society where Italians no longer marry and have children. Indeed, all hope seems lost until a beautiful Roman girl takes a brave stance against the rising tide of despair. Gritty, fascinating and impossible to forget, 'The Devil Hates Latin' sweeps from New England to the Tiber, and ultimately to a Renaissance palazzo nestled in the green hills of Umbria, building to a shattering confrontation as Good summons the courage to face the menace of the gathering forces of Evil. PUBLISHED BY REGINA PRESS

    "The Christmas book of the year. Twenty-six dazzling, magical pop-ups commemorate holiday sights and symbols in unforgettable ways....Most of the pop-ups themselves are white, which gives them an elegant look, and Sabuda...has designed them all to move gracefully when the flaps are opened....Besides being an imaginative paper designer, Sabuda uses form, color, and space expertly....Just terrific. "-- Pointer, KIRKUS REVIEWBook Details: Format: Hardcover Publication Date: 10/1/2004 Pages: 16 Reading Level: Age 4 and Up

    As a servant she has no rights and her memories of the days before she was a servant were too bittersweet to handle. She knew her father and brother wouldn't want her to be in this situation so she felt she owed it to them to find a solution on her own. The only solution that makes sense is to answer an ad to go west as a mail order bride. Sam Nelson was alone on his farm just outside town. Oregon was a lovely place and he was happy there, but he was lonely. His parents had left the farm to him and he was becoming even more successful than his father had been. Something was missing, though. He wanted companionship and a family. For that he'd need a wife. When Rose heard from Sam Nelson that he'd like her to come to Oregon to marry him she was beside herself. Her goal of getting out of the Whitney house by Christmas just might happen. When he meets her at the stagecoach stop, she can't believe her luck. He's handsome, kind, and genuinely concerned for her. Can she really trust him, though? If she does, will her past really be behind her?

    

    This carol, based on actual events that occurred in the tenth century, tells of a kind-hearted king and his page who set out to help a poor man on a cold winter's night and experience a miracle along the way.

    An appendix includes a suggested plan for using each days meditation as part of a morning or evening prayer.Paperback

    Joseph's Church near School House Lane where she lived...."* * * *Frank McCourt's Pulitzer Prize-winning memoir "Angela's Ashes" is a modern classic. Now he has written a captivating Christmas story about Angela as a child -- often cold and hungry herself -- compelled to rescue the Baby Jesus and take him home. This story is pure McCourt -- genuine, irreverent and moving.It is elegantly illustrated by two-time Golden Kite Award winner Loren Long and is the perfect Christmas story for all ages.

    At the turn of eighteenth-century England, a spirited young woman copes with the suit of a snobbish gentleman as well as the romantic entanglements of two of her four sisters.

    Tolkien received letters from the North Pole - from Father Christmas himself! They told wonderful stories of mischief and disaster, adventures, and battles: how the reindeer got loose and scattered presents all over the place, how the accident-prone Polar Bear climbed the North Pole and fell through the roof of Father Christmas's house, and many others.Now, for the first time, these letters are brought to life with specially arranged holiday music.REVIEW:"Tolkien at his relaxed and ingenious best." The Times of LondonABOUT THE AUTHOR:J.R.R. TOLKIEN (1892-1973) is the creator of Middle-earth and author of such classic extraordinary works of fiction as 'The Hobbit', 'The Lord of the Rings', and 'The Silmarillion.' His books have been translated into more than fifty languages and have sold many millions of copies worldwide.©1997, 2004 (P)1997 Harper Collins UK

    It’s time for . . . rowdy bands of drunkards roaming the streets, lighting firecrackers, and firing off guns? Gangs of masked youths invading people’s houses, demanding food, drink, and money—and threatening to break the windows (or worse) unless they’re given what they want?Welcome to Christmas, circa 1800. Yes, the season of light, joy, and gift-giving was once regarded as a time of darkness, danger, and dissipation—and celebrated with all-too-public displays of noisemaking, inebriation, and gluttonous overeating. (Well, maybe not everything has changed.) And though we tend to imagine Victorian-era Christmases as sentimental gatherings around the candlelit tree, blazing hearth, and festive punchbowl, the 19th-century evidence tells us quite otherwise.Drawing from his extensive collection of antique postcards, greeting cards, advertising giveaways, and other ephemera, author John Grossman presents a picture of Christmas past that, frankly, looks a lot more like Halloween. Broomstick-riding witches and vampire bat–borne cupids deliver New Year’s greetings. Fur-clad fairies gather ’round a campfire to roast their Christmas dinner—a huge dead rat. And Saint Nicholas? He’s that skinny guy in the bishop robes who arrives with his dark companion, the Devil-like Krampus brandishing switches to punish the badly behaved.With Christmas Curiosities, STC wishes you a very merry, very scary Christmas.